Dhruv Chakkamadam

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day2
Today we started with processing. This was the first time i was using this kind of programing software. It is fully based on logic and understanding. I was confident that with more practice on this software i would develop a better understanding for it.. We discussed about microprocessors, computers, sensors and issues such as pollution and ways to measure it. Later in the day we read David Dunn's interview .He is a music composer who works closely with nature the sounds in the outdoors.We were introduced to the arduino and the bread board which i read about on the internet. we also rote some simple programing like drawing a line and making a rectangle.
day 3
Today we explored some more of processing like creating checkered boxes and coloring lines alternately.We also learnt the keypress program. These programs were more difficult than the ones we did the day before and in a while started to make sense.
day 4
Today we used the arduino board and learnt how the software can send signals(input) to the hardware to give a desired result (output). I was also taught how to link arduino to processing so i could write the program on processing and upload the program to the arduino board. We used this to make an L E D light blink in different time intervals.
day 5
today we read about the pollution problems in india, and the inefficient systems by which it has been measured ,we discussed about the nature of our final product.Along with being artistic in nature it should capture the attention of the public and the data it is representing should be easy to interpret by a common man . we discussed how the product should be located in an area which would give us the presice overall average.we saw some of the the presentations on environment related projects done before like in the air and globos. i felt that our final user interface, if it is on some public place in the city should be such that it catches everyone's eye, but at the same time very simple to interpret.
day 6
we started using sensors on a very basic level. things like bend sensors and touch sensors etc were used to make the led glow etc. we also saw an interesting video on a bend sensor being used as a musical instrument. Since the computer doesnt actually understand musical notes, certain frequencies have to be assigned to the change in voltage which eventually results in the formation of music.
day7
We were given the pdfs on the basic usage of arduino, this made it much simpler to understand how it works. i understood all the pre settings that have to be made before the arduino board is actually put to use, like finding and setting the usb port number, and uploading the program written on to the arduino board etc. we planned on making a wind sensor that would change the colour on the display by the intensity of the wind this would be done by useing a bend sensor. we also discused how we would hide the sensor.
day8
we continued working on the same wind sensor and started designing prototypes. we even thought of placing the whole device floating on water so that it would rotate on its axis to face the wind perfectly with the least amount of friction. we had previously done a flex sensor making an led glow when it is bent, but in this case we had to use a series of leds to form the letter L or H.
day9
we got a little presentation on the basics of electronics, and alongside we did a few expperiments in order to get a better hang of it. the entire system of gates that we used was really cool.i saw mark with some crazy device that made music it worked on an oscillating circuit. i sat in one place all day and kept trying to figure out how it worked. the varied kinds of sound that were created due to the sensitivity of the input LDR was awesome.
day11
today we were introduced to pachube. we decided to use a light sensor to give a genral forecast of the day since now a days there is a constant change in the weather. we used an LDR, which depending on the light in the sky gives corresponding values. we tried to take it ahead by replacing the light values by words actually giving the forecast like "cloudy" or "sunny" or "semi sunny" etc.
12-17
these few days we mainly discussed how we could create awareness about pollution in the public and bring about a change . We talked about the culture of the people, the "typical Indian" and the government. my personal opinion was that people dont really care about pollution. An ordinary indian has too many other things to think about other than pollution. if it dose not affect a person individually i dont think he would care. so our group started discussing the possibilities of what all we could make. we thought of a t-shirt that changes colour and inflates and deflated as the pollution level rises and falls. i thought this would be a very cool product and that this would make pollution come to a very individualistic level. we also thought of a petrol pump that pumps oxygen and cold air into cars at fuel pumps.

18-20
during this time we worked on our first prototype circuits and we found out what all was possible and what wasn't. the first 2 days all i did was soldering, i found it really cool.during this time we learnt the practical use of the arduino and figured out a lot of stuff. the first thing we worked on was a gas sensor circuit. the gas sensor worked with a heating wire which would change its intensity with being exposed to the different gasses in the air. we connected it to the arduino and connected the arduino to two led lights from two different outputs, so when the level of pollution was low the green light came on and when it was high the red led came on. after the circuit was working we put it in a t-shirt and tested it out. there were many problems that came up like the short circuits and the gas sensor being too sensitive or not being sensitive at all. we finally got it working in a few more days with nawani's help in the programing. we also thought how we could get the crumpling effect on the t-shirt and got dc motors from the market to try it out. the main problem with this was, it was adding too much weight on the t-shirt, so we decided not to do it.
day21
we bought a brand new white tshirt, in order to make a more refined and usable tshirt. also yashas provided us with the led strips, a series of leds that light up like a band. so we started thinking about a proper design in which we could make the leds light up.we came up with quite a few ideas like the symbol of air,recycle symbol, an inverted tree, which also signify's the branches of the lungs. finally we decided to go ahead with the tree idea.
day22

our next task was to figure out how to increase the voltage in the circuit.

    

our next task was to figure out how to increase the voltage in the circuit.

day24
we made the led's light up to it full potential , by powering it seperately with 2 9v battery, one to power the arduino and one to power the led's...and the tshirt prototype worked fine..we documented it.
next week
we had a presentation with the faculty where we discussed what the main goal of this project was. we presented our t-shirt to thenm and they gave us a very good feed back. the led's just changing colour was not going to make it easy for the public to figure out what it was meant for, so after finishing with the presentation we ideated on the visual communication that the t-shirt should sent out. we used photoshop to make many different kinds of illustrations. then we moved the led lights around the t-shirt to see the different kinds of images we could make and decided to go with the shape of lungs.
we had a big problem in trying to cut each led and make the shape of the lungs. so on researching we found e.l. wire which worked exactly like led's except it was flexible and a continuous strip of light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZh8UCuKe64

the use of the el wire involved a lot of complications. we required drivers to spike up the input voltage and also if ther was a short-circuit the person would get electrocuted really badly . this would also add more weight to the t-shirt so we finally decided to use the led strips only for the final shirt. the led's are not bendable, we had to think of a proper way of forming a lung type shape on the t-shirt.i thought of the lungs being printed on the t-shirt like branches and the led's being right under them to give it a glowing kind of effect. so we finally came upon making the branches using the lights and having the outer shape of the lung printed.

now we had to go and document the t-shirt, so we decided to go to brigade road and talk to random people about our t-shirt, tell them our concept and ask them about global warming and pollution. we got a lot of reactions as me, basu, abrar and neeraj walked down brigade i had the glowing t-shirt, neeraj had the camera, abrar and basu were the talkers. we talked to all kinds of people carpenters, auto drivers, pan-wallas, foreigners, college students, old bangalore residents,and drunk people. in brief what i gained from this experience in terms of our project was a better understanding of the public there were people who dint care about pollution, people who said they care but there is nothing they can do about it, and the most entertaining the people who thought global warming is a myth..haha.. anyway we also got some responses to our t-shirt, we asked them if our idea would work and if it would affect the public. "why would u wear something like that"(husband and wife), "omg i dont think so!"(college girl who dint like being on camera),"why are we not doing something like this"(engineering students).
i felt really good about how the day went even though we dint manage to get all the documentation on camera and what ever we did was not good quality. but i thought it was a great experience.

At this point the t-shirt was really dirty and had solder burns all over so we decided to get a new one and remake the t-shirt. yashas got um more led strips to use so we could make the shape of the lungs properly and we started working on that. this was the 3rd time we were making the t-shirt ..... what could go wrong . ... ther were soo many connections to be made between all the led lights that there was always some lose connection or the other. i took 2 days soldering the wires inside to make it work. in this week everyone in our group worked together to make the t-shirt work and look good. we got the shapes of the lungd and kannan got some wire to stitch on the shirt to make the shape of the lungs. and once again got it up and running.


we went to doccument the t-shirt again as it had taken up a new form. it was a weekday and so there were not many people still we managed to talk to a few people and got them to join our cause on facebook. "smoke signal" this was about it for the t-shirt. i found the whole process really good and now i think i could make the circuit for the arduino with my eyes shut, so it felt like quite an achievement.


last week
Basu wanted to make the oxygen petrol pump cause he had got some acrylic sheets from delhi so that got me also all pumped to do it. we thought of making it transparent and putting a plant inside it goes with the concept and provides aesthetic beauty. so we cut up some sunboard and took a blade and spent 3 hrs in the workshop cutting up acrylic. then i went on a nature walk to find the perfect plant for the job i actually searched for an hour n a half it had to really light green but not yellow.... finally i found it behind the college under some bushes and carried it safely up to the cafeteria.
The next we told sandeep to get some spray paint to give our product a more finished look. we were done with the shape of the pump and started filling in the mud to place the plant inside. we also thought of putting a light bulb inside which would shine directly on the plant giving it a magical glow.
we got the spray paints and made stencils for our logo that abrar had designed. finally after working all day we managed to get it fully ready. at 3.30 i sprayed the acrylic sheet with the stencil on it. and it was done.



anyway i think this course was awesome, and i never thought i would learn about electronics the way i learnt here. before i did this course i thought a computer has something else apart from elecricity that makes it run but actually they are ALL CIRCUITS and just ELECTRICITY 000000111111110000000110101010100001111101101101000.ON AND OFF thats all. just figured.haha.had a lot of fun thanks yashas.