Kea - Spring 25 Electronic Objects

  The semester is quickly drawing to a close and I feel my time running out. My goal is to make the crane move, just movement, before the end of the semester. It's overwhelming to learn so many new things, but good to stretch myself. I took a few days break, so I'm feeling more inspired to devote myself to making some things work.  Things I'm thinking about buying:  Bearings:  https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-4-inchx5-8-inchx0-196-inch-Shielded-Bearings/dp/B0B5XMSXW2/ref=asc_df_B0B5XMSXW2?mcid=a4e59937c697363d851fc984a792bba1&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693071814385&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4692437305930340586&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011574&hvtargid=pla-1942066188681&th=1 gear to make chain pulley:  https://www.amazon.com/Chain-Sprocket-MY1020-Electric-Scooter/dp/B0D8XX7F21/ref=sr_1_14_sspa?crid=3MUEGF1LF9PF0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.oF-mLiv-4tb1oBVjImxJ2wJNxVKlxeaSAhAg...

  It was very interesting to see how we could pop the internal wires and speaker out of the plastic coating and use the speaker. I enjoyed looking at the code and seeing how we could eventually make it work. I am looking forward to meeting with you again Monday and seeing about the new library which will hopefully make things easier. I am still a little unsure about having GitHub talk with Arduino. I wish they communicated more seamlessly like in visual studio code.   I want to think about getting my piece from a long time ago to work consistently. Would I be able to play two different sound files out of two different ports at the same time? It should be simple to just loop them, attach a battery, and shove the arduino or sonatino inside the bird instead of the. weird mp3 situation that I was doing before.  I am excited about the possibility of making the bird move. I have decided I am more interested in an element of magic and want to consider how to hide the motor. I th...

March 22 2025  I am so beyond frustrated. Nothing works. Something works one day and then completely stops working the next. It's driving me insane.  I got the scale/load cell setup. There was an example where it calibrated the scale so that's very nice. I coded it so that it gives me a message in the serial port if the weight is over a certain amount. It works well.  The huge issue is that I don't know how to use GitHub and I struggle to get code from GitHub into the arduino software. I don't understand why, but for some reason it doesn't want to talk to my SD card. I don't really understand the language adruino wants me to code in, so I feel like I'm half guessing all the time.  I can sort everything out if I can just get the SD card to talk to the code. I cannot for the life of me understand why it's not talking. Here's the code I'm using for that: #include <WiFi.h> #include <AudioFileSourcePROGMEM.h> #include <AudioFileSourc...

  March 4 2025  As I suspected, I attempted to work connecting the board myself only to become immediately stumped. I tried to find the right board to select and connect to, but I couldn't find the exact model and wasn't sure what to sub it with. I tried an Adafruit with the same letters/numbers after it. Come to think of it, maybe I'll just try it with the arduino uno as the input?  I also need to ask you about installing the extra "developer tools". You had told me to put it off for as long as I could, but it has started to show "lack of developer tools" as an issue when I go to proof the code.  The good news is, the boards light turns on and it is certainly connecting. I just need to find the right way to connect the appropriate tools. This is difficult.  I tried to connect it as an arduino uno just in case it would talk to the computer like that, but it's not able to send the code, so my guess is that that's an issue. It is finally clearing m...

  I am not happy with the amount I got accomplished this week. Between Rob's absence on Tuesday and my own sickness I wasn't very productive. I did find some online resources on using the audio player that I have: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNmQID_So24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXqgnyEuY8A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvtn30uZwEc but wasn't feeling well enough to put them into action. Before Tuesdays class I will connect the board and seeing if I can play a test or startup code.  I was able to find some small speakers that I already had that can connect to the arduino I got.  I learned a new quilting technique that I wish I had known before working on the collaged element of the cradle. I met with Mona this week and among other things we talked about the complexity that the layering in the quilted component could bring to the work. The possibility of bringing that into future works is interesting to me.  This week I plan on coming to office hours on Wed...

     This week I completed the base fabrication of my project. I have all the electronic parts and will work on assembling them next week. I emailed these images but will also include them here: I've added a semi-quilted piece to cover the laundry basket turned cradle. I added a mobile and a faux baby. The baby should weigh just a little over 4 pounds. I hope that knowing this will be helpful to me in the next steps. I will bring the electronic pieces on Tuesday to begin coordinating that part of the project.  I am a little concerned about how to keep the load cell level. There is a solid base to the cradle, but the whole piece rocks. Setting the baby in doesn't make it rock, but it makes me wonder if the load cell placement will need to be very specific in order to read properly.