2017-10-29 EMF 2018 Collaboration Meeting

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Where / when: Nottinghack, studio; 2017-10-29 (Fri), 09:45 ish

Attendees: Ian D, Daniel S, Mouse.

Proceedings

Daylight Sensor Tests

  • The very cheap laser showed limited range in daylight conditions - max ~3 meters with the sensor in the shade, less in the sun
  • We tried a second laser which is focusable - about 5 in daylight conditions with sensor in shade
  • We tried the IR led
  • Got about 4m with sensor in shade, nothing with sensor in direct sunlight

Constrained IR LED

We put the IR LED in a metal tube, making it much more aimable. At 5 meters it had an effective target area of about 30 cm. This looks good for making shotgun-like senders.

Multiple Sensors

To make it easier to hit long range targets, we plan to use multiple sensors. The pro-mini and other 328-based boards have two interrupt pins (2 & 3), and it is not clear if the IR/Manchester library works with multiple instances or multiple input sources. We found some AND chips which should allow us to use 5 inputs at once, and tested with a couple of sensors on breadboard.

Action Items

  • Ian is going to prototype 5 sensors with an AND chip for proof of concept
  • Daniel to post prototype code on github or similar
  • Daniel and Mouse will look at KiCAD tutorials for making the main board
  • Mouse will write this up

Next Meeting

Soon!

We will prototype all the bits together with a relay driving a motor (to test for noise). Then we'll design the board and get it fabircated.