Progress
I was able to finish my physical prototype last week and began to work on the coding and technological aspect of my project this week. I am still working with only one Neopixel at a time since the final layout of my project is still in the air. I figured out how to assign color hex codes to variables for storage. This will allow me to have preset colors to access when the sensors activate. These preset colors will depend on what colored lines I will have on my final project in order to make the lines disappear.
An excerpt of my current code which features the color magenta:
Setbacks
I began experimenting with the pir sensor I bought. I ran into issues with the pir sensor not cycling properly. It would detect motion once but not loop to see if motion is present again. The example code I used would turn on an led when the pir detected motion. The light stayed on constantly which revealed to me that the sensor was probably not looping. I found online that the senor’s range and trigger mode can be calibrated so that will be my next step in figuring out how to get the sensor to function.
Materials/Fabrication
As I finished up my prototype last week I was still thinking about what material to use as my surface for the paint chips. Luckily I came across abandoned looking closet doors in my apartment complex. I was able to get in touch with my apartment’s staff who informed me that I am free to take the doors since they were planning to throw them away. Since I did not have a tape measure, I grabbed a roll of tape and tore it to the width of one closet door. I then brought it to campus where I experimented with how many doors I wanted. I settled on 3 doors per side of the installation. To better visualize that this was the number I wanted, I measured out a piece of tape roughly equal to the width of 3 closet doors and placed it on the floor. I also made sure one side had an opening so that people could enter. I tested the size by holding out my arms to ensure that the tape box on the floor was wider than my wingspan to ensure that when viewers go inside to experience the installation it does not feel too claustrophobic.
As a result of my tape box, I concluded that I would need 12 closet doors. Roughly 11(I might cut a door vertically to make the opening larger than the width of one closet door) for the cube and and extra door incase I mess up, or to add to the top of the doors. The closet doors are taller than me but not tall enough for someone over 6 ft to properly enjoy the installation (like my brother) so I plan to extend the closet doors vertically. Either with a piece of another closet door or with plywood/cardboard.
This brings me to an issue that came up last week, about how the outside of the installation will look like. Ideally I would want it up against 3 walls so the outside can not be seen. Since that is not possible I am planning to use the pvc pipes I gathered earlier to hang up curtains. This is assuming that the closet doors are sturdy enough to stand up on their own if they are held together. So as of right now I am planning to have a closet door bod inside of a pvc pipe box with curtains on it.
