Tuesday was over.
So shiok ar!
Ok, picture of the so-called house? Next time.
Basically, the presentation was a bit of crap. Things failed to work at the last minute, and so, did not really present it.
And since I am so free now, I suddenly remember that I have forgotten to elaborate more on lots of things:
- My transmitter! I have LEDs for my display LCD, but I forgot to mention it! My LEDs will light up when the surrounding light is less than a certain threshold value, when any button is pressed. Otherwise, in a dark environment, the LEDs will blink periodically! And I failed to mention this in my portfolio, and also in the user manual. Damn. 1 feature left unknown.
- My window intruder function! I have used infra-red sensors to detect whenever something crosses the window, but I forgot to mention that intruder and safety function. Reason: model too small. Things happen too fast, and it's just near impossible to demostrate such small things. I think I did mention this in the user manual. Damn. 1 feature that's only half known.
- My Web Monitor! Due to some technical glitches at the last minute, I cannot demostrate the power of my web monitor, together with Emmanuel's Monitor. Somehow, some error caused the fire warning to be turned on everytime. I should have fixed it easily by a manual request update to the SQL table remotely (which is sooooo possible, since I have a php file that's used for testing purposes at the time of writing the code). Damn. 1 feature that's not shown its full potential.
- System backup power! It works, but due to time constrain, I have no time, and don't dare, to try out something by putting a large capacitor somewhere on the circuit. Who knows how the capacitor will discharge. I don't want any sudden surge to burn any of the chips. Damn. 1 feature that's not shown, and also not documented at all. A complete waste of time.
Why like that? It's all the lack of time. And perhaps a bit lack of planning.
And here's part ONE of EE2001 essay:
EE2001 Project After-thoughts (Part ONE, hopefully the LAST part also)
This project can actually be done nicely, if not for other modules that we are taking also. It is interesting to come up with ideas that really work. But with the limitation of 30x30x30cm, it's just not too practical to do certain things.
When I first read about this new project for this semester, the first thing that I thought of was "omg… guinea pig batch", which is so true. In previous semesters for the past few years, what they did was a remote control vehicle. And what are we doing now? A 'toy house'.
And looking at the kind of things that they have done, and what we have done in this module, it seemed that, what we have been doing was 5 times, if not more, time-consuming than theirs.
One very obvious difference is the things involved. For this module this semester, we have to program a PIC chip each. And in order to write a program into the chip, a serial cable connection is required. I don't hear laptops having serial cable ports nowadays. And USB-to-serial cable don't work on the programmer, because it requires a voltage higher than 5V (around 10V to be exact) to work.
And so, lucky people who do have such a computer at home, good for them. What about people without? Some suggested writing the code at home, and then go to the lab to write it to the chip. What about coding errors? A code that's compilable at home doesn't guarantee it to be running the way you want it to be, on PCB, breadboard, or anything.
And yes, the lab opens from 9 to 5. After 5? Use batteries, or use a power adaptor. That's what we had wanted to do at night for testing. In the end, due to lack of sufficient current supply, testing was restricted. When using batteries, the power drain was so fast, one battery only lasts 10 minutes. We even placed 2 batteries in series to get the required voltage, but then, that idea too, was not much help in the end.
It's just a lack of resources, with an over-demand for work done.
With this module, it does not matter how many other modules one takes, because, ultimately, all the time has to be allocated to it. I am doing this module practically everyday. My group is always there. Who knows? Joseph knows. We were constantly in the lab, until we were all so sick of it. But we had to go to the lab. It's a 6MC module. It's a group project. We have to get certain priorities right.
Some things can only be done in a lab, not at home.
Many ideas have to be changed due to contrained budget and space on the model. With that small dimension, it's hard to find gears that will really fit into the house. Even with gears, we have to find the axles, cut them, make sure they fit nicely, and then make sure they do work.
What if they don't? Is there really time to fix the problem? No. Therefore, whatever we have planned in the beginning, we have to make sure that they can work.
With that, certain things have to be changed now and then, to reflect the changes that were carried out halfway through the project.
Which is another waste of time and effort.
Basically, if I don't get a decent grade for this module, there's only ONE conclusion for it:
IT's A @#)(*@!&()@# WASTE OF MY (@*%&^@(@# TIME.
And if my other modules are affected by this one module, there's only ONE conclusion for it:
TOO BAD.
Yeah.
It's never fun to be a guinea pig.
As for the test this morning, I really did not see ''33dB" as one of the choices!! Omg must be the lack of sleep due to EE2001. See… the effects are being seen.
Went swimming after that. It's great to be able to go back to the pool now. So shiok. Swim, and with a little sun, wow… After that, went over to IMM Giant for a little shopping, and went home after that, and maple the whole afternoon away. It's time for some relaxation before I go and catch up on webcasts. I am approximately 10 hours behind. All the time into EE2001. Another side effect coming in.
Another essay due next week. I have to start on it soon. I don't want to do any more last minute work. More EE2001 side-effect.
For now, I blame no one. I just blame EE2001.
i just pasted the above text in MSword, and it takes up 3 pages, single spacing, Times New Roman, font 12. Huat…