ECE 110/120 Honors Lab Section : Wall Mounted, Display Checklist

Chase Johnston clj2 (ECE 120)

Varad Khandelwal varadk2 (ECE 110/120)

Statement of Purpose:

We are going to be working with programming an LCD screen for our project. The basic Idea of it is to make a digital checklist that can be changed using two switches. We want to be able to program a Arduino to take user input in the form of tasks and then display them on small digital screens. The screens will have the tasks on them and when the user flips one or both of the switches, the screen will change in some way. It’s similar to a paper list that you can modify. Our project’s main objective is to provide an easier way for the user to stay organized. Having a physical screen that shows what still has to be completed will guarantee that nothing is forgotten. If we have time we also want to implement bluetooth control instead of switch control.

Background Research:

The motivation behind this project is to make an equipment which can ease student lives. As undergraduates in engineering, we often face mornings with time crunch, which results in a rush. As a result, we forget a prelab due to in an hour, or some other important thing. When we started first, we had a basic idea of a checklist which could be easily used in the morning to save time and be organized.In start we decided to use a LED board. We were also planning on using Bluetooth Module and phone input, programmed with raspberry Pie, to make the device. But after talking to TA and researching, we decided to start simple.Now, we will use  Arduino to take inputs from a button which would be hard wired to it. When the button will be pressed, the Arduino will receive the command to check the task off the list, and then it would change the text in the digital display to ‘done’.  We can further improve the project by using  Bluetooth Module instead of hard wiring the button and Arduino.

Block Diagram:

System Overview:

The Arduino will be controlling most of the circuit. We will program it to take inputs from the logic circuit. The logic circuit will be a simple decoder that takes the values of the two switches and sets one output to a 1 and the rest to 0. It's output will then cause a change on the LCD screen. We haven't decided what that change will be yet.

Parts:

• 16x2 LCD
• Arduino
• 2 switches
• Pin Headers
• AND, OR & NOT Gates

Possible Challenges:

Programming the Arduino to control the LCD screen since neither of us has experience with that. Using Bluetooth instead of a button would also increase the difficulty of the project because we will have to get it to pair to a smart phone and then use an app.

Future Plan:

Use bluetooth instead of hardwired switches. Also taking user input from the phone and using those as the tasks instead of preprogrammed ones.