02/06 - 02/10

During this week we briefly introduced our ideas. An add-on device for current traditional light switch. There are still many details need to be consider about, including different components of the system, sensors that we need, microprocessor, etc.

We drew a draft float chart for our basic idea before the lab. We want our system integrate a lot of sensors so it can gather more data from the dorm room and make a better decision on whether turn on or off the light.

We will finish our wiki and consider more thoroughly about our project in the next week.

02/11 - 02/17

During this week we had a clearer thought about our project. We decided that the sWith should consists of two components: a Motor and Control Unit that will eventually attach to the light switch, several tiny Sensor Units that can put on different place of the dorm room.

Also, we begin to consider which part we should use. We want these two components consume as little power as possible - you never want to charge a switch everyday. We also want to use bluetooth to control these units.

Another problem is the mechanical movement when we want to turn on / off the light switch. We believe that we need to use a motor to finish this step.

In the next week, we need to seek for these parts and order them. Also, we need to learn more about bluetooth, motors, and 3D printing.

02/18 - 02/24

During this week we got most of the parts we need! We setup the Arduino Library and environment for our boards, as they are not the standard Arduino boards. We also soldered some parts, since they come in without solder those pins.

We also read several data sheet for our sensors and boards. Although they are a little bit hard to understand for us, but we are getting there!

In the next week, we will begin to programming our board and make the BLE working. We will also figure out how to control the Stepper Motor. 

02/25 - 03/03

During this week, we have learned how to program our first sensor-ultrasonic sensor. We loaded the program from Arduino and it worked on the sensor. 

We also construct the out-shell of our switch with frame. 

In the next week, we will continue to program our sensor, and we will mostly concentrate on the BLE.

03/04 - 03/10

During this week, we began to learn how to program BLE, the most challenging and interesting part in our project. The BLE is very useful for the user to dominate the switch on the phone. This is very important when the user wants to control the light himself. There are a lot of interesting and useful example online, except that......we cannot understand them.

At the same time, we began to learn how to control the motor.

03/11 - 03/17

We stop concentrating on the BLE, because we can barely move forward...We began to program luminosity sensor and found that it was much easier than BLE!

We also found that the force provided by motor was not enough to control the switch, so we talked about alternative method to replace the motor.

In the next week, we need to find the new method to control the switch and work on other sensors we have.

03/18 - 03/24

Spring Break! Just relax!

03/24 - 03/30

We decided to use the electromagnet to replace the motor. We began to calculate the requirement of the equipment we need. 

We began and completed the infrared sensor in our project.

In the next week, we will go back to BLE and try to understand it. And continue to construct our electromagnet.

03/31 - 04/06

We failed on the BLE again and tried to replace it  with other components... We have completed the calculation of our electromagnet and bought equipment for it online, including capacitor, iron core and wire.

In the next week, we will discuss about the new method that will replace the BLE and begin to construct our electromagnet.

04/07 - 04/13