Created by Lan, Timothy J, last modified on Nov 30, 2016

10/17/16: We received most of our parts for building our security system. We have began research on how we can implement our sensors directly on the Arduino to show a proof of concept. We changed our Arduino ultrasonic sensor to an infrared proximity sensor for ease of implementation and cost-efficiency. We faced challenges of getting pins and the necessary cable connector, as our schedule collided with available times that the supply shop was open.  We are investigating to see if we need an adapter board to make sure the pins can fit correctly into the Arduino.

10/24/16: We did some research online and found compatible example code for implementing a theoretical shadow, proximity, and thermal sensor. This was great news, as examples of these codes saves us time in learning how to implement these sensors. We modified the proximity and thermal sensor code to our needs. Next, we faced the challenge of making use of a three-cable connector, as regular available cables have four inputs, not three. We are confident that the pins from the supply shop will fit with our Sparkfun thermal sensor, but we have yet to test it. Next week, we plan to finish writing the code for our shadow sensor, and if possible, we plan to test the sensor to see if we correctly implemented the proof of concept of our security system. We also will see how we could introduce logic circuits.

10/31/16: We attempted to implement the proximity and thermal sensor. Along the way, we met obstacles in implementing these sensors. While we initially thought that our pins would not be able to fit through our holes of our thermal sensor (and thus we would be unable to solder it), the pins fit perfectly onto our breadboard. Another issue was the unavailability of comparators to implement in our logic circuit. The comparator would compare which volt was bigger, and produce a boolean 1 or 0. These comparisons would be able to see which sensor was on and produce the right expression.  One big obstacle was the issue of not having the correct 3-wire cable connector for our proximity sensor. Our TA Oscar graciously helped us physically utilize wires to connect this sensor to our breadboard. After debugging small issues such as wiring and code, we were able to use the proximity sensor. Finally, we were unable to start writing the code for our shadow sensor, so we will accomplish this task next week. We will also wait for the availability of comparators to test and use in our logic circuits for our theoretical security system. 

11/07/16: We were able to get our photocell to work with our shadow sensor. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to test to see if the shadow sensor could work with our code, so we will do this next week. Not all comparators came in for supply this week, but we were able to obtain one comparator and carefully study it. We will need three comparators to compare two sensors together. If it produces a boolean 1 (voltage is high), that will stand for an alarm. A boolean 0 (voltage low) will stand for no alarm needed. Most likely, we will implement it after our presentation. Thankfully, we were able to get our proximity sensor and our thermal sensor working, so that we are able to demonstrate the proof-of-concept for each product. ]We will once again hope for the availability of comparators so that we can implement them after the Thanksgiving break.

11/14/16: Tragic struck as our one available comparator stopped working, as it was most likely shorted. Fortunately, 3 replacement comparators were available, so we planned on implementing them. Besides that issue, our previous two sensors did not work with our code, so we were forced to start over. We got the thermal sensor ready for presentation, but for unknown reasons, it stopped working for that duration. We planned to fix these issues after break, with possible overtime needed to make sure a possible proof of concept would be finished by the due date.

11/28/16: We successfully implemented the shadow sensor and the thermal sensor together with no issues. We set our sights on understanding the differently-modeled comparators, and we plan on testing the proximity sensor, despite its drawback of not having a conventional cable connector. We planned on working in Friday's lab to fix these issues, and plan to debug and optimize our code.