Almost Done

Senior Design presentation at 1pm. Then I’m done (for a few days).

I can’t wait.

Categories: Asides · Journal

1 dave // Apr 13, 2007 at 3:16 pm

i read your cdr (mostly skimming)… looks pretty cool! i am impressed. i wish i could have been in that presentation!

question: when the LED goes off, it is inside the plastic bottle? is it easy to see at a glance? and you did a pretty extensive battery life test, but are these devices intended to be run continuously?
2 Matthew Smith // Apr 13, 2007 at 4:12 pm

Hey thanks!

Answer: The LEDs are inside the plastic bottle (which is sealed). They are quite bright, and definitely visible. In fact, one of Dr. O’Brien’s recommendations was to increase the current limiting resistor for the LEDs in order to REDUCE their brightness and increase battery life. The lights are easy to see at a glance; we should have detailed this further in the CDR, but basically a solid red LED means that the temperature is too low, a solid green LED means that the temperature is too high, and a flashing green LED means that the device is on (this blinks all the time, no matter the temperature).

In retrospection, we could have powered the battery status indicator differently, so that the output would then be:

Red LED = Temp. too Low
Solid Green LED = Temp. too High
Flashing Green LED = Temp. OK

But it’s done, and that makes me happy!

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