END OF 2023 PROJECT UPDATE
People: Gloria, Norbert, Cameron
Things worked on this semester: Reading device, logging device
Updates:
- Code and files are in our Box folder now. Yay! Jan 19th backup version here, after this check on Box for most recent.
- We made the reading device read from the EEPROM reliably. Jan 19th backup here, after this check on Box for most recent.
- Decided that the data stored in the EEPROM should be exactly what is displayed on the reading device to avoid decoding and formatting work.
- Regarding picosleep: (see April’s documentation for initial info on this)
- The pico would not reliably wake up from this sleep. Spent a lot of time trying to get it to wake up, including work to try to do gdb debugging on the pico using another Pi (guide in progress but probably won’t be finished). But eventually decided it was too unreliable. Instead we are going towards the alternative below.
- New plan for power-saving: See this doc (and the PCB info doc mentioned below)
- Using this new RTC because it has alarm functionality
- Norbert is working on a PCB to make physical connection simpler and more reliable. We had many problems with connection reliability and had to keep rewiring things so it’s time for a PCB
Common problems:
- Eeprom not powered
- Both feather and pico i2c pins connected simultaneously (they shouldn’t be)
- No pullups / too many pullups on the buses causing I2C problems
Next steps:
- Finishing PCB (January update: read the PCB info doc)
- Getting RTC+555+MOSFET power saving setup ready
- Integrating weigh scale and our sensors
- Integrating with wireless transmission
- We never implemented the I2C hotplug module but this is probably still a good idea
- Actually dealing with too many pullups on our sensors