Adin J.

Hi, I’m Adin and I’m a rising junior at the Heschel School. For my main project I decided to make a modified MP3 Player. I chose this project because I felt this project allowed for the most customization out of all of the other projects. I also wanted to make this project because it teaches you how to use Arduino.

For my starter project I decided to build the MintyBoost , a portable charger for your cell phone that uses AA batteries. I chose this project because before BlueStamp I had no experience with engineering, so I didn’t want to choose a project that would be too hard for me to complete. I also liked the MintyBoost Kit because it helped me improve my soldering.

Reflection:

Before BlueStamp I had close to no experience with engineering, but having completed the program I feel a lot more aware and can understand a lot of different aspects of engineering. Also, I think just having a working project makes me feel a lot better about my engineering capability and urges me to think about what projects I might want to make in the future. I wanted to do this program because I feel like math and science related subjects are my strong suit and I wanted to see if I wanted engineering to play a big role in the rest of my life and now I can officially say that I want to pursue a career in either engineering or computer science. Even though I still might not know as much as students my age about engineering, I feel like participating in the BlueStamp has piqued my interest about engineering and now I feel driven to learn as much as I can about engineering and computer science.

Engineer

Adin J.

Area of Interest

Computer and Mechanical Engineering

School

Heschel School

Grade

Rising Junior

Main Project

For my main project I decided to make an Arduino based MP3 Player. This device uses the MP3 Player Shield to decode audio files and play music. At the center of this shield is the VS1053B MP3 audio decoder IC, which is responsible for decoding the MP3 files stored in the microSD Card and sending music to the headphone jack. After coding the Arduino, I decided to make a 3D Printed jukebox case for the MP3 Player. An issue I faced while making my project was learning how to install different libraries onto the Arduino, so that it could play music. However, I think the biggest issue I faced was with the 3D Printing. I started by designing my case on Google SketchUp. Once I finished, it took me awhile to figure out how to export stl from SketchUp, and once I figured it out and sent the file to one of my instructors, it became apparent that I would need to go back and fix the model because the case would print the way that I intended it to print. After I completely remodeled my case, I sent it to my instructor again and it still wouldn’t print the file. Finally, my instructor told me that I should switch over to TinkerCad. Once, I finally finished my design and the instructor printed the case, he told me that I forgot to take into account some of the measurements regarding the case. So, I had to spend full day filing down the case before I finally finished my whole project and completed my final video. Author’s Note: Also since I am not with my computer, you can find my design on tinker cad ( My username is adinjj) and as for the code if u download the MP3 player shield library you can find the code in examples under “file player.”

Starter Project

My starter project is the MintyBoost Kit. This device uses AA batteries to charge your cell phone. It utilizes a variety of components, including resistors, capacitors, a diode, a IC socket, and a power inductor. All of these components are soldered to a Printed Circuit Board, or PCB. The resistors are responsible for reducing the current flow to the PCB to ensure that there is no overflow of energy that would ultimately fry the circuit. A interesting thing about the resistors that are on both ends of the PCB is that they determine what type of charger is connected to the USB Port. Another crucial component of the device are the ceramic capacitors. These capacitors filter out the high frequency noise, a byproduct of the 5V output, and make sure that the energy output of the boost converter chip is the same every time. The zener diode ensures that energy is only transferred from the batteries to the USB port and not vice versa. This why the diode must be placed in a specific way because diodes only allow energy to flow in one direction, so if you place it backwards the energy will go back towards the batteries. The IC socket, which is probably the least significant component, protects the boost converter chip. Probably the most important component of this circuit is the power inductor. This component stores and converts power from low voltages to high and that is why the 3V input from the AA batteries is able to be converted into a 5V output. The last significant components of this device are the electrolytic capacitors. Similar to the ceramic capacitors, these electrolytic capacitors are responsible for filtering out low frequency noise. However, these capacitors stabilizes the input and output voltages as they are converted in the power inductor to make sure that the energy of the 3V input can be smoothly and easily into 5V. I learned a lot from making this starter project, but I think one of the most important things I learned was how to properly solder. Once I finished building my project, I initially thought that researching how the project works would be very tedious. However, I soon realized how interesting it was to be able to understand how all of the different components function and how the device works as a whole.

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