Kevin P.
My name is Kevin, I’m from Cristo Rey New York High School and my main project is a Infinite Glass Mirror. It’s basically a regular, but when the lights installed the mirror are turned on, the mirror displays an illusion that there’s a hole going into the mirror. My starter project is the Minty Boost which is supposed to act as a portable charger for chargers that has a USB. I chose these projects because it was something I wanted to create that would be helpful in a way. Also its because i want to learn a bit more on Electrical engineering. Also I wanted how different components work together to make the project work.
Reflection
The things that I have learned or I can take away from this program and project is how much I like to build things. Its taught me that I like to build projects that bring joy or smiles to others. I’ve run into great challenges while doing this project which made me want to give up at first. But i’ve learned that if I gave up I wouldn’t feel good about myself because I don’t usually give up easily. So I decided to be persistent and continue to overcome it. I was having a hard time turning on the LEDs but once I did the feeling of the accomplishment felt good. I needed to be accustomed to failures.
Engineer
Kevin P
Area of Interest
Mechanical Engineering
Game design
Electrycal Engineering
Robotics
Computer Engineering
School
Cristo Rey New York High School
Grade
Incoming Junior
Final Project
My final milestone
is my whole project Infinity mirror. When the LEDs are not turned on, the mirror acts as a regular mirror but when the LEDs are turned on, the mirror sets a infinite illusion causing the person a depth into the mirror. This is caused by the Two mirrors that are in the front and back of the mirror. This creates a reflection by the two mirrors also creating several reflection. The mirror on the back of the frame is a regular mirror, but the mirror on the front is a see through Acrylic mirror. This means the front of this mirror is a see through and the back of it is a mirror. The front can also act as a mirror as well but you would see the inside of the frame a little bit. In between these two mirrors are the LEDs, I’ve taken the strips and cut them into strips. This was just for my preference and also because the LED strip wasn’t long enough to cover the side of the square fully. I cut the stripes and hot glued gun them to the width of the Frame. Also the frame was created by first measuring how long and high I wanted the square hole. The frame was jigsawed by one of the instructors because it was a tool only used by the instructors so I couldn’t do it. After that I simply applied the LEDs first then the two mirrors. After, I made sure to make a hole go through the frame so the connections could come out and connect to the Arduino. Once I put the code sending it to the Arduino I turned the LEDs and watched the Light Show.
Second Milestone
My second milestones
is to get and understand how the code works. This Code is what turned on the LEDs and allowed it to do different animations. It’s important because without the LEDs turned on, then there’s no point in building the project since You NEED the LEDs to turn on. The way the code works is on Several analog reads and For statements. Also on a few libraries that need to be downloaded.
First Milestone
My first milestone was to be able to get the LEDs to work and turned on. This step is important to the project because it gives a very good distinction of the several reflections made by the two mirrors that are so close to one another. I got the lights to turn on with just an Arduino by doing a bit of coding to command the lights to turn on and allowing it to do animations with the several LEDs that it has. I didn’t really have any skills when trying to do this because I don’t know how to code. All I could have really did was to just copy a code from someone that was able to get LED Stipes to turn on and try to understand why that code works. The skills I learned was just to persevere and to keep trying. The next milestone is to build the frame for the two mirrors with the LEDs glued inside the Frame.
Starter Project
Starter Project: Minty Boost
In this project I used the variety of components for example: Resistors, Inductors, Capacitors, and DC/DC Chip.The process is that the student placed the circuit board on a flat surface and placed the R5 in the middle of the board where it says R5. It didn’t matter if the R5 was placed backwards or forward. There is no specific direction it needed to be placed. Next is to flip the circuit board and solder the leads on the other side. Then once that was done, the excess leads were cut off. Also the R5 resistor should be a stripped one with orange and orange red color. Next the blue resistors were placed in the left and right side where the circuit board says R2 and R4. Now it’s cristocl to pay attention in this part because there are four resistors in total for the whole project. For the R2 and R4 that are going to be used, they should be blue and have striped colors which are: Violet, Green, Black, Red and Brown. Finally, once placed in their position, the excess leads were soldered and cut of. Next is to place the other two Blue resistors that were explained in the step previously. The ones that are going to be used in this step are resistors R1 and R3. They contain the stripes: Yellow, 2 White Stripes, Brown. Each one is to be placed on the left and right side of the Circuit board, Right next to R2 and R4, right where it says R1 and R3. Then once placed in their spot, solder the leads to the circuit board on the other side and cut the excess. Next is to place the C1 and C2 in the circuit board, they have an orange color at the top of the two leads. The two pieces should go on the bottom of the circuit board where it is labeled C1 and C2, there should be four metal holes where the two leads of both each can slide through. Once placed, solder the leads on the other side of the circuit board then clip the excess. Next is to place the D1 on the circuit board on the right side of the board where is has the silkscreen image placed. This part is critical as well because the direction in which this piece matter a lot. The white striped part of the piece should be placed in the direction where the USB port will be placed. Once placed correctly, solder the piece to the circuit board and then clip the excess piece leads. Now it’s time to insert the IC socket. This piece should go over the R5 and its purpose is the protect the R5 but should not interfere with the R5 nor touch it. Once this is placed over, solder it on the other side but make sure it does not touch the leads of the R5 that were soldered previously. For this piece you do not need to clip any excess lead. Then it’s time to place the L1 in the board where it says L1. Once placed in, solder it in then cut the excess. Then place the Electrolytic Capacitors in the two little circles that are on the top left corner and the bottom right corner. Now the longer lead should be inserted in the hole that has a lebel (+). Once placed in, solder the leads then clip them. Next is to solder the Red and Black wires from the Battery pockets to the Circuit board. The holes that they should be soldered to is the two bottom holes in the Left and Right corners. The Red wire is to be soldered on the Left bottom hole where it has a (+) next to it and the Black one is to be soldered on the opposite side. You do not need to clip and Leads. Finally, place the USB port in the Board where it says X1, once placed in, solder it to the board and there’s no need to cut and excess lead. Connect your Charger to the USB port and connect to the phone to see if it works and charges. Make sure to place double A batteries in the pockets for the Batteries.
Problems:
There were not any problems. I guess it was just so much pressure on making sure the solder doesn’t fall on another lead.
What I learned:
What I have learned is the way in which many components can come together and create something bigger and useful.