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Glove Project 1

25 Oct 2013

Proto Prototype

Last week's user testing was immensely helpful. In less than an hour my classmates raised several issues with the Glove Project that would have taken me two weeks to identify. I haven't yet done more user testing: my Adafruit FLORA boards have not arrived; I spent a lot of time reading through the LSM303LDHC datasheet to understand whatever I could about the sensor; I worked on a Kinect exercise to familiarize myself with possible algorithms to use the incoming data to manipulate pixels.

Being a wearable project, user design is tricky. If these gloves are for everyone, I need to configure a design that can adjust to a range of wrist and hand sizes. If these gloves are only for me, I need to narrow my style desires quickly.

Decisions, Decisions

Instead of sewing sensors onto a pair of gloves, I decided design an accessory that the user will be able to wear under or over gloves or barehanded. I am designing with only my hand and wrist in mind; pattern-making is not my strength. Also, this wearable will become part of a larger performance piece. I intend, however, to do more user testing once the circuit and the program is built later this week.

NOTES: Include design sketches * Adjustable straps * jersey or jersey-type fabric

* Where will the battery go?
* Look for coin-cell batteries. 

coin cell battery holder

Links for materials

I had to wait for Adafruit to have a new shipment of FLORA boards, so I tried prototyping my FLORA accelerometer and gyroscope with my Arduino Uno.

Testing

I did not find this easy. The FLORA accelerometer is a bit different than the LSM3030LDHC sensor. I wired it first in this configuration.

example

That's the gnd pin connected to ground on the breadboard, a wire going from GND to the Arduino, the orange wire is connected to SCL then to Analog pin 5. (The Adafruit library and sensor manufacturer stated to connect the LSM SCL to A5; likewise for SDA to A4), the Blue wire is connect from SDA to A4, and the 3.3V is connected to the Breadboard power strip and then a wire from the Breadboard powerstrip to the Arduino 5V pin.

When I would move up in the Z-direction, the serial port would stop reading in values.

example

I then reloaded the sketch, but the usb port wasn't being read, meaning that there is a big problem with the connections. After some plugging out and plugging in and a quick search through the Adafruit forums, I learned the trick is to move s-l-o-w-l-y as to not disrupt any of the wires. My next investment will be in a set of alligator clips.

Direct links to posts related to project are below

physcomp

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