Inspiration
The lack of materials to build out original plan (a rail gun) and study the effects of various drives lead us to integrate some of our another components including piezoelectric sensors and vibrators to make something different.
What it does
By tapping on the piezo, the Arduino processes the signal to determine based off of intensity, duration, and context wether you gave a dot (., short tap) or a dash (-, long tap). After processing it sends the clean signal through to the computer where a python process is listening for the data so it can ask questions and store states.
How we built it
While most of the equipment should have a safety system around it (e.g. resistors and capacitors) to deliver the preferred voltage and the like, since the voltages are small, this was deemed vestigial and sacrificed at risk of not meeting deadlines. Thankfully, most of the integration was made simple thanks to the Arduino's PWM output, allowing us to make whatever waves we needed.
Challenges we ran into
Aside the lack of electrical components like copper wire and (working) soldering irons, Adapting the SMD components to the breadboard setup did prove difficult.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We were able to cut down noise from frequently elongating out signal to meeting expectations.
What we learned
Aside remembering why signal processing is the worst aspect of our jobs, we enjoyed learning about Serial communication between the board and the computer.
What's next for Morse Code Cat
Morse Code Cat itself is the interface. This interface can eventually be embedded into a glove and incorporated in future mobile electronics. The full project is code named Ferret. He's a companion robot build to act similar to the Pokemon Go buddy system. The driver functionality developed in Morse Code Cat allows us to enable heptic control for Ferret.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.