Too late, too late.

We should be finished! Setbacks. All the time. Tomorrow, we will be finished, guaranteed. I hope.

Videos from today:

One week of terror

Pictures of progress... we just have the get the water coolers up and running.

SETBACKS = NOT NICE

Big setback: Guy who was supposed to do our prints of clay said his printer is broken/out of ink. Not good. He had the best price and now we have to pay almost double to get the clay prints. Yikes for the budget. We are at $366 total right now. The prints are going to cost us about $220... We are meeting Sunday to test test test (testing should have been done sooo long ago).

Building/Wiring Disperse

Yesterday we soldered/wired the reed switches, painted the puzzle stages, painted the bottom of the puzzle pieces, attached handles to the pieces and tested out the reed switches. We realized that the magnets we have for the switches are not strong enough, so today we will go find stronger magnets. Also, Rose found way better water containers that are bigger and match our whole esthetic a lot more (they are blue).




Below are the old water coolers which were clear.

Final Images

The cracked clay placed below the puzzle pieces wasn't strong enough aesthetically. When lifting each puzzle piece we want immediate understanding of deduction of water. We want really convincing images with clear consistency. Here are the two final images chosen for the puzzle.

IMAGE ON PUZZLE

IMAGE BELOW PUZZLE

We're not going to die!

The image is on the puzzle! We will put the handles on it on Monday. Clay and painting will also happen Monday. Also, we aren't going to die! Water and electronics shouldn't mix, but we here at Disperse like to live dangerously. Pictures soon.

That's puzzling...

Here is a picture of what the completed puzzle looks like (without the picture, of course):



An image of water will be on it in a few days. We now have a revised schedule:

Wednesday 19th: Rose is bringing in the image of water to get printed for puzzle

Thursday 20th: Craig and Steve meet at RCC 357 between 9-9:30; all of the materials are there to build the stages and it will need to be moved to the wood shop for building. Cam, Rose and myself will be going to Rose's house to test the water jug component with the sensors and water valves. I have the water valves and sensors and will bring them.

**By Monday, stages should be built and water jugs tested and ready for set up

Monday 24th: We don't have Kathleen, but we will still be meeting at about 9:30 (I am assuming Image Arts, but Steve and Craig will have to let us know where we are able to store our stages while the 4th year show is happening). We will be applying the clay and sensors to the stages Monday, and if we have time, apply the photo to the puzzle pieces

Tuesday 25th: We will wire the sensors on the stage to the micro controller We will also apply/mount the photo to the puzzle if this doesnt get finished on monday.

Thursday 27th: Everything should be finished and ready to set up.

Schedule

This is our tentative schedule for the next couple weeks. Its only rough, and I'm sure there will be more work than the days listed.

Monday 17th:
- have puzzle pieces finished
- choose picture to get printed on to puzzle
- buy supplies to make bases for puzzles
- buy reed sensors
- figure out where to get water containers and get non-mechanical pumps working this week

Tuesday 18th:
- bring photo in to get printed (4ft x 4ft)

Thursday 20th:
- build/finish stage
- put clay & sensors on stage

Tuesday 25th:
- finish up loose ends of project; this week is finishing week

Thursday 27th:
- set up all of disperse and test (322 and NMG)

April 4th & 5th:
- Interconnecting day

Solution... now go!

After our water cooler explosion incident, we were very worried about what we were going to do with this project, since a huge portion of the project is based on the water cooler. Tuesday we did some mega brainstorming and met with Dave and Steve, and for once, everything is clicking like it should.

The water cooler is out, large water containers are in (non-vacuum sealed thank you very much). Both locations are now the same: puzzle & water container. The catch? Only one puzzle can be completed, and puzzle pieces will be "dispersed" between OCAD and Ryerson. The goal is to complete one puzzle. While puzzle pieces are being moved, the sensors (we are using reed sensors now) will record the time the puzzle piece has been off of the base. Depending on time, the water container will still fill up or empty slightly. If one of the puzzles gets completed, the respective water container will fill entirely, and the water cooler at the other location will empty. Once puzzle pieces start to move around again, the water levels will continue to fluctuate.

Its building time now, less than three weeks left. We are full steam ahead!

Explosions in 322

Did you know that water coolers explode if you poke a hole in them? Well now you know.

In order to put a pump in our water cooler jug, we would be required to put a hole in it. Now, we were told that it would explode when the plastic is punctured, but we had to see for ourselves (not only for fun, we actually had to know in order to move on). It took us about 10 minutes to even puncture the top of the jug. When we finally did, the water inside started bubbling and vibrating because of the pressure being released. We all watched in amazement and awe. Then it stopped... for about a split second... and then.... WHHOOOOOOOOSHHHH! Water everywhere. Overflowing. Flooding. Exploding. Panic (at the disco). Our project went down the drain (literally) in about 60 seconds. No computers or electronics were harmed during this experiment.

We are now crying because we don't know what to do. Also, crying is a source of water. We are thinking of renaming this project "Alligator Tears."

Any thoughts?

Jugular Code

This is the v1.0 of what will be running on the Arduinos hooked up to the photocells.

/* Arduino code for Disperse Prototype
By: Cameron Kerr
<http://www.camkerr.com>
*/

int sensorPin = 2; // select the input pin for the Photocell
int pumpPin = 13; // select the pin for the Solid State Relay and
Water Pump
int val = 0; // variable to store the value coming from the
Photocell
int count = 0; // variable to store the count that the block is
away for

void setup() {
pinMode(pumpPin, OUTPUT); // declare the pumpPin as an OUTPUT to
our Solid State relay and Water Pump
}

void loop() {
val = analogRead(sensorPin); // read the value from the photocell
if (val > 5000) // if no block is present
{
count = count + 1; // add time to the counter
}
else // if block is present
{
digitalWrite(pumpPin, HIGH); // turn the Water Pump on
delay(count); // Run the Water for the amount of
counter
digitalWrite(pumpPin, LOW); // turn the Water Pump off
count = 0; // Reset count to 0

}


}

We are meeting tomorrow to discuss aesthetics and possibly some refining of the piece as a whole. Then we build!

Prototype Day 1

Prototype day 1 was yesterday, here is what we have discussed:

- using real water instead of boxes that look like water
- number of boxes we have now decided to use 6 pieces at each stage instead of 4
- adding sound when someone picks up a piece
- size of box we have changed the size to be 1 foot square
- the water is supposed to make the boxes awkward to carry, but we have to figure out the box weight to water inside the box ratio

Here are some pictures of what we have so far:

Testing the water pump

Arduino & Breadboard

The demi-john (water jug)

Sample of what the boxes will look like (water)

The clay that will be underneath the water boxes

The water cooler

Prototype day 2 is tomorrow, we have discussed changes that need to be made and should have a working model of at least one location tomorrow.

Sunday morning session

This morning our group got together to test out materials and products for our puzzle board. Cam also drew out a flow chart of how the technical aspects of this project will work, which makes things way easier to understand. We have about four weeks to complete this, and we are aiming to have it fully complete by about March 28, which leaves us a few days before interconnecting day happens. We are pretty on track, so I think this is going to happen.



I was also checking out some blogs and came across this video.


See more on CitizenShift

People of Toronto talk about water issues in the world at a book signing with Maude Barlow (Author of Blue Covenant - The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water). I bought a water bottle today... because we needed it for our project, BUT I don't want to have to buy more because it is wasteful. If you buy a 1.5L bottle of water, give the empty bottle to us! We will put it to use.