Week 6 Progress

SUCCESS!!! I got the hardware and the software to work reliably now (knock on wood!). Upon going to Zack Weaver’s office outside of class, we were able to debug the software and hardware and get it to work. Once it was debugged, the next step I wanted to complete was to get the vibrating motors to vibrate with a different output as opposed to all being super strong. This would allow for the vibrating motors to more feel as if they are high, mid, or low frequencies based off of the intensity of the vibration. I have gotten that to work successfully, however, I still have to figure out how to get the vibrating motors to not vibrate when there is no music being passed into them. The changed code is shown below: 

// Control the vibration of an ERM motor
// using PWM and an aux cord. 

#include <Sparkfun_DRV2605L.h>
#include <Wire.h>

SFE_HMD_DRV2605L HMD;
const int analogInPin = A0;  // Analog input pin that the sensor is attached to
const int analogOutPinHigh = 9; // Analog output pin that the Haptic Motor Driver is attached to
const int analogOutPinMid = 10;
const int analogOutPinLow = 11;

int sensorValue = 0;        // value read from the sensor
int outputValue = 0;        // value output to the PWM (analog out)
int frequencyValue = 0; 


void setup() 
{
  HMD.begin();
  Serial.begin(9600);
  HMD.Mode(0x03); //PWM INPUT 
  HMD.MotorSelect(0x09);
  HMD.Library(7); //change to 6 for LRA motors 
  pinMode(analogInPin, INPUT);
  pinMode(analogOutPinHigh, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(analogOutPinMid, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(analogOutPinHigh, OUTPUT);

}
void loop() 
{

 // read the analog in value:
  sensorValue = analogRead(analogInPin);
  //Serial.println(analogInPin);
  //Serial.print("start sensor = ");
  //Serial.println(sensorValue);
  // map it to the range of the analog out:
  outputValue = map(sensorValue, 0, 1023, 0, 255);
  frequencyValue = map(sensorValue, 50, 400, 0, 255);
  //Serial.println(frequencyValue);
  if(frequencyValue >= 0 && frequencyValue <=60){
    analogWrite(analogOutPinLow, 0);
    analogWrite(analogOutPinMid, 0);
    analogWrite(analogOutPinHigh, 0);
    //delay(100);
    //Serial.println("NOTHING");
  } else if(frequencyValue > 60 && frequencyValue <= 150){
    analogWrite(analogOutPinHigh, 0);
    analogWrite(analogOutPinMid, 0);
    analogWrite(analogOutPinLow, 255);
    Serial.println(frequencyValue);
    //delay(100);
    //Serial.println("LOW");
  } else if(frequencyValue > 150 && frequencyValue<= 200){
    analogWrite(analogOutPinHigh, 0);
    analogWrite(analogOutPinLow, 0);
    analogWrite(analogOutPinMid, 155);
    //Serial.println(frequencyValue);
    //delay(100);
    //analogWrite(analogOutPinMid, sensorValue);
    //Serial.println("MID");
  } else if (frequencyValue > 200 && frequencyValue <= 255){
  // change the analog out value:
    analogWrite(analogOutPinLow, 0);
    analogWrite(analogOutPinMid, 0);
    analogWrite(analogOutPinHigh, 50);
    //delay(100);
    //analogWrite(analogOutPinHigh, sensorValue);
    //Serial.println("HIGH");
  } else {
    sensorValue = 0; 
    analogWrite(analogOutPinLow, sensorValue);
    analogWrite(analogOutPinMid, sensorValue);
    analogWrite(analogOutPinHigh, sensorValue);
    //delay(100);
  }

  // print the results to the serial monitor:
  //Serial.print("sensor = ");
  //Serial.print(sensorValue);
  //Serial.print("\t output = ");
  //Serial.print(outputValue);
  //Serial.print("\t frequency = ");
  //Serial.println(frequencyValue);

  // wait 2 milliseconds before the next loop
  // for the analog-to-digital converter to settle
  // after the last reading:
  delay(2);
 }

Of course there are more comments I will need to add now that the code is working reliably but I am excited that after all the troubleshooting and debugging, a solution was found! As for the vibrations when no music is playing, that is an issue that can be solved by using capacitor signal smoothing. Right now, the input signal is all over the place so it is hard to control when to turn the motors off and when to keep them active. When I add an additional capacitor, it will smooth out that signal and allow for the input signal with no music be a more constant number that I can tell the vibrating motors to not vibrate if that range is sent through. Another big thing that was completed this past week were a few user tests. A few videos with very useful feedback (that were summarized by other users as well) are shown below:

Moving forward, my goals are to get the vibrating motors to not vibrate when no music is being sent to them, to get the hardware to go inside of the jacket completely built, and get the jacket I want to put the motors into bought and a plan for how to put the motors into the jacket for the best experience possible.