General

  • - A Google Group is a great way to keep everyone on your team in the loop on the project. E-mails you send go to everyone and are stored in the Group; files you upload are like using the U: drive except you can access it from any computer, even without VPN.  It’s great for backing up those important emails and meeting notes from your teammates.  That said, a personal log does wonders since it is always easier to draw out your ideas on a pad of paper.  Use both!

  • - It is really easy to spend a lot of money on these projects without realizing it, so be careful!  Our electronics and materials were a fraction of our total budget, because of all the accessories we bought to make the thing look cool.

  • - Start early and meet often.  Set early goals for yourself.  You do not want to be struggling on the day before the presentation to get checked off.

  • - Keeping to the checkpoints is the best way to stay on task and finish without too many late nights – if you miss one, start working harder.

Communications Protocol

  • - Don’t underestimate the amount of time required to develop the communications protocol if you are your team’s representative.  It is at least as much work as implementing communications, if not more.

  • - Work on the communications protocol early, in order to allow several iterations of revisions from Ed’s comments.  You’d be surprised at how high of expectations he holds for that document.

Hardware

  • - If purchased and decided upon early on, eBay can be a great place for cheap props to give your project that little extra flare.

  • - Test that your boat can float early in the game.  Extra weights may need to be added to help even out your boat.

  • - Paddlewheels and propellers: been there, everyone's done that.  Come up with something NEW!

  • - Spray paint eats foam.  A pink boat is better than a white/pink boat that looks like a beat up dog chew toy.  Hot glue eats foam too.

  • - A cheese grater and sandpaper can be a great solution to carving out foam.  It makes a mess, but can save you $20 bucks from the PRL.

  • - Don’t be afraid to be overcautious waterproofing – even if the rest of your team makes fun of you!

  • - The demonstration will likely take place outside, in sunlight – plan your display panel accordingly (i.e. – small LEDs won’t cut it).

Electrical

  • - If a part you are buying from Jameco/Sparkfun/Halted is cheap enough, always buy more than just one.  If you break it the night before the project is due, it’s nice to not have to drive out to them at the crack of dawn the next day.

  • - Don’t use the serial cable wire in the TA office for your five-pin molex connections.  It’s very difficult to work with and has a tendency to make shoddy molex connections.

  • - Always breadboard the entire circuit you plan to build before you solder it, not just what you think to be a representative portion.  Even just duplicating a circuit twice can change the net behavior (like having multiple slaves in a serial communication and just assuming that you can feed both the clock at all times, as long as you toggle the slave selects appropriately… not true.)

  • - Cheap rotary encoders tend to need external debouncing circuits.  Since you have two channels to read and both need to be debounced, hardware debouncing is a lot easier than doing it in software for that application.

  • - Always perform a continuity check between power and ground before plugging everything in after ANY change to a soldered board.  It may seem repetitive but could save you a huge hassle.

  • - Try to adapt a common practice for power and ground locations and molex direction your solder boards.

  • - Hierarchy of testing: 1. Check power and ground.  2. Check connections (can be as easy as wiggling a cable).  2a. If it is the connection, replace the molex.  3. If not, perform a continuity check between all points related to the broken circuit.  4. Lastly, if all else fails, consider how the circuit is supposed to work.  What would make it break?  Things like a non-insulated wire touching a joint or the gate of a MOSFET touching ground are things you won't find on a continuity check, but could exist.

  • - We found that the on board level shifters were not fast enough to give a clean switch of the SPI clock.  Instead, we used a comparator and had much better results.

  • - Heat shrink is your friend.

  • - Use as much hardware from previous quarters as possible (power boards, molex, etc.)  It’s a huge time and money saver!!!!  Yes, that means it’s okay if your 218B project ends up looking like this: