Sonar for the visually impaired random thoughts - Misc items

Projects / Project Swiftlet  Original post date: 05/20/2015

Here are some of the random items in my project logs.    Some are useless for this project, but I try to preserve as much as I can for this project.  They don't fit the blog style posting, so you have to bear with me.

The 3D printed glasses frame is a good starting point for the mechanical design.
http://www.thingiverse.com/search/page:5?q=glasses&sa=

The 3D scanned Head model is from here:
http://www.3dcontentcentral.net/3DContentCentral/download-model.aspx?catalogid=171&id=207550

I bought 5 sets of Ultrasonic boards, 100 pcs of 2mmx1mm N50 magnets and a "TrustFire" protected 14500 (AA) battery from Banggood. When you put a Li-ion battery next to your head, it had better be a protected one instead of just a Lipo or unprotected cell. I guess I'll find out how well the battery performs. I read that they are much closer to 800mAHr, so that should provide really long battery life.

The battery is the first to arrived. (1 month+1 day)
The ultrasonic module arrived next (1 month + 3 days) This is the critical part for this project.

I ordered a small LCD with SPI for debugging last night. I have been thinking of an auxiliary/expansion port for a while for adding new sensors to the basic design in the future. It is also important for field debugging without lugging a laptop around. As much as I think a ESP8266 as a web based display for a mobile device would be cool, this has to do.

Probably going to do a small polar plot sonar display similar to the trackers in the original Alien movie. :) It is the most logic way of visualizing what the sensor see.

Link: Banggood forum topic for library

Editorial note: those prices are expensive since I bought them as aliexpress is probably around 1/2 of that easily.
-----------------------------------------------------
Wait did I see that on digikey supplier list!? I always go sort by lowest price, so may be some day she'll surprise me?

---------------------------------------------------------
Bad news: I guess this project is not going to make the time frame for the best product entry - specifically I don't think I can finish the 3 prototype & enough working firmware and have them arrive on 17th Aug 2015 date. i.e. I have ~ 1 month and even then PCB fab+shippingtime is unknown when you are going for offshore manufacturing. I have seen the shipping delays.

I would rather not enter than to rush the project and ship something below my own standard. I am still trying to do as much as I can for the main event.

Good news: I won quite a few vendor and entry prizes so far for all of my entries.