I have not posted an update to this project since September. I was in my first semester of graduate school, but I also continued work on this platform. I see these updates partly as making all of my work real. This is because most of the things I have made that I don’t have anything to show for had their parts reused in other projects, and if I don’t document them, not many people would know what I did. Posting a design here, even if I make major changes, cements that idea in my journey. Anyway on to the update.
The primary goal of the changes to this platform, since my last update, was to make the device more comfortable to wear and easier to fix/upgrade. The previous design was wearable but its sharp corners would pinch my arm when wearing it. This update was shaped to my arm, with the front being smaller than the back, as it goes up my arm.
All of the previous features, as far as the hardware is concerned, remain. There are a few additions though. I included a pi-camera, which I have been wanting to add since the start in some way. There is also a real-time clock circuit under the hood. Really, it is under the hood. I was actually able to design a hood to cover the main components. It has a hinge and a clasp.
There is the Pi, a li-poly battery, the LSM9DS1 IMU, a battery charging board, a amplifier board, and the camera and real-time clock. Two switches are used for powering the pi and connecting the battery to the amplifier board, which has a light that stays on as long as the battery is connected. One of the switches will turn that light off by opening the connection between the battery and amp board.
I added some end pieces to help guide the stretchy straps through the loops to fasten the device in place. All of the engravings on the end pieces and top cover are left to interpretation. The only camera I had left was the NoIR version, I may change it later. Or maybe I’ll keep it and add some IR-LEDs for it. For the moment I have my UI as an interactive map. I always loved those in videogames, so I made my own. Tapping of an island opens a different application. So far those are just the camera, an image viewer, and viewing sensor readings. Two of those islands are silhouettes are Pokémon by the way.
My current work on this platform is to make use of the Raspberry Pi Zero W’s micro-USB port. I will have an additional wearable peripheral that will connect to it and send data through the serial port.
Booman's Workshop 