By Milena Serych, Kamryn Dudwal and William Tremaglio

Purpose

Target audience

Anyone who likes to be noticed, dancers and other kind of performers who wear specific costumes, people looking for Halloween, Christmas or another Themed party costume.

Market research

Hats with implemented LEDs available in the market are not interactive – they just have hardcoded LED patterns but do not react to the user’s movement. That’s why our product would stand out in the market.

Tools and Supplies

Design Decisions/Problems

1. We decided on the cowboy style hat because we thought it would make the sensor the least noticeable as well as allowing room for the arduino, the breadboard, and the battery pack. 
2. We put the ultrasonic sensor in the front of the hat so that it picked up the ground/object in front of the person. If we had put it on the side it would have picked up the shoulder the whole time and on the back it would most likely pick up the person’s back as the hat tilted back.
3. We put the arduino and the perfboard at the back of the hat. We initially wanted to put inside the hat, however it proved to be uncomfortable and made the hat not fit the person’s head. 
4. We put the wires through the inside of the hat to conceal them as the wires from the sensor needed to reach the back of the hat.
5. To make LED strips working we figured out how to use the NeoPixel library. 
6. Initially the idea was to use the LilyPad for this project, as we are doing e-textile work that requires parts to be as small and unnoticeable as possible. But it would not be able to handle the amount of current required for the sensor and strip to work together (9V) – it would fire up at 5V. So we decided to keep working on Arduino Uno
7. To make our hat more organized we decided not to use the breadboard but solder LED and Sensor connections to the small perfboard
8. To power our project up we started from two 1,5V coin batteries but realized that we need at least 5V. Further in the project we figured out that the required voltage for the project to work properly is 9V, which we achieved by six AA batteries.
9. After soldering everything to the perfboard we faced the problem of bad connection (it was either sensor or LEDs working) so we needed to resolder some parts to make connection better and more stable.

Design principles

Conceptual Model (how a particular product works): Have with integrated Ultrasonic sensor on the top of the hat facing to the floor to measure the disance from users head to the floor and change colours according to this distance.

Visibility: our main controls are Ultrasonic for input and LEDs for output. Everything is being powered with 6 AA batteries so user have a choice to turn on or off the LEDs by disconnecting it from the power supplier. Once it is powered all the user needs to do is move and dance, and hat will automatically change the colours using information from Ultrasonic.

Constraints: since it is a hat, it’s designed to be worn on the head to work properly as designed. As mentioned before, project is powered up with batteries so at some point user will need to change the batteries in order for the LEDs on the hat.

Shortcomings

Task List

• William:
  • Worked on the software side of the project:
    1. Created an enum to represent the different types of LED patterns. Refractored the code to use the enum instead of hardcoded patterns.
    2. Split the code into separate functions to eliminate repeated code.
    3. Added comments and documentation to the code to explain the purpose and usage of each function.
    4. Organized the code into logical blocks to improve readability and maintainability.
    5. Tested the code to ensure that it works as expected and produces the correct results for each distance reading.
• Milena:
  • Worked on the hardware side of the project:
    1. I gathered all the necessary components and soldered most of the items for the project.
    2. Connected the Ultrasound Sensor and LED Strip to the Perfboard using various soldered wires.
    3. Connected the Perfboard to the Arduino Board through soldering.
    4. Tested the setup to ensure that the components are functioning properly.
    5. Made any necessary adjustments or fixes to ensure that the hardware is working as expected.
• Kam:
  • Worked on both the hardware and software sides of the project:
    1. Helped gather the necessary components and soldered some of the items for the project.
    2. Prepped the hat for implementation of the project by making any needed cuts.
    3. Researched the Adafruit Neopixel library and familiarized myself with its capabilities.
    4. Used my knowledge of the Neopixel library to lay out the foundation for the code that controls the project.
    5. Assisted with the testing of both the hardware and software of the project.
    6. Helped with any necessary adjustments or fixes to the code or hardware to improve the project’s performance.

Stages/Meetings

Schedule

Breadboard Layout

How to create…

• Ensure the ultrasonic sensor and the LED’s work using the Arduino Uno and the breadboard
• Start Soldering, solder wires, sensor, and LED’s to pin headers and then solder the perfboard, this way there’s no breadboard to attach to the hat
• Cut two holes large enough for the ultrasonic sensor to fit at the front of the hat
• Make one large incision at the front base of the hat, to put the wires through so they cannot be seen
• make another incision at the back of the hat to put the wires from the perfboard as well as the wires necessary to connect to the Arduino Uno through
• Attach the Arduino Uno and the 6-pack battery to the rear of the hat
• Attach the battery pack to the Arduino Uno
• Wrap the Neopixel LED strips around the buckle of the hat and slip the wire needed to be connected to the Arduino Uno into the slit at the front of the hat and our of the slit at the back of the hat
• Add accessories, like the dangling string with bells attached to it, or anything else you want and you have made the Ho Ho Howdy Hat

Code

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>
#define echoPin 2  // attach pin D2 Arduino to pin Echo of HC-SR04
#define trigPin 3  // attach pin D3 Arduino to pin Trig of HC-SR04

#define pixelPin 10  // Defining pixel pin
#define pixelNum 16  // Defining number of LEDs on pixel strip

#define WHITE (255, 255, 255)
#define RED (255, 0, 0)
#define GREEN (0, 255, 0)

int distance;  // Defining variable for the distance measurement

// Defining Pattern Enum
enum patternType {
  ONE,
  TWO,
  THREE,
  FOUR,
  FIVE,
  SIX
};
enum patternType pattern;  // Defining variable for the pattern type

Adafruit_NeoPixel pixels = Adafruit_NeoPixel(pixelNum, pixelPin, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);

void setup() {
  pixels.begin();
  Serial.begin(9600);        // Setup for Serial Monitor
  pinMode(echoPin, INPUT);   // Sets the echoPin as an INPUT
  pinMode(trigPin, OUTPUT);  // Sets the trigPin as an OUTPUT
}

void loop() {

  updateSensor();   // Updating the Ultrasonic Sensor reading
  updatePattern();  // Updating the pattern with new distance
  //displayPattern(pattern);

  switch (pattern) {
    case ONE:
      for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) {
        pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0, 255, 255));
      }
      pixels.show();
      break;
    case TWO:
      for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) {
        pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(255, 0, 255));
      }
      pixels.show();
      break;
    case THREE:
      for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) {
        pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0, 255, 0));
      }
      pixels.show();
      break;
    case FOUR:
      for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) {
        pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(255, 255, 255));
      }
      pixels.show();
      break;
    case FIVE:
      for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) {
        pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(255, 0, 0));
      }
      pixels.show();
      break;
    case SIX:
      for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) {
        pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0, 0, 255));
      }
      pixels.show();
      break;
  }
}

void updateSensor() {
  // Setting the trigPin LOW (INACTIVE) for 2 microseconds
  digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);
  delayMicroseconds(2);

  // Setting the trigPin HIGH (ACTIVE) for 10 microseconds
  digitalWrite(trigPin, HIGH);
  delayMicroseconds(10);

  // Calculating the distance
  distance = pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH) * 0.034 / 2;  // Speed of sound wave divided by 2 (go and back)

  // Displays the distance on the Serial Monitor
  Serial.println(distance);
}

void updatePattern() {
  if (distance < 36 && distance >= 0) {
    pattern = ONE;
  } else if (distance < 72 && distance>=36) {
    pattern = TWO;
  } else if (distance < 108&&distance>=72) {
    pattern = THREE;
  } else if (distance < 144&&distance>=108) {
    pattern = FOUR;
  } else if (distance < 180&&distance>=144) {
    pattern = FIVE;
  } else {
    pattern = SIX;
  }
}