Boston College Freshman Dorm Sorter

Imagine if your fate as a Boston College freshman was decided by a wooden box! Using a Bluefruit, its accelerometer, a servo, LED lights and sounds, an incoming freshman can get placed into a random dorm, much like new Hogwarts students get randomly placed into different houses.

Link to project demonstration: https://youtube.com/shorts/SXOCXhU_dCc?feature=share

Electronics Used:

• CircuitPython Bluefruit microcontroller (Accelerometer and Neopixels)
• TowerPro SG92R Micro Servo
• Strip of LED Lights (30)
• Battery Pack containing AAA batteries

Materials:

• 1/4 Baltic Birch Wood

Tools and Consumables:

• Trotec Laser Cutter
• Scissors
• Hot Glue Gun
• Clear Tape
• Audacity Application (mac)

I used Mu Editor to code my project. You can download my code right here. Once the code was completed, I was able to build around the hardware that powered my project.

The second part of my project included me recording audio files through the computer app called Audacity. After these were recorded, I used an amplify effect to make them louder so they could be heard through my microcontroller. After the files were amplified to my liking, I exported them as .wav files to my computer so the play_sound function would work as intended. I added a sound to play for each freshman dorm.

NOTE: You do not need to record your own audio files for this project. You may use other sounds from the internet as long as they are .wav files!

The third step in my process was using the ElectronicsBox.svg file from boxes.py to program the laser cutter to cut my box exactly how I wanted it to. After that, I used Adobe Illustrator to make the .svg file compatible with the laser cutter that we have in the makerspace (stroke = 0.01mm, red = cut, black = engrave). Finally, cutting the box was really easy because the laser cutter essentially did all of the work for me.

After I cut the box, I had to glue it together. I glued everything together except for the top piece as I needed access to my electronics if anything was being faulty. After I had glued the box together (without the top), I put my electronics in the box and then had the LED lights run out of a hole in my box and around the entire outside of the box - which I then taped them down. Then, I taped my servo to the top piece where I needed it to be so the angles were correct. Finally, I taped the top piece to the rest of the box, and now everything is stabilized and works properly.