Compsculp DUI Data Project

This is a collaborative computer science and sculpture project. The project was focused on live data collection from The Chicago Data Portal API DUI arrests to then update a sculpture every hour. Ariana Lopez was my sculpture partner.

• 1 Particle Argon
• 1 Breadboard
• 1 Wall Wart (Power Supplier)
• 7 Neo-Pixel LEDS.
• 1 Stepper Motor
• 1 Stepper Motor control board
• Wires
• Glue Gun
• Cardboard

For this project I used live data that was retrieved from the Chicago Data Portal using 4 separate web hooks, in this case I would sort through the data for instances of DUI arrests in the Arrest API. I would retrieve 4 numbers every hour for each of the 4 possible charges, then this would trigger LED lights to turn on inside of my police car, as well as having the moon spin every hour to represent time has passed.

The Breadboard has the argon micro controller attached to it. The first step was to find everything that I was going to use and wire it up, in this case I had to wire a Stepper motor alongside it's control board to a Breadboard. I also attached small wires between the positive and negative ends of both sides of the rails.

An important step of this project was soldering all the wires for the Neo-Pixel, I would have to solder a wire to the 5v, GND, and Digital pin to connect the lights, this step was repeated 4 times for the moon that I had connected as it was 4 - single neopixels connected together in a circular fashion. Hardest part of this was being careful to not burn the copper pad or have the solders connect together.

To put all the finished wires and components I put the Argon and the Breadboard on the back of the box and hot glued them into place. I would then attach the moon to the top right of the back of the inside of the box and pokes holes right behind it to connect the wires to the Breadboard. I would then attach the police light LED strip to the police car and poke holes on the side of the box to then again attach it to the Breadboard. The inside of the box was created by my sculpture partner Ariana, which consists of a police car, half of a crashed car, a tree, grass, and the moon.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/153FgLGVfrhfDn_ZK5hivuaZJnr_IzAi4/view?usp=sharing

Link to video of the final project, the Stepper motor does not spin as intended, I have deemed the problem to be either a coding issue or the Stepper motor itself, I have ran test code on the Stepper and it does not spin at all, however the motor board seems to be fine as well as the wiring.