Shriya Sane

Quarter 3 Journal

Summary of Quarter
The majority of my work at my internship site this quarter was independent building
work. I was either writing and testing code, constructing a circuit/breadboard, or assembling my
PCB. Now that my device is nearing completion, I hope to be able to answer my research
question by providing a schematic or data that supports the hypothesis of my initial design. If the
data supports it, I will be able to claim that the decentralized, modular feedback system was the
best way to tackle this particular engineering problem since I can combine my own data as well
as existing literature that analyzes the efficiency of each of the components I used.
The major assignments I completed this quarter were the SLC research proposal and bio,
and annotated bibs. I also have completed the majority of my synthesis paper with the exception
of the data collection section, which will be conducted once my PCB is fully in operating
condition, which will be sometime around late March.
At my mentorship site this year, the biggest lesson I continue to learn is independence.
Unlike last year, there wasn’t a lot of structure already in place for me to support myself. Instead,
I had to build everything from the ground up, including the research idea. Although it was very
challenging to wrap my head around at first, I’m very grateful that this is something that I’m
learning early on in the research process. I can already see my improvement with working on a
challenging problem through the iterative process. I don’t yearn for consistent guidance
anymore, but am able to use the resources that Arik has recommended in order to solve smaller
problems on my own. This includes code bugs, circuit breaks, and other simple issues that can be
identified through a little bit of testing.

Reflection on Quarter
I think this quarter was one of the hardest to push through and complete because of all of
the stress of deadlines and colleges. While I would like to say it did not affect my mentorship at
all, I definitely know that I let “senioritis” get the best of me a few times. I remain diligent in
attending my internship and completing my tasks to the expectations of my mentor and myself,
but sometimes I find myself delaying small, simple tasks because I just face such a lack of
motivation. The best example of this would probably be my journals for this quarter. I would
absolutely have to force myself to jot down at least a couple of words about what tasks I
accomplished at my internship every time I went to the lab, because I would just be too
exhausted to write a full journal entry. At the end of the quarter, I ended up going back through
and turning those few bullet-pointed phrases into proper paragraphs. This has been a common
trend among all of my classes, but I feel that it definitely hit mentorship the hardest because of
how independent and self-paced this class is.
As far as my internship goes, I think I am making great progress on the project at hand,
especially since I am constructing something from scratch. I’m not used to such a hands-off,
unstructured environment where you can really do anything you want, but I’m really getting the
hang of things. I think this was honestly a great experience before going into college, because
based on what I have heard, college is a lot like this internship. You only get out what you put
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into everything, and I’m glad I got acquainted with such an environment before undergrad. I’m a
little behind on data collection, since I had to wait for my PCB to get manufactured and I’m also
completing a team’s worth of work alone, but I have hopes that I will be finished and testing the
device by the end of March. My synthesis paper is ready with the exception of the data collection
piece, so after that is complete I’ll be good to turn everything in.

Hours Log

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 74
Today I created separate peripheral and central module files in order to allow for transmission between
the two. The main adaptation that was necessary between the existing transmitter-receiver code and this
new iteration was that the neither module was solely a transmitter or receiver. The peripheral had to
transmit the coordinates of its MPU motion sensor to the central module, but then the central module had
to perform a calculation to determine whether or not this was “in-bounds” and then transmit that back to
the peripheral so that it could carry out vibration feedback if necessary. This was a little tricky to
implement, but I got a very rough working idea of what it would look like on the IDE by the end of today.

Thursday, February 9, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 77
Today I continued working on creating separate peripheral and central module codes, and adapted it to fit
two peripherals communicating with the same central. I thought this would pose a significant problem
since one NRF module is not capable of carrying out two separate receiving/transmitting functions
simultaneously, but I was able to modify the data rate to be fast enough where this didn’t matter.
Essentially, the modules were communicating so rapidly that it seemed simultaneous even though there
was a few-millisecond delay in real life.

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 80
Today we finalized a preliminary code for the central and peripheral modules through the Arduino IDE.
We used the baseline code I had developed for simple data transmission and receival and adapted it to fit
the MPU motion sensor so that it could transmit and receive physical coordinates. In the future, the next
step is to build a mock PCB on a breadboard to test the code before the final PCB gets manufactured and
comes back.

Thursday, February 16, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
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Cumulative Hours: 83
Today we built a mock circuit on a breadboard in order to test the general success/failure of our code. It
was a very messy circuit, with lots of protruding wires and devices, but it accomplished the central goal.
The PCB will be a much cleaner way of designing the module. Since the tracks weren’t in-built into the
breadboard, it took a lot of work to manually create each connection with male-female wires, and attach
all of the wires to their respective connections on the components.

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 86
Today I just continued working on the mocked breadboard, since there was a lot of confusion about wired
connections last time. Essentially, I just ripped out everything we had done before and started afresh with
a new set of wires and clean breadboards. This time, I mocked each necessary connection on a whiteboard
before I began, and this made things a lot easier to keep track of. I was able to create all necessary
connections on the first try, which demonstrates the power of planning!

Thursday, February 23, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 91
As I began to get back into the groove of PCB design, I mainly watched a lot of background videos and
refreshed my memory on the KiCAD software. I went over the process we had used during the
intersession class, and re-familiarized myself with platforms like DigiKey, that I will use in order to find
and export each components’ schematic. I also watched a lot of KiCAD tutorials on things like edge
cutting, silk screening, ground filling, and more in order to be well prepared for designing the most
efficient and successful PCB possible.

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 94
The majority of today was spent on finding each component of the modules on platforms like DigiKey.
Essentially, I would look up the part specification, such as “MPU6050 Motion Sensor with Gyroscope &
Accelerometer” and then try to find a 3D schematic for that part on DigiKey. Once I found it, I could
export it to KiCAD and try to lay it out nicely on the virtual PCB so that everything fit snug and tight. I
repeated this same process for all six components of the modules.

Thursday, March 2, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 97
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Today I almost finished the PCB schematic file for the circuit board. After finding and uploading each
component we would need on the board, I arranged them all spatially on the PCB so that they were
space-efficient, and I began work on routing. I tried numerous times to connect all the pieces, but I was
running into issues with orientation of certain components. For example, the microcontroller has the most
connections out of all other pieces, but every way in which I placed it on the PCB resulted in at least one
connection getting blocked. Honestly, I think I just need a break and clear mind before I attempt to tackle
this puzzle again.

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 100
Today I worked on final modifications to my own PCB file for the device we are designing. I routed
everything on the back copper fill due to a technical limitation that JHU’s PCB manufacturing device has,
added a ground fill to connect all the ground pins, and spaced out all the wires to prevent any merging.
This took quite a while since routing and filling is a bit of a puzzle and takes a lot of trial-and-error.

Thursday, March 2, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 103
Today I added finishing touches to the PCB schematic and design, and routed the whole board. There was
a recurring issue with the PCB, since the wires were getting in the way of each other. The whole board
was like a puzzle, and I was trying to connect each piece together on a finite amount of board space.
Eventually, I was able to route the whole thing and sent the final file to Arik in order to be sent to
manufacturing! We can expect the finished product to come in around two weeks!

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 106
While waiting for the PCB to deliver, we are testing the existing code on the makeshift
breadboard-versions of the device. Essentially, a very messy and wired circuit is present around large
breadboards, and we are uploading our code to each of the respective Arduinos to test the transmission of
gyroscopic data wirelessly. There are quite a few kinks, including inconsistent data supply, noise, and
failed component tests, which we are attempting to fix by doing things like adding capacitors, increasing
inductance, and of course, editing the code.

Thursday, March 9, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 109
As we continue to wait for the PCBs to be manufactured, we are still in the process of testing code for the
components. Most of it was ironed out as of today, but the only problem seemed to be that the delays in
each peripheral transmission module were causing infrequent supplies of data to the central module. I
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played with the delay timings on each set of code, but the central was still only receiving data once every
half of a second. Arik suggested adding a second capacitor to the NRF to reduce noise, so I will try that
next time.

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 112
Like last time, I continued working on the transmission code to iron out the remaining kinks. I soldered a
second capacitor to both NRFs, and retested it with that. This significantly reduced noise and caused
much more consistent, frequent transmissions! I still wanted to ramp up data speed, but I was happy with
the results after a few more trials of transmission testing. Now all there’s left to do is wait for the PCBs!

Thursday, March 16, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 115
The PCBs came in from the manufacturing plant!! Arik ordered 10 pieces, and seeing them laid out in
front of me was so cool after seeing them in three dimensions on my laptop screen for so long. Arik
demonstrated the assembly of one PCB in front of me, and he made it look way simpler than it was. We
had to use soldering wire to attach the switch, MPU, NRF, Arduino Nano, vibration motor, and battery
onto the manufactured circuit board. It definitely took some getting used to, but thankfully because of the
KiCAD class I had done earlier, I was able to pick it up very fast. I soldered one full PCB today.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 118
I spoke with Arik today regarding his experiences as a Hopkins BME undergraduate and graduate student,
and he provided a lot of helpful insight and feedback. In addition, I assembled the third peripheral board,
which will actually act as the central module. It had all the same components as the other peripherals,
since I want all pieces to be as interchangeable as possible. I followed the same procedure that Arik
demonstrated last time, and it was a relatively monotonous and simple day (filled with a lot of soldering
fumes).

Friday, March 24, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 121
The primary reason I went into the lab today was in order to talk to Dr. Thakor regarding the Hopkins
BME program. I emailed him a while back asking if he would be available to discuss, and he was very
 Shriya Sane

kind in setting up a meeting with me. In addition to speaking with him, I began testing the wireless
communication of the three boards that we had already constructed. Peripheral 1 and Peripheral 2 seemed
to be working perfectly, but the third board was not. I asked Arik for some troubleshooting points, and he
suggested using a simpler version of the code to assess whether the NRF module on Peripheral 3 was
properly functioning. I will perform this task next week, after which the device should be ready for
testing!

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

1:30PM - 4:30PM
Cumulative Hours: 124
Today was primarily all about assembling as many PCBs as possible. We soldered the Arduino Nano,
NRF, MPU, switch, capacitor, vibration motor, and sensor onto the PCB for the central module and the
first two peripherals. This was tricky because surface mount soldering with paste, which is what I have
experience with, is very different from soldering the components using a soldering wire and iron. It was
very tricky to place the solder exactly where it was intended to be, and oftentimes I had to use a copper
trace to pull the solder out of an unintended circuit hole and redo it. Overall, by the end of the day, I had
successfully soldered 5 PCBs! This is the exact number I needed for there to be one central module and
four peripherals! From here, we can begin testing!