Load Detector System
As an undergraduate researcher at the Learning and Research Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh, I developed a load detector system to detect whether a user had plugged in a peripheral into the Hummingbird Bit microcontroller. The system consists of an interposer board extending the functionality of the original Hummingbird by the addition of a sensing pin. The sensing circuit consists of a ground loop that utilizes pull-up resistors at each input to detect whether a signal was pulled low. The data was transmitted and logged in real-time through a docker application that interacted with users via a dialogue system over the course of two days for a robotics camp for 11 middle-school aged girls of color.
Here is the interposer board designed to incorporate the additional sensing pin.
We needed to splice the ground of each peripheral to be compatible with our sensing circuit.
We needed to iterate on our 3D printed box design to include the barrel jack powering the micocontroller and the microBit.
We tested each circuit before putting them in the enclosure. We decided to omit the battery circuit due to reconsidering our young audience and our time constraints in the implementation and testing stages.
Due to time constraints in the design process, we manufactured the kits ourselves instead of sending them to a board house.
