- Make a hole so that the potentiometer in the transmitter is accessible
- It is possible we would want to make the channel selectors accessible. At the very least we should make the selector on the receiver more accessible so that we do not have to remove the board to access it.
- Make the mini USB in the receiver stick farther out so the hole for it does not have to be as big. (The current hole is the size it is to accommodate for the size of the end of the USB chord.)
- Add heat shrink tubing around the infrared LED. This narrows the beam so that the door minder registers more breaks when it is supposed to. Without the tubing, breaks would sometimes not register when the walker walks too close to the transmitter. Note that the current door minders can be retrofitted with this change.
- Make holes for power switches smaller and create some sort of label to indicate which side is on and which side is off.
- Make mounting holes for the battery packs the right distance apart. They are currently a little too close together (but the packs still mount just fine).
- We may want double battery holders which hold the batteries more firmly. The single battery pack on the transmitter board holds the battery very firmly, whereas the batteries will come out of the double packs if they are hit hard enough. So far this hasn’t been a problem
- The lowest 100k resistor on the transmitter board should be moved farther from the mounting hole to prevent the spacer from rubbing against it.
- Move the potentiometer on the transmitter board farther from the infrared LED, as they are currently touching.
August 13, 2010
Changes to make for the next generation of door minders
1 Comment »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Talk with Deepti to find out if there were other issues in the hospital that we need to consider.
Check the doorframe width to see if a wider, shallower profile would help.
In context, would more rounding improve the aesthetics of the design?
Measure the power draw from both devices and consider other battery arrangements. We like the 2 week lifespan, but can the batteries be smaller?
Add a low power LED on transmitter as feedback for when the transmitter is broadcasting.
Remove the channel, because it doesn’t do anything.
Write a manual. Include a section on the properties of the infrared beam, based on stuff you look up in books and little experiments to see what the beam reflects off of and shines through (e.g., the doctor gowns, jeans, laptops, plastic, dark-colored clothes). Perhaps use TelosB user guide as a reference.
Comment by gthomas — August 16, 2010 @ 10:54 am