Gigaleaf Post 9

The top 5 things my project needs to do are as follows

1. Display pretty light patterns
2. Look minimalistic
3. Have good UI/UX
4. Be integrated with Spotify
5. Be integrated with Rekordbox

For light patterns, I want it to look pretty and eye-catching while also working with the minimalist aesthetic. I am thinking of using 2 color perlin noise to create a soft but unique time-varying look. This is the most important part of the project to get right since the lights will be the most prominent part of the project.

Second is I want it to look minimalistic. In the photo above, it is unfinished and if you look closely, you can see exposed wires and PCBs. I think this clashes with minimalism and doesn’t look as nice. I want to be able to cover everything and make it look nice.

Third is I want the controls to make sense and work like Apple products. Right now, using it is like using EES and it feels terrible.

Lastly, a music mode with Spotify or Rekordbox would be nice, but I think I need to keep this out of scope in order to deliver a well-polished design with a good aesthetic.

I just received the new control board in the mail today. I have not had a chance to test it, but I have my fingers crossed and hope nothing smokes.

Unfortunately, due to RF (radio frequency) constraints, the Wifi antenna had to stick out of the side and it caused the board to have a funny shape. I am not sure if I can hide this in the final project.

The biggest constraints are time and ideas. Ordering a PCB with assembly takes about 2 weeks from order to arrival. This means I really need to plan ahead and a mistake in a PCB can cost 2 weeks of time. I am also time-crunched as my role in senior design has massively ramped up over the last few days. The other one is ideas. I am an engineer and I don’t have as much creativity to invent pretty eye-catching light patterns to be displayed.