DISTANCE — Jeromey Schwartz

Distance Sensor

Class Project: Advanced Embedded Systems (Fall 21)

The main objective of this assignment was to make a digital distance measuring device that you can use to measure the size of a room. This device will be made using an MSP430 chip, but without the MSP430 Launchpad board (the board can be used to program the chip). The device to measure the distance can be an ultrasonic sensor, and the distance should be displayed on 7-segment LEDs.

This was the group capstone project for the class. We chose to accept the challenge of using PhD requirements which meant that the distance display needed to show 3 digits of precision. The goal was to simply put the circuit on a breadboard however this seemed like a fun challenge, so the night the project was assigned I mocked up the design on a breadboard and once I was able to get the distance measuring working (described how to trigger and read an HC-SR04 in the report) I designed the PCB and sent it off for fabrication. At this point the project was not even assigned/finalized however as I mentioned, I was enthusiastic about the challenge. Fortunately the PCB worked and none of the previously mentioned requirements changed therefore we completed the project weeks before it was due and even before it was assigned. I was asked to present the project to the class as an example of what was expected.

While designing the PCB I thought that a fun addition would be to add a laser pointer that way the user could tell exactly what they were measuring the distance of (in action this was not as obvious as it may first appear). With the addition of a laser module a mount needed to be designed and I thought it would be fun to make that mount look like an owl with the laser being its beak, the ultrasonic being the eyes, and the PCB being the body.