Lasers and PCBs (Week 10)

Although it is spring break, and despite the note last week, some progress was made on the progress this week, which the Road Watch team would like to share. Firstly, we believe we have solved our issue with the 1D to 2D LiDAR conversion. Some testing (see the first image below) indicates that the mirror used for the conversion was not large enough, and because the LiDAR we purchased had its transmitter (i.e. laser) and detector off-center, this would lead to some of the beam not being reflected depending on the angle of the mirror. Therefore, we are confident that this issue can be resolved by increasing the mirror size, which we will test next week. Additionally, revision 2 of the Detection Subsystem PCB and revision 1 of the Alert Subsystem PCB were completed and ordered, and arrived this week (see the second image below). The former was redesigned to address some issues and deficiencies of the first iteration, while the latter is needed for Prototype Inspection Day (PID) to show a complete system. As PID approaches, be sure to come back weekly to monitor our prgress.

Darrion and Will experimenting with the LiDAR (and green lasers) in the Electrical Engineering Junior Design Lab. This experimentation led to the potential breakthrough regarding the mirror size.
Revision 2 of the Detection Subsystem PCB (left) (created by Will), and revision 1 of the Alert Subsystem PCB (right) (created by Billy and Will). In the images, components were just placed on the board; no soldering has been done yet. Notice how both boards have a similar cutout region in their centers. This is a separate user interface board which connects via a cable to the main board and will allow the user to interact with the system via status LEDs and buttons.

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