Week 9 has been another successful week for our team. We spent a lot of time on researching, planning, and developing a prototype for prototype day in the coming weeks. Both hardware and software development is taking place by different members on our team. Multiple meetings with various members of the company were held where productive conversation regarding these project decisions took place.

One of our most important developments this week was regarding the gateway. Justin played a large part in finally making the device operational and demonstrated it’s functionality to the team. The Raspberry Pi had a device mounted to it that contained an antenna and a decoder. With multiple programs running- one for listening, one for interpreting, and one for saving- the Pi was able to save information every 30 seconds. The Pi was connected to an external display so we could see the programs running in real time.

Another important development consisted of gaining access to a pre-existing dashboard developed by a previous team to work on the project. Sam played a large role in this, eventually being able to log in after weeks of issues. Work related to the structuring of a database and the protocols used for access were also completed this week.

We envision our prototype will consist of a few nodes with sensors, a central gateway, and a cloud server where information can be accessed. In the coming week, we will work to program the nodes with proper firmware to establish a radio frequency with the gateway. We will also have to compile the data sent in the cloud server and ensure it is easily accessible. With these milestones being achieved, Brick by Bit will have an impressive and functional prototype in time for prototype day!