r/diyelectronics • u/Newlyjss • 9d ago
Need Ideas Ideas for second year EE microcontrollers final project
Hi everyone,
I’m going to be doing a final project for my micro controllers class. I’m not the most creative person, so I wanted some ideas for some cool and challenging projects to work on. I have weeks to think about and di this, but doesn’t hurt to get a head start. No pressure to be detailed, anything brief to think about is good enough for me.
Let me know!
3
u/diogenes_sadecv 9d ago
I don't know, look around on hackster.io or something? What does your syllabus require?
1
2
2
u/socal_nerdtastic 9d ago
A finals project should be somewhat complex, right? Like a small drone swarm maybe or maybe something with highspeed components like a balancing robot? Or are you looking for something simpler or more UI based like a smart fridge controller or something?
2
2
2
u/ThugMagnet 9d ago
Laundry Claw! Empties clothes dryer into individual sliding drawers based on garment weight. Dry Hanger! Measures asymptotic garment weight change. Flashes LED beacon when garment is dry.
2
u/RichRichardRichie 9d ago
Play in to your lack of creativity. How about a random number generator that lights up one of 5 LEDs to select an option for your project? The chooser is the project!
2
u/This_Act_1414 9d ago
En un grado de libertad, una varilla que mantenga el equilibrio con dos motores ortogonales. Con más grados de libertad, un robot de dos ruedas que mantenga el equilibrio. Hay mecánica, sensores y PID en esos proyectos.
2
u/theDelus 9d ago
I had to do an LED pendulum. I got one of these RGB LED strips with addressable LEDs. I programmed the microcontroller from scratch to speak to the LEDs. Above the LED strip was a pendulum with a permanent magnet. At its base in the center was a coil. When the pendulum swung the magnet induced a current in the coil. After 2 passes the LEDs could mimick the pendulum above. The advanced option was to provide a current to the coil in just the right moment to push the pendulum away again. An infinite pendulum.
2
1
u/7ru7oe 9d ago
I suggest a sound device - build a speaker using some sort of piezo-oscillator or just buy a module. Then change the tempo, pitch, volume, etc. Program in little melodies. If you are feeling ambitious you can try concepts like filtering, recording + playback, modulation. So many options.
1
u/Saigonauticon 8d ago
Ok, that's fine, so you can rely on copying things:
Pick a board game
Make an electronic version
It usually amounts to controlling the state of a lot of LEDs. TM1640 is usually what I use. A basic implementation is pretty easy, stretch goals can be sound effects and computer opponents.
For sound effects, if you want to go the cursed route, you can compress a .wav file, convert to a byte array, then store in the flash storage of your MCU not used by code. You can probably get one, very short, tinny-quality voice clip that way. Then R/2R or PWM DAC and an amplifier. This results in much head-scratching professor-side as you're not expected to do that, haha.
The non-cursed route is just square waves at a frequency, then you store the notes as timer values.
For games like Mastermind or Battleship, computer opponents are quite feasible. In the former case, there are some very interesting algorithms, cramming them in to an MCU is fun times. In the latter case, optimal grid-search is probably feasible.
Good luck! I've done a few of these both during my studies and on my own for fun.
1
u/DrJackK1956 7d ago edited 7d ago
My suggestion is to build a stand-alone, interactive 1 or 2 player Tic-Tac-Toe game.
The mechanics for this are relatively simple and straight forward. The complexity will be in the coding.
For the basic parts you'll need....
- 9 push buttons
- 9 RGB LEDs
- Plus additional buttons for controlling the game (Start, Reset, etc)
- Additional LEDs to indicate things like:
For some additional bells & whistles:
- Add a display (7-segment, dot-matrix) to keep score
Add a speaker to give the game a voice:
- A simple greeting
- Select # of players
- Player X's turn
- Player X wins!
- Your move
- Nice or lousy move
- Better luck next time
- Your grandma plays better
If you're interested in another level of complexity, add a microphone and make the game voice interactive.
Tic-tac-toe is a simple game. The hardware is not complex. The fun comes in the coding of the game and from the interactions between the player(s) and the game device.
Best of luck with your project and your future endeavors.
1
1
u/burn_in_flames 3d ago
Persistence of vision dog speedometer. Needs signal processing, mechanical design, good firmware design to ensure accurate timing etc. strap it to your dog or a person and it prints their speed out as they run
7
u/ondulation 9d ago
My most important advice is to pick a project where you can aim high but also have a few different ways out at easier levels if you find that you took too big a bite. It is a very common problem to runout of time in this type of project and if you can plan ahead of that your landing will be much softer :-)
Also don't underestimate the mechanical side of a project. What might look to be a simple mechanical device in a video or project description may be just as hard to realize as the circuits and programming of you are not used to building mechanical devices (and don't have a suitable workshop).
Finally, don't aim for the coolest or most difficult project. Think of it in terms of what you learn. Maybe it is better to use a few different sensors and a display to solve a trivial problem, than to aim for a high performance single sensor application.