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Off the Breadboard - making the PPDD (Potential Peril Decider/Detector)

A project log for Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses

A version of the Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses (as described by Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

minimum-effective-doseMinimum Effective Dose 04/15/2014 at 18:560 Comments

It's time to move the hardware off the breadboard and turn it into a functional prototype.

Because we're making only the one to play with and there's no time to do things like a custom PCB, we're going to need to use a protoboard, have wires everywhere, and generally wind up with an end result that is much larger than it needs to be.  But it will work the way it is intended!

All the electronics and sensors will be in a centralized control box, except for the ambient light sensor.  I am trimming some plastic from the glasses and fitting it into the glasses frame.

Here is the light sensor peeking out from a hole in the top of the frame.  

It makes sense that the ambient light sensor needs to be out in the open. (All other sensors can be squirreled away to some extent.)

The glasses will be connected via an umbilical to the main control/sensor box - the PPDD (the Potential Peril Decider/Detector)

Here is the prototype PPDD all wired up onto an Arduino shield protoboard.

Some wiring and testing needs to be completed first.  Hopefully I haven't screwed anything up in the process of moving from breadboard to protoboard.

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