For my final Pcomp project, I decided to play to my strengths. I knew I wasn't the best nor the most passionate "P-comper" so before I even thought of an idea I knew I wanted to do something that incorporated a sound trigger, a motor trigger, and light trigger. Those were there mechanisms I knew I knew how to do based on the labs and the midterm and that there was plenty information online to help me do it. Once I figured out the mechanisms I themed my projects around Lord of the Rings. I knew if I stuck to that theme, as a big LoTR fan, it would motivate me to do Tolkien's literary art justice. I spent a long time trying to perfect the fabrication of the project. I also made sure the books looked great because since I preemptively knew the Pcomp side wouldn't be as impressive as my peers' I had to showcase something really cool. I built books out of filing cabinets that would serve as the enclosure of my project. Inside the book, I chose to use physical computing to illustrate the second most famous line in the movies, "You Shall Not Pass" ("My precious;" being the first one). I wanted to create a mini Gandalf and a mini Balrog that would stand on a mini bridge of Kazadoom and once the book opened I would get Gandalf to speak out the famous line, Id get the bridge to collapse, and lights would flicker. After playtesting with my friends I got several cool ideas, including adding a ring light on the cover of the book. I built the physical computing part after completing the fabrication to my liking. Through a lot of help with my peers, especially my second year friends and resorting to the internet for help, I achieved what I initially had wanted. I found cool codes on the internet to trigger the lights I bought on adafruit.com in a flickering hellish way. Once I was satisfied with the mechanism I went to place it inside the enclosure. Thats where I went wrong. The wires were too long and would easily pop off my Arduino uno and the breadboard. I wanted to hide the wires and make my project look really pretty but every minor movement the wires would pop off. One socket of my UNO, the GND on the power section, that triggered the button, got fried with all the wire shoving. It wouldn't work unless the wire was in a very specific position. When I put the electric part inside the books the project would only work occasionally. That limited me from perfecting the position of the motor so the bridge would have a more seamless fall, and it limited me from turning in a project that looked finished and thats what I regret the most. Also if I didn't spend a whole day debugging the wires, nor two weeks doing the fabrication, I could have added some cooler elements that would make my project even more "alive." I wanted to add a neopixel strip line from Gandalf to where the bridge broke that would light up only as he was breaking the bridge. Overall I actually learned a lot doing this project and I really fell in love with fabrication. Im also in love with the possibilities that Pcomp can do, Im just not in love with doing it.
