Week 3

Acquisition of Items

We have successfully contacted Joseph, the student who did this same project 2 years ago. For us, he has:

• A MIDI keyboard
• A cable from the MIDI to a USB
• An Arduino
• A cable from the Arduino to a USB
• A Sound Shield
• A cable from the Sound Shield to a USB

We are going to obtain all of these, and try to figure them out without Joseph's help; but if we need assistance he assured us that he can help.

Fusion 360

Even though it is unrelated to our project, this Friday is the deadline for the Fusion 360 project. It was a large time investment for this class, so we want to talk about it a little bit since not much happened related to our project this week.

Fusion 360 by Autodesk

We taught ourselves how to use the program, and our general consensus was that the project was a nuisance at first because nobody was interested in learning the software at first, but we had to because it was a class requirement. We all still have doubt that we will receive the $250 promised to us by Professor Brandon Terranova, but it's in the past now.

Th program was almost fun by the end, because it felt like an art project. Cassandra's favorite part of the program is the "As-Built Joint" option for assembly, and how easy it is to change the material/appearance of the components. The as-built joint function was helpful because it was much easier to place design components visually than making specific slots and surfaces that have to fit together or else it won't attach. Albert liked Fusion 360 because it's much simpler to use than CREO Parametric. 

Cassandra made a left-handed bass guitar (Image 1), Albert made a table with rotating chairs, and Jeremy made a coffee maker. 

Image 1: Cassandra's Left-Handed Bass Guitar

Overall Thoughts

This program is much easier and more aesthetically pleasing to use than CREO Parametric, which wa the program we were taught in ENGR 100 during fall term. If we need to use computer-aided design for a project in our future, this is