November - Taking on the Earthquake Simulator

There was a secret final step to software training involving ODrive motors (figure 1), so I wasn’t immediately able to work on a project. Because the instructions for this step had not been written down, I needed to work with Mr. PZ to learn how ODrive motors worked. ODrive motors can be run by interacting with the terminal and are overall more responsive than stepper motors. After familiarizing myself with rotating the motor through the terminal, I began using custom libraries to achieve the same results with code. I was then able to receive a project and begin working.

Mr. PZ decided that I will be taking on the Earthquake Simulator (figure 2) as my capstone project. The Earthquake Simulator is designed to simulate oscillating earthquake movements through the use of stepper motors. The exhibit was going through electrical maintenance, so I decided to focus on updating its user interface. I discovered that, somewhere in the program, there was an object using deprecated image properties: keep_ratio and allow_stretch. Thinking that the source was DPEAButton.kv, I decided to replace the use of BorderImage with RoundedRectangle and simplify other areas. Upon closer inspection, I realized that an unused screen, PauseScreen, was the true source of the deprecated properties; I removed the screen to avoid encountering the error again. Finally, I touched up the UI by making its colors more visually appealing and adding the value_track property to sliders (figure 3).

DELTAs:
Time management and prioritization: While the Earthquake Simulator’s motor wiring was undergoing electrical maintenance, I had to prioritize other tasks to remain productive. Instead of working with the stepper motors, I updated the UI’s appearance and removed deprecated properties. This ensured that I was making as much progress as possible.

Crafting an inspiring vision: Mr. PZ let students know that he wanted to make a website specifically for software training. Because I love website design, I offered to help. One thing he emphasized was improving the structure of training, so I decided to take the initiative and make a Google Form (figure 3) to collect as much feedback as possible. This way, we know what students found helpful and what needed improvement.