Start: 5:30

• Due to the tediousness of how I was testing the sounds and not being to sure which sounds were wanted, I put together a way to test sounds easier.  I cut the headphones port off of some broken headphones I have so I can hook the speaker to my computer to test the sounds using a keyboard software on my computer.
• I found that the poor sound quality is a problem with the hardware.  I am not sure how I had clean sounds at one time but I will have to examine what I am doing to see if I can fix the problem.  Sadly that test was done way before I started taking pictures.
• The connection works so I can demo various sounds and pitch much more easily than before so we can determine what works best.
• Looking at entries made in October of last year the problem seemed to be with midi shields.  The ground is not connected to a pin directly  as most shields would.  Maybe this ground can be attached in a different way.
• Did a test with the extra boards I have, apparently the boards have more then 2 layers of traces.  All the ground ports work as ground and the one I am using is for the negative of the signal which may not be filtered properly like the others.  Plugging a headphone into this proved this theory.  When I touch the ground to the negative of the speaker it buzzes but when I touch it to the other ground ports it does not.
• Sound quality issue has been resolved.  I tested it using my test_sensor sketch and it seems all fingers work fine.  Vibration quality is much better volume might be a bit lower or maybe its just the low notes used in the test.
• Correction sound quality is mostly resolved.  Still need the improvements to resonance discussed in the previous entry.
• The case came in looks really cool
• Need to add rubber to where the metal touches the wood.  It might be best to get rid of the metal entirely.
• There is plenty of room to add a wooden plank where the drive bay would be to have a hollowed out section
• Power supply works as expected.  The fan is nice and quiet.  On the molex connector, red is the 5 volt line and yellow is the 12 volt line.
• I don’t think the reset method of the midi is working properly.  Perhaps the delay needs to be longer.
• Seems there are a few other issues that need to be worked out.  I am not certain why the fingers match u in my sketch but don’t seem to in this one.  I will have to examine the sketch a bit closer tomorrow and compare it to mine.  I will also make sure that mine is actually working.

End: 2:00

Start: 10:00

• Problems with sound quality cannot be resolved on the current design.  When I had one finger attached firmly to my desk it sounded perfect as if it was coming from a regular speaker.  The current design has way to much rigid area to resonate anything but the highest frequencies well.  This makes the high pitch sound of the white noise much more apparent.
• Thoughts on new design:

1. Make individual fingers and attach them directly to the wood box
2. The connection must be very firm and insulated by some type of hard rubber
3. I think some type of C clamp is optimal as very little energy is lost from the screw holes but if screws are needed they should be thick and the hole should also be insulated with rubber.  Large washers are needed to ensure the maximum amount of area is in contact with the wood.
4. If there is room and the top of the box comes off easily enough, a hollow section could be added for further resonance.

• Movement sounds:  I think for movement the goblin sounds are good.  They provide a very airy sound that does not create a lot of vibration.  Soundtrack may also be good for the same reasons.  Muted trumpet has a kinda robotic sound to it on the low end.  Polysynth might also do.
• Contact sounds: Crystal sounds maybe
• I came up with a  better way to test sounds quicker.  I should have a better list with more specific number by the time you get in tomorrow.

End: 6:00

Start: 12:00

• Bought some connectors and ribbon cable.   I am not sure how to mount them as they use different shapes for pins.  I will have to see if I can find a footprint that matches up in the pad to pad software.
• Downloaded the source for the ardino side
• Spent some time getting familiar with the code and tried out  a couple sounds.

End: 6:00

Start 10:00

• Confirmed that hp/compaq is my least favorite computer manufacturer.  Not only have I replaced more hard drives out of these brands than any other but they use proprietary power supplies and mother boards.  This power supply has a different pin configuration and the power on works in a way that is mysterious to me and probably needs the motherboard to do it.  A standard power supply you can jump the power on to the ground and it powers up.  This one the power on is set low by default instead of high.  There was a 5v hot line that I thought might pull this high to turn it on but I got no results.
• The good news is this should definitely work for our purposes with a standard power supply.  Independent of the large p1 connector, each of the little  4-pinmolex connectors output both 5 and 12 volts.  This means I can put one of these ports, the same as hard drives use, on the board to plug in the power.  A SPST(single pole single throw) switch can be used to turn the supply on or off.  Here is a youtube video on it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29vhuKbwLno
• Phil found a really cool wooden case for the electronics.  If we attach the devise firmly too it, we should get very good sound quality.
• I found the auto routing function for trace routing.  I tested it on a dummy circuit I made to see how it works.  Basically you set up the net and it does it.  We’ll see how well it does on the actual circuit as its much more complex

End: 6:00