Total Time Spent: 17 Hours

June 14th- I spent some time researching parts, and thought about my idea. I just came up with a rough idea today overall to guide and think upon. I also completed the BOM just now. As well as the PCB layout. I will route it tomorrow.

Time Spent: ~4 Hours

June 15-

Today, I changed around the components a bit (ESP32 -> Arduino Nano) and got rid of the switch due to the rotary encoder having one built in. I did the routing for the PCB which took wayyy longer than expected especially with the footprints not working properly so I had like 15 errors. I had to manually edit the footprints but luckily it works now. I also completed the wiring diagram. After that, I designed the entire casing where I learned a lot of new things. I really like how the case came out, and I think it'll look cool. I think it needs some polishing to look a little cleaner which I will make sure to do. I had a lot of trouble with routing especially but I'm super proud of this PCB and hope it works. The wiring diagram is pretty basic since mostly everything is on the PCB.

The casing is pretty cool, there's a clamp on the top to hold the reed down, space in the front for the OLED, rotary encoder, and LED. In the back, there are vents for airflow and housing for the components with a sliding door to put the reed in.

Time Spent: ~12 Hours

June 16-

Polished up the 3d files, BOM, and other files to get it ready to submit. (Nothing large, just making sure everything is in the right place)

Time Spent: ~1 Hour

July 9-

I left all the parts to print overnight today. Tomorrow the goal is to speedrun building the entire project to bring to undercity.

Time Spent: ~1 Hour

July 17th

I printed all my files, and nothing fit lol.

Nothing, not the batteries, not the PCB, not the thumbscrew.

Absolutely nothing!

So I completely redesigned the entire case and now it's much thinner and better overall.

August 7th

Today I built the whole thing! Numerous things went wrong, it was horrible. First, the original microcontroller came broken. I tried to use an ESP32. But I needed 5V logic. So, I had to go with a random barely working arduino, my first ever. I'm glad that I had it though otherwise this project wouldn't have been possible. This first picture is me earlier today when I was wiring and everything was nice and happy in the world.

Then, disaster struck! My 18650 cell shorted itself and the wire insulation started dripping. I remember feeling a burn on my arm, looking back, seeing smoke coming out, and then cutting the wires immediately cause I was scared lol. It's okay though it all works now.

I watched over 30 episodes of Brooklyn 99 working on this I believe (this picture was taken at 3am), it was a fun time though, chilling, working on the project.

Finally I just finished the project. I tested it out on my saxophone, and it actually works pretty well! My tone is noticeably better and I can hit lower notes way easier.

Total Time Spent: 12 Hours