Week of 4/27 - 5/1

This week, I split my working time between the Word Clock and the poster project.

For the Word Clock, we didn't have too much work left to do. All that was really left to complete it was to connect the wires from the LEDs to the power bar using the ring terminals we were waiting on. The ring terminals we needed came in this week, so we were able to use them to connect the wires to the power bar. We were able to use all of the terminals to connect them to the power bars within a day. The only problem we faced was a shortage of terminals, but we were able to use some that we got from Electrical to complete the job. After connecting them all and having to replace a few solid-core wires with multi-stranded ones in places that we hadn't done so yet, we were able to confirm that all of the terminals were properly connected.

After finishing the power bars, we attempted to turn on the Word Clock. Unfortunately, the first time, it did not work. We thought that it was an issue with the connections, seeing as that was the only thing we had changed from the last time we turned it on. But we were able to confirm that that wasn't the case. Later that day, though, Kim was able to figure out that it didn't turn on because of the WiFi issues the shop was facing that day. The code has to connect to the internet before it even begins to run, and since our WiFi was out, we had to wait until it was fixed to try it out. But once it was fixed, the Word Clock turned on! The power bars made a huge difference with the brightness of the LEDs; there were no more flickering lights, and all of them were incredibly bright. The only thing left for us to do is to get carpentry to hang the clock up for us.

Aside from the Word Clock, I continued to work on the poster I'm helping to make for Oliver. This week, I was able to glue the 3 hinges I printed out to the two panels of wood. Thankfully, it worked exactly as I wanted it to; the poster folds over on itself exactly the way I had intended, meaning the hinge I designed worked despite my worries.

After this, I designed the lettering that would be on the poster. I looked through some fonts that I thought matched the song lyric he wanted on the poster and found two very similar but ever so slightly different options that I thought would work well on the poster. After confirming the design with him, I cut out the letters and sanded away the burnt edges on all of the pieces. I hope to glue all of the letters onto the board on Friday so he can take it to finish it and use it in his promposal.