IWishIWasACyb.org

Inspiration

We've attended hackathons before, but had never used microcontrollers before. We wanted to learn how to use these tools while creating something that we ourselves would use.

What it does

DashWall is a wall display with home diagnostics at-a-glance. It displays the time, and uses its sensors to determine the indoor temperature, sump pump water levels, and changes its brightness depending on ambient light levels.

How we built it

We built DashWall using Windows 10 IoT on a Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c, using a Microchip as a makeshift ADC to interface with our sensors.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into an issue with transferring data from the Microchip to the DragonBoard that remained unsolved for several hours, eventually being solved by the addition of a ground wire between the microcontrollers. This was definitely a lesson we won't forget when using microcontrollers in the future!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We finished what we outlined in our MVP! Time display and sensor-driven temperature and adaptive brightness!

What we learned

DON'T FORGET THE GROUND.

What's next for DashWall

We're looking forward to integrating more sensors and helpful APIs for things like displaying todo lists and weather forecasts.

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