Study Hermie!

Diagram
Hermie!

Inspiration

Our inspiration itself serves from what all four of us shared in common: being students. As students we find ourselves distracted and wanting to find a way to remedy our attention span and find motivation to study, which is where Study Hermie comes in. The mascot/character of the crab itself comes from the crab mascot we saw during the HackGT 13 Opening Ceremony!

What it does

Hermie is a doomscrolling student's best friend. You can put your phone or a sweet treat into its drawer compartment of treasures, and make sure that Hermie has on the desired shell. Hermie is already ready and giving the user a pencil. To activate the lock mechanism, the user should lift the pencil out of Hermie's claws, effectively keeping distractions out and leaving no excuses to not study. After the said time is done, the user should put the pencil back into Hermie's claws in order to unlock the drawer. When time is up for the focus session, Hermie will let out a series of beeps in a song to let the user know that it is time for their reward. Repeat as necessary!

How we built it

Electrical
Everything was assembled on a breadboard and all components were handpicked based off of the features that we wanted Hermie to have. The following components are as follows:

Light Sensors: To detect whether or not the pencil has been lifted from Hermie's claws.
RFID Reader: To detect the timer based off of the shell that is put on Hermie.
RFID Tags: The tags were placed in the shells, each tag presenting a unique amount of time, which the user can adjust in the software.
LCD Screen: Hermie's face! You can watch a diverse range of expressions as it processes the world around it.
Servo Motors: Serves as the locking mechanism for the drawer compartment.
-Passive Buzzer: Serves as Hermie's voice to alert the user that the focus session is over.
-ESP32: The microcontroller that serves as the brain for everything!
Mechanical
Everything was designed from sketches on paper to CAD in SolidWorks, which was then 3D printed and assembled with the electronics.
Software
We programmed an ESP-32 board along with its own webserver in order to control the time set on Hermie's shell, as well as playing background music, setting the studying ambiance for the user.
## Challenges we ran into
We ran into several challenges, from mechanical design to firmware debugging. Designing something that was durable and large enough to hold something such as a smartphone, but still trying to be concise and limiting as much free space as possible to make fabrication a smoother process.
One of the biggest issues we ran into was firmware debugging, and trying to find out electrical/software issues in why certain components weren't working. Sometimes it was the current draw, or that we weren't getting enough voltage (or even too much, at one point!). We decided that our best approach for this challenge was to try one component at a time, and build our way up towards the full product, which isolated certain issues with components, and made it easier in our final assembly as well.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're super proud that we were able to get an actual robot / demoable product done in the amount of time we were given! Additionally, we're also really proud of the fact that this is a product that we would definitely use, especially as exams season is coming upon us.

What we learned

We learned how the mechanical, electrical, and software subsystems intertwine with each other, and how to debug embedded systems. Additionally, we also learned a lot of design elements as well as CAD techniques in order to make our product with our best efforts!

What's next for Study Hermie!

The next steps for Study Hermie would be to have upgraded hardware and a more characterized design for the chassis and it's LCD screen expressions, focusing in on Hermie's personality.