Week 10: March 13th - March 19th

Individual Log - Zach

Following a group meeting on March 15th, goals for the next two weeks were determined and assigned to each group member. This week I focused on finalizing power specs and revised engineering specifications for the Thermostat. After this, I did some research into circuit protection (detailed in the selected AC/DC converters datasheet), methods for controlling the backlight and possibly the LCD itself by using an NPN transistor as a switch, and proximity sensors for touchless activation.

Later in the week, I outlined a workflow for the thermostat and how testing and assembly would be performed in stages so that this could be input into the GANTT and weekly timelines.

Modification to the LCD screen and I2C bus were done so that the backlight could be controlled through a GPIO, and some initial testing was performed on the LCD to determine the current draw of the backlight to compare with the found specifications of the Hitachi HD44780.

**Note: it was later determined that this modification may be unnecessary, the jumper located at the top left of the photo will be a better option for implementing a transistor control switch.

To conclude the week, I prepared the Arduino by installing an API and installing the IDE for sketches.