Milestone project: Robot Glove (Final)

It finally works!

After many trials, the glove has finally worked. And here is a video of the glove working:

This glove is a modified version of my initial plan. I had to change a lot of things last minute due to several problems that I have faced.

Problems:

• Arduino Nano not working
• Lights not working
• Power bank not fitting in the glove

And here is how I fixed it:

The lights were the easiest to fix. I made the mistake of wiring them in series, when I should have wired them in parallel.

The power bank was a big problem, but I figured out I can just sew on a pocket to put it in.

The Arduino Nano not working was the biggest problem for me. My circuit and code were working perfectly with the Arduino Uno, but with the Nano the code wouldn't even upload, and it kept giving me an error. It gave the same error no matter how many new Nanos I had or whichever computer I used.  I even ended up buying a new Nano just incase the batch at school was faulty, but that didn't work either. The problem must have been with the new version of the Arduino IDE itself, as according to Bryan it has worked in the past.

This is how I felt the whole time:

What I decided to do was rework my design to work with the Arduino Uno instead. I made a pocket for it and the circuit on the outside of the glove, attached with velcro (this was all very last minute as I had no idea that the new Nano that I bought wouldn't work either, so please ignore my awful stitching).

The problem with using velcro rather than having everything built in, is that it is difficult to put on yourself. During the class presentation, I had to ask for assistance to put it on. I asked for a member of the audience to pick a song, and I did a dance to it with the glove lights syncing up to it as intended. It was a bit difficult to press the buttons as I had to move them from my palm to my wrist unlike the original plan.

Unfortunately, I did not record my performance. 

Overall this was a very intense project for me due to all the challenges that I faced along the way. In a perfect world, I would have been able to use the Arduino Nano as I intended, and make all the electronics concealed. 

If I were to remake this project, I would use an ATTiny85 instead of the Nano, and use electronics made specifically for wearables. I could also improve the design by using an LED strip instead of individual LED lights, which would allow for more colors and effects.