Online sketching
I have utilised various online sketching tools to capture my initial design idea's for my electronic casing to house all the components. Some of the online tools were more successful than others in terms of usability and tools available.
The best online online sketching tool I experimented with is 'Pencil madness' at http://pencilmadness.com/pencil_madness There was a variety of different pencil and effects to shade and create forms. In terms of design, I experimented with triangular shapes and how i could piece them together. I think i would to use transparent acrylic to allow the electronic components to be seen which would be in keeping with idea's of digital Christmas, however depending on how much wiring i use it could make the product look messy or be distracting.
using http://www.onlinesketchpad.com/ (Below)
Essentially this tool worked exactly like 'PAINT' however was limited to just a few brush tools and fill. It was quite hard to get sophisticated looking designs especially as I have only a track pad on my laptop so moving the brushes was a little difficult. The positive side of sketchpad was I was able to put down idea's very quickly.
In the sketches below I tried to think of different ways of representing a Christmas tree and dfferent ways I could connects the parts of the casing e.g Nets and ties
Essentially this tool worked exactly like 'PAINT' however was limited to just a few brush tools and fill. It was quite hard to get sophisticated looking designs especially as I have only a track pad on my laptop so moving the brushes was a little difficult. The positive side of sketchpad was I was able to put down idea's very quickly.
In the sketches below I tried to think of different ways of representing a Christmas tree and dfferent ways I could connects the parts of the casing e.g Nets and ties
2DESIGN Idea's
I started putting some of the initial idea's onto 2D design to start figuring out how I was going to join face plates together via finger joints and holes. I decided against using these two idea's as I used finger joints in another project and tying the plates together would look rather messy! It wast a wasted exercise however as I became more familiar with using the program 2D Design.
LED flash idea's
The Pic chip i am using will allow 1 input and 4 outputs (or 2 inputs and 3 outputs.... or 3 inputs and 2 outputs etc.) however in my specification i stated that i needed at least 3 outputs, I was thinking how I can Split lights into 4 outputs in order to create a variety of sequences. Initially I thought each line could be an input, but thought it would best if each out colour of light was a different output for example output 1 is red, output 2 is yellow etc.. this means i could mixed up the colours and control each colour no matter what side of my case it is on.
Below is an example of some light sequences i started playing with.... starting of with simple on off flashes and progressively becoming more random.
Below is an example of some light sequences i started playing with.... starting of with simple on off flashes and progressively becoming more random.