Digital Pre-Fabrication Stage for Electronics Hardware (Fabrication) projects

BITS_2020
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[justify]Due to this COVID -19 pandemic situation we all have been lockdown at homes and not have any access to labs, workshops, tools, components (such as Arduino, Raspberry pi, sensors, actuators etc) and even logistics, due to which it is not possible to fabricate (journey of your idea/challenge to a working prototype) the hardware projects.[/justify]

[justify]So is it we can’t do hardware projects during lockdown?[/justify]
[justify] Obviously we can ![/justify]

[justify][justify]We know this situation and lockdown will get lifted in next few weeks, so till then lets focus on what we have and i think having a Laptop and a internet connection is self-sufficient to proceed to do Hardware Projects upto Digital Pre-Fabrication Stage.[/justify] [/justify]

[justify] The developments done up to this stage (which may be near about 50 to 60 percent of project work done) does not require any physical fabrication facilities (such as fabricating PCBs, Soldering and testing electronics components, Optimizing code while testing physically on the device, 3D printing/laser cutting encloser and enclosing PCB and other components into it).[/justify]

[justify]Once the lockdown will get lifted this 50 to 60 percent work done can be now put into the phase of Supplies logistics and Fabrication at labs or any fabrication facilities.[/justify]

[justify]What is Digital Pre-Fabrication Stage?[/justify]

[justify]* Study, research and brainstorming on the idea/challenge.[/justify]

[justify]* Which principle and technology to be used, Defining our design parameters and application features.[/justify]

[justify]* Components (sensors, actuators etc) available and selecting the suitable one by reading datasheets as per application to be designed.[/justify]

[justify]* Selecting a Microcontroller or MCU Board (such as Arduino, ESP, ARM, AVR, PIC etc).[/justify]

[justify]* Making a circuit diagram on paper. (This will include interfacing of a processing device with Inputs (Sensor, switches), outputs (small Display, leds) and a power circuitry (which may be battery powered and also demand designing Battery Management System (BMS)). [/justify]
[justify]There may also be some communication device involved such as WiFi or Bluetooth as per features defined.[/justify]

[justify]* Making a schematic and PCB design with reference to circuit diagram. (This will require to work on ECAD softwares such as KiCAd : an Open Source Software to design PCBs)).[/justify]

[justify]* Designing 3D Model of the encloser to hold PCB, Sensor , display, switches, leds and battery aesthetically. (This will also require MCAD software such as FreeCad or OpenScad : Open Source Softwares to design 3D models).[/justify]

[justify]* Defining the algorithm and writing a code specially with comments. (We cannot write the complete and perfectly working code as we are not testing it on hardware but we can write it in a generic way so that when we are fabricating the device physically this code can be easily optimized into perfectly working code).[/justify]
[justify]Here if available we can also use some kind of simulators.[/justify]

[justify]At each step of this Digital Pre-Fabrication provides you an opportunity to discuss, brainstorm, acquire new skills (working on different software), generating ideas and constructing knowledge.[/justify]

[justify]During mid of March to mid of April i have worked on project IOT IR Thermometer upto Digital Pre-Fabrication stage and now it is waiting to get fabricated. Below is the link to provide an idea of design and development of hardware project upto this stage.[/justify]
[justify]https://stemgames.metastudio.org/t/design-and-development-of-iot-ir-thermometer-digital-pre-fabrication-stage/3630[/justify]

[justify]Please feel free to ask any query.[/justify]

[justify]Looking forward for your responses and Discussion around this.[/justify]

[justify]Happy Exploring and Learning![/justify]

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Instead of giving up the entire electronics, mechanical and IoT projects because of lack of lab space, @Ashish_Pardeshi you suggested a wonderful way out. Who knows, by the time the digital fabrication is ready, we may be able to source resources and some of us may be able to get into a lab. We should assume the availability and complete the plan process as clearly as possible. e.g. even to get the items to procure is not possible without a proper plan, and all that is part of the project experience. Thanks for you detailed note.

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Respected sir, may I know can we build IoT disease predictor which checks for all possible symptoms of a particular disease,predicts the probability of person getting affected and also suggests precautions?Thank you

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How does this work? What symptoms does it detect? Did you check the IoT thermometer project posted by @Ashish_Pardeshi. Other than temperature, which other features can we sense?

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Five vital signs also knowns as observations (obs) are very important physiological observation to be measured and also monitoring it’s trend with time.
For example: if heart rate is going up
If temperature is going up
If blood pressure going down
etc
Such trends are very important because it indicates the direction of travel of patients condition and how it is evolving.

The Five vital signs are:

  1. Temperature
  2. Pulse Rate
  3. Respiratory Rate
  4. Blood pressure
  5. SPO2

Infact I am working on design and development of IoT pulse rate and SPO2 measurement that is basically IoT Pulse Oximeter and soon will publish its process documentation which involves components (sensor, computing platform, etc) selection, designing it’s circuits and PCB layout using KiCad and also designing it encloser using FreeCad.

So one idea can be designing a portable device providing the measurements of these five vital signs with IoT enabled.

Or you can also initially take one or two vital signs such as temperature, pulse rate and SPO2 or any other combinations or even initiate with single sign and design an IoT system around them.

The most important thing is the chart also known as vitals chart or observation (obs) chart which required to be filling with these five vital signs readings on timely basis. For example after the first measurements next measurements to be taken and filled after 2 hours, then again after 3 hours and so on.

So here integrating IoT element can actually generate these charts automatically and provides data visualization in the forms of graph and using other widgets.

This is just the small thoughts from my side you can also read and think more on this and can also add your ideas and opinions

Also looking forward for everyone responses, correction, modification and discussion.

Happy Exploration !

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