The Easter celebrations are over and it’s time to get back to work. Two weeks ago (here), we faced several questions as to the turn of the continuation of our project. Following the feedback and discussions we had with the team, we agreed on the direction we wanted to take. Thus, we made the choice to develop two prototypes in parallel: a functional and a visual.
You may wonder why ?🙂 Well, there are several reasons. First, as we mentioned in a previous post, the engineers warned us that they will not be able to integrate by July a battery small enough to fit in the format of a watch. As we have seen that the watch was probably the most appropriate format for our product, it would have been difficult to turn to a larger and less suitable object for our future users.
Secondly, we found that the important thing for China was not to necessarily have the end product but to have a prototype in order to carry out with our future users the necessary tests on the functions present in our product. It is quite possible to carry out tests in parallel on the shape of the final product by using cardboard mockups. However, it is important to note that the functional prototype shall not be totally different from the final product. For instance, we will use a screen size corresponding to the one we will have in the end and we will arrange the exterior elements (led and buttons) in their right places.
What we must remember 👁 is that thanks to our functional prototype, we are less restricted on the components to be integrated inside the object but that the external components (visible to the user) will be close to the final product in order to be able to carry out effective tests.
Thirdly, it is important to develop a visual prototype to share the final shape of our product (the watch !⏱). This will make it easier for everyone (including you 😉 ) to have a concrete idea of what they can expect from our product. It is important for us that people project themselves into our product and that they want to be able to get it. Manon will make 3D visuals and certainly 3D prints to satisfy your curiosity 😉.
Now, you know more about the reasons for our choice regarding the next project and what we have todoo ☺️.
Otherwise, we are advancing on the identity of our product. We already have chosen a name but patience…. we will unveil it very soon. For the impatient and since we finish Easter, we are informed that you will find the name of our product on this post. We don’t tell you anything more 😉.
From the engineering point of view, we worked on the altium schematics. Discovering the software, it took time to find the right libraries and commands but the altium tutorial we had helped a lot. We also had to adapt a little our strategy concerning the controller to fit our needs. Now we should start to draw the PCB and continue the firmware.
Finally, the milestone 2 is approaching (Friday, April 28 🗓). So we will spend this week preparing our presentation. We will keep you informed on the progress this next weekend.
See you soon !