BluetoothToast / Blog: Recent posts

This week I put the toaster back together to demonstrate at school open night, working well! App is practically finished as with the toaster. But there are still one or two details that need sorting on the app before final user testing can commence. I plan for all of it to be tested within the next week. I have also:

Disabled and enabled the cancel button in idle xml when neccesary

Timing rounding has been tested... read more

I achieved my deadline and cooked toast using the phone controlled toaster. Yay!

I have sorted out the problems with auto-rotate.
I have got the app to keep the screen on while toasting.
I have toasted multiple bits of bread and worked out the times needed for each bread type.
I am planning to add a thermistor into the toaster circuitry to allow the toaster to detect when it is cold. This means that it can add the 45secs necessary to compensate for cooking from a cold appliance.
I have created a new background for the time select seek bar. This is based on the toast testing and displays cooked slices and scrolls between them as the user moves the bar.
I moved the toast images up to the top of the screen so the users thumb doesn't get in the way, and the images remain visible at all times.
On the picaxe side I have got the pause/resume function working and I plan to refine this in the next few days.

I have had a bit set back this week because after upgrading Sub-Version (to try and sort out the error it was telling me about) I ended up discovering that all the files on the web server were locked so I could not commit the changes I had made to the project. To unlock the files you have to use a Linux command line. It took Lee (who is teaching me java, Android and is helping me write and debug the app,) four hours to unlock the files and rectify my stuff up. As it turned out there was no problem with SVN at all.... read more

I have been working on the user interface and ironing out minor annoyances in the android app whilst getting the PICAXE to reply automatically and reliably to commands that the phone sends, using a slave chip to receive all radio transmissions and notify the master which then replies to the phone.

I am working on the toaster program getting it to interface with the app on the phone. I am also trying to get the phone app to detect when the toaster has disconnected, I am also working on getting the phone to check the integrity of the acknowledgement that the picaxe sends back.

I am currently working on getting the picaxe to receive commands and send an acknowledgement. For android have have built a simpler timer app which will be useful for the counting down the number of seconds left.

I have got the app disconnecting from the toaster when the back button is pressed. I have also implemented 4 buttons and a text field for sending different commands. I have worked out how to play media (audio/video) and get the phone to vibrate. This will be useful for the end alert.

Yesterday I got the bluetooth pairing, connecting and sending data reliably via an insecure connection. Today I am going to try and enable a disconnect feature for when all data is sent and use a secure connection instead.

I have got the app pairing to the toaster (but only when it feels like it) I am currently working on debugging the app and creating error procedures if the first pairing attempt fails.

This week I have made an app that turns on bluetooth on my phone. I am expanding it so it can connect to and send data between devices.

I formalised my project design aim and I identified the main areas of design, both hardware and software. I clarified some of my constraints. I drew up some flow charts for bluetooth connections.

Yesterday I looked at user interface options, and decided that a "Seek Bar" would be the best option for selecting time and displaying cooking progress. I prefer a text box with up and down buttons for selecting a timed delay. For the pause and resume function, I decided to use a "Toggle Button."

Today I setup versioning software to keep my app safe and keep track of my progress. Of course I started this Blog.