On Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014, the team had a meeting with TA. We showed our current progress on integrating the separate parts of the project. After the meeting we set following tasks for the rest of the week:
1. M.L, W.Y, O.Y, M.M and M.S – to complete the integration of the load cell and amplifier with the microcontroller and LCD ;
2. O.Y and M.S – to implement the push button and toggle and write the appropriate code;
3. M.L, W.Y and M.M – to test the load cell and the amplifier even more, refine the equation for the voltage-weight conversion;
4. M.L, W.Y, O.Y, M.M and M.S – to start preparing presentation slides;

All the tasks were completed
1. M.L, W.Y, O.Y, M.M and M.S worked on the integration; the LCD shows appropriate values of the weight;
2. O.Y and M.S implemented and wrote the code for the push button and the toggle switch; push button resets the microcontroller and screen, the toggle switch changes displayed weight from kg to lbs and vise versa;
3. M.L, W.Y and M.M refined the equation by applying a wider range of voltages to the load cell (picture attached);
4. Each member of the group started preparing presentation slides.

Abbreviations: M.S – Maria Serbanescu, O.Y – Oscar Yang, M.L – Michael Li, W.Y – Weng Fey Yu, M.M – Mustafa Mussayev.

On Tuesday (Nov 4, 2014) the team had a meeting with TA and we reviewed the progress from the previous week. After the meeting we set the following tasks for this week:
1. M.S – send NDA/IP forms to the client;
2. M.M, M.L, W.Y – to implement the amplifier using the newly purchased INA125, test the load cell and acquire an equation;
3. M.S and O.Y – to have a separate working code for the microcontroller and LCD;

All tasks for this week were completed
1. M.S sent the NDA/IP forms signed by the professor and the group members to the client;
2. M.M, M.L and W.Y used INA125 to implement an amplifier (pic 1) that gives a theoretical amplification of 5000 times. In practice, we acquired an amplification of 4 times that was sufficient for the first prototype. The load cell was tested using different weights and an equation was determined that can be used to obtain voltages for a range of weights (pic 2).
3. M.S and O.Y implemented a working code that displays a dummy voltage on the LCD.

Abbreviations: M.S – Maria Serbanescu, O.Y – Oscar Yang, M.L – Michael Li, W.Y – Weng Fey Yu, M.M – Mustafa Mussayev.