### THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

Below you will find log entries that describe the design/thinking process.

# Idea

The goal is to build a device that could allow me to comfortably measure time spent on a project. I want to have a full history of the time spent on particular project. The time log needs to be plain text, easily queried and human readable.

# Execution

## 2019-06-07

Previously I’ve used CircuitLab to draw the schematics. It is pretty good but saving circuits is impossible with a free account. A great alternative is this circuit simulator. As you can see below, the circuit isn’t as aesthetically pleasing.

However, the possibility of saving the circuits to a plain text or in the URL itself is awesome. You can basically copy the text below and import it into the simulator or click this link.

\$ 1 0.0000049999999999999996 18.278915558614752 71 5 43
g 176 304 176 352 0
r -32 224 96 224 0 47000
r 176 224 304 224 0 16000
g 304 304 304 352 0
r 304 224 432 224 0 30000
g 432 304 432 352 0
r 432 224 560 224 0 91000
g 560 304 560 352 0
g -48 304 -48 352 0
v -48 304 -48 224 0 0 40 3.3 0 0 0.5
w 112 224 176 224 0
p 96 224 96 304 1 0
g 96 304 96 352 0
w -32 224 -48 224 0
w 96 224 112 224 0
s 176 224 176 304 0 1 false
s 304 224 304 304 0 1 false
s 432 224 432 304 0 1 false
s 560 224 560 304 0 1 false
o 11 64 0 4098 5 0.1 0 1


The live drawing of the signal is great. You can easily see the consistently spread voltage values, corresponding to the specific buttons.

## 2019-05-30

Lets update the visual concept with the resistors ladder and the ADC pin.

Looks way easier to assemble and expand.

## 2019-05-30

I’ve planned on explaining how to compute the resistors value. I’ve however found an article that provides all of the necessary information. I need to keep myself in check and focus on what’s most important to finish this project. Even though I belive there is a great value in explaining things from a different perspectives, I decided not to explain the maths behind this in my own words.

The aforementioned article can be found here. I invite you to go through the blog. There is a lot of interesting information there.

The most helpful part for this project is this document. It basically lists all of the resistor values depending on the buttons count. You need to edit document the get the resistors values and in order to do that you have to duplicate it (File -> Create copy).

Setting the No. Switches to 4 and voltage to 3.3V gives the following results. The resistor values are being rounded to a value that’s actually available on the market (nice!). The ADC values are computed too.

47000 47000 0
15667 16000 260
31333 30000 506
94000 91000 762

Those values look great. They are almost perfectly linear. Pressing the first button grounds the ADC pin - value is 0. Pressing the second button should output ~260, third ~506 and the fourth ~762.

Of course this gets tricker as you add more buttons, since you have to have finer and finer control over the resistances. This won’t be a problem for a project like that - the first version will use only 4 buttons and I can’t imagine the final version using much more.

## 2019-05-21

With the current configuration, scaling the buttons count is horribly painful. Each button needs its own digital pin. Often used solution is to use a resistor ladder and an ADC.

In the image above the SW2 switch is closed. That makes the current flow through R1 and R2 resistors - that’s basically a voltage divider of 1:1 ratio. That would make a 10-bit ADC read a value of 10242 = 512 (well close to…).

Now lets close the SW5 switch instead. That would make a voltage divider with ratio of 1:4. For a voltage value of 3.3V the voltage drop on R1 would be equal to 660mV, while on R2 + R3 + R4 + R5 it would be 2640mV. ADC would output something around 819.

In this solution only one button can be pressed, which is fine for what this keyboard needs to do. What isn’t convenient is that using the same resistors values doesn’t give you a linear numerical values from the ADC. Pushing SW1 would output 1024 (for a 10-bit ADC), pushing SW2 512, SW3 675. Going up from that would mean cramming more into a smaller and smaller values spectrum.

The solution is to compute resistors values to actually compensate for that. Since I want to keep those entries short and simple I’ll explain this next time.

## 2019-04-14

I’ve explored some hardware options for the buttons. The most cost efficient and comfortable option are the big microswitches. I’ve started designing a frame for buttons like that. The design has to be modular. That means that it has to trivial to expand this frame for any number of buttons.

I’m using Blender to experiment with the design. I achieve the modularity with an Array modifier. Increasing the array’s count modifier just adds the next segment. By default the Array modifier makes it so the elements are perfectly spaced - touching it’s ends.

The frame also has to hide the electronic components… or does it. Maybe those can be used to make the whole project look more interesting? Might explore this idea.

For now the wiring and the resistors are located on the bottom. One thing I’ve failed to consider in the sketch above is connecting the buttons back to the GND line. With this layout those connections would collide with the Vcc. It can be solved by moving the Vcc line more towards the middle of the frame. That way the line could go directly below the switches. That way one of the pins, of the pair close to the GND line, can be easily connected to GND. I will show this change in the next update, assuming I won’t find a better way to do it.

Pressing a specific switch will start time logging for a specific project. That needs to be clear for the user. For now I’m thinking of using LEDs for that. That means that the next design should take that into consideration.