General
- Go to the "cabinet of freedom" to look for items potentially needed for project to save time and money
- Simplify the original design based on doability and time before everything starts
- Keep communicating with other teammates through group chat and let them know what changes you made when they were absent, making sure that everyone is on the same page so that other necessary changes can follow
Mechanical
- Assembly seperate CAD parts on SolidWorks to see whether they fit into each other before laser cutting/3D printing them
- Print identical 3D parts using the same 3D printer to make sure their tolerance is consistent
- Make sure that at least two team members have license to get access to multiple slots in machine shops to avoid waiting forever for 3D printed parts
- Test all components before attaching them to the system permanently
- Try to make every component as reachable as you can so that any hardware problems can be fixed easily
- Pay attention to the usage of sensors that you did not work on before
Electrical
- Be careful about wiring and try not to short the 12V power supply to circuits which are supposed to run under 3.3V
- As long as space is available, using multiple breadboard is safer and clearer than trying to squeeze everything on only one or two boards
- Record the purpose of each pin on TIVA and keep updating everytime when changes happen, so that you would not lose track
- Shift registers would get burnt for unknown reasons, so remember to check their pin conditions if your circuit does not function correctly
Software
- If component does not work, it does not need to be software problem. Check hardware
- Use appropriate amount of pesudo-code can help yourself and teammates follow