This week, Scarlet was in the makerspace working on our mock prototype, coding, and app.
For coding, I am the one that is heading this task, and I have been looking up programs that allow code to be read and transferred to the Galileo board. A Galileo board is a microcontroller that has 32-bit Intel Pentium class system on a chip that is on the board. The board also has an ethernet port, Miscro-SD card slot, USB host port, RS-232 serial port, and a port for a power supply. Its purpose is to allow everyday people and students to code and make innovative productions. What I first did was read the manual of the Galileo board to see if there was a way to obtain a coding program that was compatible. I found that I could go to the intel support page and download the software there. I went to the software page, but the software wouldn’t download on my computer or a school computer. So, I looked up other ways to program the Galileo board, but the alternatives didn’t work. Instead of focusing on that more this week and next week, I talked with Brittany and we decided that we would make an app that would record the weight and link to Facebook. Currently, Brittany is working on the app, and I have created a student Facebook page that will post the amount of trash a person produced. After that we have finished with the app, we will go back and code (I will still look for programs that code for the Galileo board) for the weight plate. But if someone has any suggestions on what software might work best with the Galileo board that we don’t know of,p please post a comment below.
Two other Scarlet members, Rachel Z. and Savannah P., started working on the box that would house the Galileo board inside and have the weight plate on top of it. The wires would be coming out of the side of the box in order for the weight plate to feed the weight information to the Galileo board to the app. With this box, it will have a water proof coating sprayed on after the box is make. This will protect the Galileo board from possible liquids or wet food that can leak out of the bag. It also provide a mantle for the weight plate to be placed on (a direct way to get the amount of trash that was created). An issue that we might run into is that not all trash cans will be able to fit the box inside. We will have to find a trash can that will fit our box.
What they did first was measure out a small box that would be large enough to fit the Galileo board. After that, they cut out the pieces of the box. Midway through the process, the bandsaw blade broke, so they couldn’t finish cutting out our pieces They are planning to finish cutting next time and glue the pieces together. The plan that we have for next week is to finish the box, spray the water-proofing, and fix any bugs that the app currently has. After this and some discussion with people about coding, we will start coding hopefully.
StarPathDesign 
This is an interesting idea. I never thought about the amount of trash that accumulates over time. I believe that if people are aware about the amount of weight their trash, this can help people realize just how much they are throwing out. I am currently a beginner in computer science, thus I cannot really help you about which program to do for the Galileo board. I have only used the Redboard, Arduino, greenfoot, and BlueJ Java. You might want to check out the Arduino software and its compatibility to the Galileo boards since I’ve heard that they’re both compatible. Maybe trying to download the program on another different computer might work? I found a website that might help you, https://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-22226 yet I’m not sure if you have already looked at it. The website lists a series of software programs that are compatible with the galileo board and its also related to Arduino. It says that its also compatible with Windows, Macs, and other operating systems.
The app idea also sounds quite interesting, especially linking it to Facebook and recording the amount of trash someone produced. I also think that this “smart” trash can might be a good idea for our school. It will be interesting to record the number of trash or recyclable materials used in class, and then comparing them between grade level or teacher’s classrooms. Maybe for events centering on protecting our environment we can see how many pounds of recycled materials our school accumulates. However, your device might just be for the size of a regular trash can, but it will be a neat idea for the small gray trash cans we have around the school. The size of the weight plate might have a lot to do with the size of the trash can. Overall, I wish you the best with your ongoing project. I hope that you find a software program pretty soon, and I recommend that you also speak with Ms.Dadmehr if you have not done so yet.
-Zabdi S.