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Weekly Update

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 9 months ago

June 20 END OF COURSE

 

What have you done in this course?

This term I have researched the hard drive, and made a physical display describing the parts of the hard drive, and how it all works. After that project was complete we started on the 80p3 project. I took a Pentium III without an operating system, and turned it into a functioning dual boot machine. I installed a second hard drive, a sound card, extra USB ports, ubuntu linux and when I brought it home Windows XP. We took a bunch of parts from the cabinet and screwed them down to a piece of wood making a functional computer with an operating system. We made a network cable that went from the wall up across the roof to our table. We made a speaker out of an old alarm clock. We also designed a fantasy computer with parts from the internet that added up way beyond anything I will make this summer. At the end I put a bunch of parts into an old MAC case, and for only having two days to do it I got pretty far. I'm going to finish this project over the summer.

 

What was the biggest challenge for you this semester/year?

My biggest challenges this term was installing a sound card and learning how to use linux. It took me over three classes to get a sound card working. It would not work with ubuntu, because it needed a G streamer plugin. When we started this project I had no experience using linux, but after many classes of messing around with it, I started to get the hang of it. Ubuntu is not much different than Windows. The biggest challenge we overcame was installing an operating system on our wooden computer. We tried three times installing ubuntu, but it always froze about midway through. We tried another disc but no luck. We installed a new CD-R drive, but no luck. Finnally I brought a copy of Windows XP from my house and it worked on the first try. One of the other big challenges I overcame was the whole input/output device. I had no idea what I was doing going into that project. After watching some of the other kids, I made a functional speaker (that wasn't very loud) but still worked. I learned to sauter wires to the speaker, then those wires to the 1/8 inch headphone cable, so now I have a speaker I can carry around in my pocket.

 

What have you learned that could be useful outside of school?

One of the most important things I learned is that their is always a cheaper (or free) alternative. When we did the Pentium III project we used a free operating system in ubuntu linux. It was hard to get used to at first, but I'm sure if I spent more time with it I would be able to use it as a free alternative to Windows XP. The only reason I don't use it more is because there are not enough programs that work with linux yet, and the few that I downloaded I had trouble installing. With the wooden computer, we used parts from a cabinet and a couple pieces of wood, and we were able to create a computer that could run Windows XP and worked effectively.

 

Of the things you have done in this course, what would you like to do more of?

I liked the 80p3 and the wooden computer projects. I didn't like having to research a part of a computer, and I don't think it really helped me much. I would have rather spent that time doing a real project, not a research project.


 

5-18-07

 

Briefly describe the project:

We have finished the wooden computer project. I finished the documentation for the wooden computer. I also finished the Custom Computer wiki project. We are trying to find a input output device, but everything we try is way beyond our skill.

 

What have you accomplished this week?

We have been researching projects and have found like 3 different ones, but none of them worked out. Right now we are working on an alarm clock ipod player, but I don't really get what we are doing.

 

What problems have you overcome this week?

I was able to stay on task in class.

 

What are the most significant problems you face at this time? What will you do to meet these problems?

Since we are finished with the project, the most siginificant problem is finding out what I want to do for my input/output device. I don't really get what I am doing right now with my project. It is way beyond my knowledge level. I don't understand circuits and most of the stuff that is neccessary for this project to work.

 

What materials or information do you need? How do you plan on getting these materials or information?

I need whatever is neccessary for this project with the alarm clock. There is no documentation that we could find online, it is Mr. Connors idea. I think he might be the only one that knows what we are doing.


 

5-9-07

 

Briefly describe the project:

We have finished the wooden computer project. I finished the documentation for the wooden computer. I also finished the Custom Computer wiki project.

 

What have you accomplished this week?

I took home my wooden computer. I wrote my wooden computer documentation. I did the Custom Computer wiki project. I started researching what I want to do for my input/output device.

 

What problems have you overcome this week?

I was able to stay on task in class and finish my documentation.

 

What are the most significant problems you face at this time? What will you do to meet these problems?

Since we are finished with the project, the most siginificant problem is finding out what I want to do for my input/output device.

 

What materials or information do you need? How do you plan on getting these materials or information?

Since im done with the project I don't need any materials for the wooden computer. I guess I just need a computer with internet access to do my custom computer and search for an input output device. I will need whatever is neccessary for my input output device when I find out what i'm doing.


 

 

5-3-07

 

Briefly describe the project:

We have finished the wooden computer project. We took all the parts and screwed them down to the piece of wood.

 

What have you accomplished this week?

This week we mounted a fan on the heat sink, because it was over heating. We took a fan that was screwed to a power supply, unscrewed it, put it on our motherboard, and connected it to our power supply. We then installed Windows XP and finished the project. I took it home two days ago.

 

What problems have you overcome this week?

We were finally able to install an operating system. We also solved the problem of our heatsink overheating.

 

What are the most significant problems you face at this time? What will you do to meet these problems?

Since we are finished with the project, the most significant problem is finding what I want to do next. Im probably going to do the custom computer wiki write up, and then find out what I want to do for an input output device.

 

What materials or information do you need? How do you plan on getting these materials or information?

Since im done with the project I don't need any materials for the wooden computer. I guess I just need a computer with internet access to do my custom computer and search for an input output device.


 

 

4/26/07

Wooden Computer

In this project, we took the parts from the closet and the scrap computers near the door, and mounted them onto a piece of wood. We put the pieces in such an arrangement so that the neccessary cables could reach each other and function properly. Although some groups made two layer wikid intense projects, we decided to simply mount it to a piece of wood, when we saw the intense projects weren't working.

What have I accomplished over the week?

This week, we built a case to hold our hard drive and cd drive. We built another case for our power supply. We also made cool decorative things for our computer while our ubuntu downloaded.

What problems have I overcame this problem?

This week, we had trouble with out cd drive not opening. We overcame it by replacing the cd drive with a new one. We also stopped our overheating problem by mounting a fan on the heatsink.

Most significant problem?

Our most significant problem is that our computer refuses to install ubuntu. We fixed the cd drive, and we get the install started, but it just like freezes, its pretty wierd.

Materials Needed

Im not really sure right now, maybe a new hard drive?


 

 

 

 

__End of Term Update__

 

What have you done this term?

This term I have researched the hard drive, and made a physical display describing the parts of the hard drive, and how it all works. After that project was complete we started on the 80p3 project. I took a Pentium III without an operating system, and turned it into a functioning dual boot machine. I installed a second hard drive, a sound card, extra USB ports, ubuntu linux and when I brought it home Windows XP. I have now started on the wooden computer and got all the parts and the wood ready.

 

What was the biggest challenge for you this term?

My biggest challenges this term was installing a sound card and learning how to use linux. It took me over three classes to get a sound card working. It would not work with ubuntu, because it needed a G streamer plugin. When we started this project I had no experience using linux, but after many classes of messing around with it, I started to get the hang of it. Ubuntu is not much different than Windows.

 

What have you learned that could be useful outside of school?

Before this class I only understood how programming worked in computers. I now understand all the physical parts of the computers, and what each one does to make the computer function. Now I could replace parts on my home computer easily, or even build my own computer for a much cheaper price.

 

Of the things you have done this term, what would you like to do more of?

I liked the 80p3 and the wooden computer projects. I didn't like having to research a part of a computer, and I don't think it really helped me much. I would have rather spent that time doing a real project, not a research project.


 

2-16-07

 

Briefly describe the project:

We have finished the physical display on the parts of a computer project.

 

What have you accomplished this week?

This week I found a lot more information on the hard drive. We finished our physical display, and printed off some pictures to go on the posterboard. We took apart a 10.2 GB hard drive, and zip-tied it on our display.

 

What problems have you overcome this week?

After a class and a half of trying to open a hard drive with the wrong type of screw driver, we got it open. There were two screws underneath the sticker cover that we didn't see at first.

 

What are the most significant problems you face at this time? What will you do to meet these problems?

I do not face any problems at this time, because I have finished the physical display part of the project.

 

What materials or information do you need? How do you plan on getting these materials or information?

Right now I do not need any materials or information, because I am done with the project.


 

2-9-07

 

Briefly describe the project:

We have continued working on the parts of a computer project.

 

What have you accomplished this week?

This week I found a lot more information on the hard drive. We had our meetings discussing the strengths and weaknesses of our research, and then we went to the library and brought back first semester's physical displays.

 

What problems have you overcome this week?

This week I have done more research, and after our meeting, I realized I had a lot of holes in my project. I have started to overcome this by, reading more on the internet.

 

What are the most significant problems you face at this time? What will you do to meet these problems?

The most significant problem I am faced with at this time, is that I have already visited the most common websites about hard drives. I also need to find out what it means to defrag a hard drive. I will overcome this by searching on google.

 

What materials or information do you need? How do you plan on getting these materials or information?

At this point I need to get a broken hard drive and take it apart for my display. I need to identify the different parts of the hard drive. I will be able to do this by searching on google, and also looking at last semester's hard drive project.


 

2-2-07

 

Briefly describe the project:

We are to pick a part of a computer, research it on the internet, and eventually build a physical display. Colin and I have chosen to do our project on the hard drive.

 

What have you accomplished this week?

I learned how to make a pbwiki, and have found oodles and oodles of information. Between us, we have managed to answer all the of the essential questions listed on the wiki.

 

What problems have you overcome this week?

At first, I was having difficulties having finding information on the internet, and I realized I wasn't using the internet correctly. I have learned to use google effectively and found good sources, like wikipedia and howstuffworks.com.

 

What are the most significant problems you face at this time? What will you do to meet these problems?

Now, after answering all the essential questions, I need to find more work to do. Mr. Connors gave me some good ideas and topics to research next, like viruses on hard drives.

 

What materials or information do you need? How do you plan on getting these materials or information?

At this point I do not need any materials, but I would like to crack open a hard drive, even though it would probably break it. I will continue researching on the internet. I plan on getting more information on the internet.


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