Project 02

Date: Monday, 08/03/2026, Saturday, 08/15/2026

Class: Exploratory Making (IMALR-GT 106)

Section: 001 (Beth)

Name: Janice Vuong

Week: Week 4

Project 02: A fun sunday, before disaster

What did I make: A scale (that does not work or calibrate)

What did I (want to) make: Curiosity Syllabus + Interface Lab → Project 02 Idea: Objects placed (varying weights) makes lights turn on (varying colors)

*intentionally being vague, because sometimes when I say the entire project idea out-loud, I lose all motivation to do the thing.

working title (for Project 02): a fun sunday, before disaster

Bonus: I genuinely had no other backup project ideas. Legitimately really anxious about executing sundays (2026) 🔗 over the past 2.5 weeks, and luckily (well not just luck). I spent a lot of time, on the IMA/ITP floor until 12 AM / 1 AM / 2 AM on multiple nights, and stayed overnight (one night!) and → got sick 🥲 and tirelessly continued building my project sundays non-stop. Reflecting though (this is Saturday, August 15th) as I am writing this blog post. I do not regret anything! I have learned so many new skills and myself.

A photo of priority sliders (on my are:na board) from class

The creative brief (created in class): My project is: me! | and my project is not: not about others

Inspiration & Research

sundays (2026) 🔗 was inspired by the routines of a Sunday. More specifically, the routines of my (Janice’s) Sunday routine. In my curiosity syllabus ↗️, I had wrote down themes:

• bows/coquette
• something for people
• something for jan
• flowers???

I wanted to make something soft, something cute. And I had questions on my curiosity syllabus: “How do I get feeling”. At the time I wanted to know how to invoke a feeling from something I would be creating, and then showcasing (ex. an art piece). After putting down words on my curiosity syllabus I felt really raw and vulnerable. Almost scared? That's why I was extremely quiet.

Later after looking back at responses I received, someone wrote:

who is jan?

I do not know why that caused me to spiral so much. Reflecting, I felt that at the time, my past work was about others, and not myself. So I just drew a small vase with flowers on in notebook to comfort myself. It is something for the past few years, I have been buying myself flowers, and just arranging them on my apartment floor. Sometimes arranging flowers and giving it to others, other times, buying a flower subscription and sending other flowers. Or buying premade arrangements for myself. Regardless flowers, and the act of arranging flowers has been a constant self-care, soothing, routine that is the rhythm of a Sunday for me. 🌷 🌼 🌹

Form / Material ⚖️

In Interface Lab, I had just learned about Force Sensitive Resistors (FSR), and thought that would be the sensor that I could apply force/pressure. But I quickly realized they are not the sensor, that would work for this project, (because a finger press vs. an object placed) are very different applications of force. In discovering a few YouTube videos on building a scale with an Arduino, (the only videos show were either kitchen scales, or body weight scales), I thought just creating something to place small objects (ex. 2-4” of acrylics) shouldn’t be that hard (????)

I was gravely wrong.

*I also considered working with real flowers in the beginning of this project, however flowers are not really heavy. Flowers that are heavy, are mostly sunflowers. Nothing wrong with sunflowers, but the act of floral arranging I use a lot of different flowers, and it wouldn’t be the same, just arranging the same type of flower.

in body weight scales, or kitchen gram scales (if you take it apart), it is composed of a load cell (a rectangular prism brick) and a green circuit board (HX711 amplifier) + probably an LED panel (to display the weight)

for some reason load cells are a weak analog sensor, and when you strain (aka push the metal, by placing heavy objects) it sends a signal.

however the signal is not enough, and it needs an amplifier (specifically, a HX711 amplifier)

and then the HX711 amplifier → connects to the breadboard / Arduino microcontroller

*and in my project I was not going to use an LED panel to display weight amounts, that was going to be hidden/only known to me

Surprises (Areas I did not consider) 😥 😭

It was a 6 minute tutorial video on YouTube, how hard can it be (???)

narrator: it was very hard for jan, and now it has been 6+ days (still on step 1, or 1.5)

plug sensor (still here!) → attach to amplifier → attach to Arduino/breadboard → edit code → test weights → attach lights

Issue 1️⃣ I struggled for a week straight (7+ days) to even get my sensor, into working conditions.

Unlike most sensors that I have seen in Interface Lab class, the sensors in class (photo-transistors, time of flight, etc.) are plug-and-play. Plug-and-play means to me, that I can just plug them on my breadboard/Arduino set-up and then write code for how I want the sensor to change (xyz action, or display abc thing). *xyz and abc are just placeholders

The wires of the load cell is stranded wire (which means I couldn’t just plug it in and use the sensor/load cell right away) → had to buy tools and watch MORE (hours) Youtube tutorials on Wire Crimping and + how to add JXT Connectors/Dupont Connectors

Wire Crimping is really really hard (because my wires for this sensor are extremely fragile (remarked by instructors, residents, even shop floor staff), like more fragile than the wires (solid core wires, with premade connectors) I have been working with in Interface Lab, and more fragile that any wires (solid core) on the shop floor

• I had gone to Office Hours x3, already
• Day 5 (maybe try wire wrapping?? ← a suggestion from my teacher, Jesse) 😭
• I had been struggling for multiple days, trying to wire crimp / prepare my load cell (weight sensor) wires to even be able to plug into my breadboard + Arduino microcontroller. At this point, losing more time to learn a new skill on wire crimping was taking too much time, so I needed to pivot and just wire wrap + use heat shrink tubes (to insulate the connecting wires) → and just try the sensor ASAP

Issue 2️⃣ Despite there are a few videos on YouTube on how to use the load cell and HX711 amplifier to create a weight scale. All YouTube videos, was shown with the use of an Arduino Uno model, and the one I had was an Arduino Nano. (I didn’t think this would be a big deal), however it was a medium-size deal. This caused me to pin my breadboard wrongly a lot of times (the differences in models, had different setups for the pin-out) and power supply differences (5 volts vs. 3.3 volts)

Issue 3️⃣ I had solder my pins on the HX711 amplifier wrongly. It did not need pins.. it needed female adapters (I am delirious and I had watch this video 10 times already.. how did I not catch that). THANK GOD (past jan) I had BOUGHT 4 backups (at the time I thought it was excessive)

Issue 4️⃣ (current Sunday, 08/02) stage: My load cell + HX711 amplifier is giving outputs (numbers) but is it a random string of numbers, and I don’t understand why.

• Later on Tuesday (08/04) at 1 AM, (after Project 02 presentations) on a Zoom call with my boyfriend, had discovered I had downloaded too many libraries, in my Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) and I ended up uninstalling everything and reinstalling 1, HX711 Arduino library (by Bogdan/Bogde).
• He said “you corrupted me!”
• The joke is that he calls himself the Arduino Microcontroller, I am the HX711 Amplifier, and my mom is the load cell (weight sensor).

Successes / Day 6 (Aug 2)(ask! ask! ask!)

✅ I was able to 3D print parts for my project without an issue, thanks to (Exploration 03 ↗️)

⫘ Dara helped me with wire wrapping for the first time <3

🌀 Brandon gave me advice on using a heat gun for the first time <3

• after wire wrapping my fragile wires to new wires, i needed to insulate/reinforce my wires so I need to use a heat gun to a shrink tube my x4 wires

📸 Iris helped me take photos <3

🫂 Rylee gave me a nice hug <3

🔋 Nahil’s soldering advice (taping) <3

📞 👩🏻‍💻 💻 My boyfriend (Nicolas) stayed on Zoom/FaceTime from 8 PM - 2 AM on Tuesday (08/04), so this was after Project 02 presentations (but I am grateful). Walking me through my own breadboard wiring mess, Arduino IDE code, and talking me through using a multimeter 🤗

What would you do differently or add/remove if you had more time?

and luckily *I do* have more time, I am going to keep working, because this is what I want to present in the Summer 2026 IMA Showcase (Show & Tell)

Learnings:

✅ Leaned in and asked for help early (going to office hours x2) → I improved from project 01 ↗️

2️⃣ Honestly my classmates are really smart!! I feel like I had the most breakthroughs being on the shop floor last night on sunday (and even though my project doesn’t work) it was an encouraging environment

3️⃣ Giving more grace (by Day 5) something was really wrong with my wires, like a huge roadblock → maybe asking for more opinions on what to-do earlier) (ex. ramzy, shop staff, etc)

🎀 Reflecting though (this is Saturday, August 15th) as I am writing this blog post. The Summer Showcase, was Wednesday, 08/13, and I do not regret anything! I have learned so many new skills and myself. I am so happy (well I think proud!!) I was able to make sundays (2026) 🔗

Even though this blog post is about Project 02: A fun sunday, before disaster

(New!) Skill Count:

• 3D Printing (to build housing for the weight sensor)
• Wire Wrapping (to connect the fragile load cell wires to thicker, still fragile wires)
• Using a heat gun, to heat a shrink tube (and shrink tubes are placed over wires that need to be connected)
• Learning to ask others for help