Week 4

Activity: Components Soldering

Objective(s): To solder the components on the PCB board

Contents:
This week, we focused on the soldering process of the components to the PCB board. Since we bought the DIY set project from Cytron Technologies, it has provided us the printed circuit on the PCB board. Yet we have to carefully check for the polarity of the electronic components before starting to solder. Failure in doing so might lead to explosion of components when a power supply is connected.

The soldering process

We also need to follow the manual's guide on how to solder the iron pin which is required for the 2510 cable for UART interface.

For the whole soldering process, we merely used about 2 to 3 meters of soldering iron. After finished soldering all the electronic components to the PCB circuit board, we connected all the cables accordingly based on the DIY manual.


Result/Analysis:
Eventually, we got ourselves a complete hardware of the project.

The completed soldering process of the electronic components

Connection of the 2510 cable for UART interface

Connection of the 2510 cables with the PCB board

The cable connected to UC00B converter

Conclusion:
Soldering is a very crucial process for the project hardware as it allows the current to flow in the circuit built. Hence, we can further proceed to the next procedure of the project which is to continue with the programming for the microcontroller.

Week 3

Activity: Purchase of Components

Objective(s): To buy the components for the project hardware

Contents: 
The SN-FPR-UART fingerprint module comes with a user friendly feature which can run at 5V DC supply. There are a few brands that sells the product in the market. We browsed to the Internet to get price range. The few brands that are selling this module are the Adafruit Industry and Cytron Technologies. Both brands offer the exact demanded product. However Cytron Technologies is the brand that we chose to purchase from because it is a local brand and much more convenient to gone through the buying procedures. The fingerprint module price range is at RM477.00. Instead of purchasing the product from its online store, we bought the product at a retailer at Jalan Pasar, Kuala Lumpur. Plus, we also bought the components that we have listed previously.

Result/Analysis:

In total we spent about RM600.00 for the project hardware.

Conclusion: 
In conclusion, we had bought all the hardware for the project and we are ready to start with the next phase which is the soldering process.

Week 2

Activity: Listing of Project's Components

Objective(s): To list down all the components of the project hardware.

Contents:

Consequently, after the research of the affiliated project title has been done, we managed to fathom the rough overview of the project we are about to develop. To make a review on the related previous research on thumbprint development is certainly not an easy task since we have to understand the objectives of the projects and make comparison of each existing projects. Thus, we came out with the circuit diagrams and the basic connection of each main parts of the project. Only then, we proceeded to the next procedure of the project development which is to list down all the project hardware. 

We discovered that in order for the project to function, it ought to be supplied with at least a 5V DC input. The most compatible microcontroller for this project is the PIC16F876A and the fingerprint module is the SN-FPR-UART Fingerprint Reader. For the project output, it requires the 2x16 character LCD display, a buzzer and LEDs.

The project is mainly constructed by 4 major parts which are:

1. Fingerprint module
2. Microcontroller (PIC16F876A as for this project)
3. Power source circuit (5V or any sufficient voltage to turn on the project)
4. LCD display (2x16 character)

Proceedingly, based on the outcomes of the project research, we are able to come out with the list of components for the project hardware from the circuit diagrams obtained. However, listing down the components is a very crucial task because error in choosing the right components for the circuit will conduct to the failure of the project. We documented the component list into a soft copy for our future reference. 

Result/Analysis:

Circuit diagrams:

5V supply circuit 

Microcontroller input circuit

Microcontroller output circuit

List of components:

Conclusion:

In conclusion, previous project analysis is necessarily significant for us to come out with circuit diagrams and getting the rough picture of how the project will be. Meanwhile, the circuit diagram is essential for us to produce the list of project components and hardware. By having the list we shall be able to make the purchase afterwards.

Week 1

Activity: Project Planning and Research

Objective(s):

1. To plan the project timetable throughout the whole semester
2. To conduct a research on the previous projects

Contents:
This week, we drafted and produced a timetable for the project in order to allow us to be more structured and well-organised when developing the project. The timetable covers our upcoming activities throughout the semester from Week 1 until Week 14 excluding the mid semester break. However, there will be some changes due to circumstances yet the timetable will always be fixed and strictly abided.

Furthermore, to enhance our preliminary understanding on the project we are going to develop we had made some readings and research from the previous projects. We browsed through the Internet for article reviews, journals and also watched some videos on YouTube relating to the topic by entering the keyword; attendance thumbprint system.

Result(s)/Analysis:

Timetable for the development of attendance thumbprint system project

The followings are the links to the articles, journal and podcasts:

Reading materials:
- http://home.iitk.ac.in/~deepakr/reports/BiometricFingerprint.pdf
- http://ethesis.nitrkl.ac.in/2214/1/thesis.pdf
- http://www.slideshare.net/swpawar/fingerprint-attendance-system

Videos:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC5VCKgxVlg
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1diFaa5OsFg

Conclusion: In short, the project planning will help us to get the overview of how this project will be developed throughout the course undertaking. Thus by abiding the timetable, we will able to convey the activities righteously well in the most organised way.

About Us

Assalamualaikum wrb,

We are Muhammad Nadzmi Bin Mazlan (51117313048) and Muhammad Shahrul Azwan Bin Che' Omar (51117313125), students of UniKL British Malaysian Institute pursuing in Diploma of Engineering Technology in Telecommunication, currently undertaking the final year project subject on semester 5 (S2'2015). This project is supervised under Sir Mohd Azlan Bin Abu (MAZA).

In short, the purpose of creating this blog is to track the weekly progress on the development of our project. The brief details of this project are as follows:

Title: Development of Attendance Thumbprint System
Description:
A new way of making attendance system much more convenient in local institutions by using the fingerprint identification technology.