When I was playing TRAVIS II a couple weeks ago, it was working fine and stayed connected to the wireless network when the violin was sitting on a table. But after a minute or two of playing I would suddenly lose the whole Arduino connection. This could have been a wireless issue, or a short. I haven't had any wireless problems in a very very long time, so I doubt it was that. It reminded me of back when I was working with the 8 sensor multiplexed RUBS where it would connect to the network fine, but shorted out the moment the dancer started to move. It is possible that solder cracked somewhere on the circuitboard due to sound vibrations and that's what's causing a short. Solder cracking happened way back on the original wired version of TRAVIS I, but I haven't had an issue with it ever since switching to the wireless version. I thought it was because the shield for the MKR1000 is made so much better than the generic copper perfboards. But I suppose it is still possible.
So I tried to re-create the problem to see if it really was shorting out when I am playing. Today I didn't lose connection to the Arduino at all no matter how hard I played on it. However, I did find a problem where I pressed my G string and data bled into my D string. It went away pretty quickly though. Still, I am going to go over all of the connections on the circuitboard with my multimeter to see if I can detect an issue that way, and then go over them again with a soldering iron just to be safe. I have a friend who ordered a custom designed circuitboard for their project. Maybe I should look into that because then there would be fewer DIY solder connections to worry about. Also, I'm not a fan of the Swiss machine headers that I put on my Arduino. They're slightly different from the ones on TRAVIS I and I find the circuitboard has to be tightly held together by the Arduino case in order for them to work. If I had lots and lots of $$$$$ then I would buy a new MKR1000, try out the classic headers and re-print the Arduino case to accommodate the extra height. But alas, I am a grad student who needs to focus her funds on electronic parts for her thesis... :(
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May 2022
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