Lightyears Away P2P

The transmitter on its stepper-driven mount, in its laser-cut enclosure
  • Isabella Jordan
  • Michael Lavender
  • Tilger Evans
The transmitter on its stepper-driven mount, in its laser-cut enclosure1 / 6

Timeline: Sep 2025 – Dec 2025

Role: EK210: Introduction to Engineering Design

Stack Arduino (C++), IRremote (NEC protocol), stepper motor, 4×4 keypad, 16×2 I2C LCD, MAX4466 microphone, Onshape

  • Built a wireless infrared messenger with a 4-person team: two battery-powered Arduinos, a keypad transmitter on a stepper-driven 90° mount and an LCD receiver, sending 10 preset messages over NEC-encoded IR
  • Compared two IR emitters by distance testing as a team and chose the LTE-5208A, which held 100% transmission success out to 8.5 ft, against 2 ft for the alternative
  • Met the four prioritized objectives as a team: at least 5 ft range, 75% reliability, 90° rotation and 10 messages per minute (under 1 s per message), on a $56.34 bill of materials
  • Wrote “Lighty”, a voice-activated send mode beyond the original scope: it calibrates a MAX4466 microphone, detects voice activity by peak-to-peak amplitude, takes a message typed over serial and sends it as IR codes with beep-pattern feedback on a speaker

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