We entered McHacks 2018 as students who were relatively new to programming. As this event was our very first hackathon, our focus was on our personal growth. We have never worked with an Arduino before McHacks. As a result, we spent most of the time researching in order to familiarize ourselves with the chip and the Arduino IDE.
A user enters a text through the serial monitor. The program then translates the text to a series of '.', '-', 'l' and 'w', representing respectively dots, dashes, time between letters and time between words in morse code. That code is then used to control LED's and a mini speaker in order to output a more physical result. Being mindful of blind and deaf users, our Arduino 101 Morse Code Translator outputs both an audible and a visual signal using the mini speaker and the LED. The second LED lights up when the Arduino 101 Morse Code Translator is in translating mode as opposed to stanby mode.
When a project ends, we feel that it is important to celebrate our work, but it is also good practice to ask ourselves what we could have done to improve it.
As it is presently, the program requires the user to input a text message in the serial monitor of the Arduino IDE and then install the program onto the chip. We want to allow the user to input the text message through an app on their cellphone. Using Bluetooth technology might be interesting here.