During the development of the prototype, some mechanical changes were made to the original design with the aim of improving the aesthetics, usability and flexibility of the system, without compromising its structure or functionality.
An additional thinner MDF board was added to the front of the tower, creating a specific space to accommodate the LED strip. This modification allows the strip to be hidden from the user's direct view, resulting in a cleaner and more professional finish, in addition to physically protecting the light components from impacts. In addition, not having to drill holes in the main structure allows for greater versatility. The board was fixed with screws, maintaining the robustness of the structure.
The top of the tower has been redesigned to hide the originally visible camera cutout. Although the central hole has been covered, a gap has been maintained to expose the camera lens. This solution ensures the same flexibility as the original design — adapting to different camera models — but with a more discreet appearance and without “damaging” the main structure.
During assembly, it was found that some connectors on the electronic components had a larger diameter than the wires themselves. To facilitate installation without damaging the connectors, the holes originally designed for passing cables through were enlarged. This change improves cable routing, avoids mechanical stress and facilitates future maintenance.
These modifications were carried out with care to maintain all the structural properties of the system, ensuring stability, protection and modularity in accordance with the principles established in the initial version of the project.
It is still possible to carry out aesthetic refinements such as using a hole saw, replacing the group of holes made with common drills, using tape and/or rubber to hide screw marks and sanding the LED hole exits.
During this week, our primary focus was on the full integration of the system components, which included the deployment of our cloud-based API. This API acts as the central communication layer between the mobile application, the Raspberry Pi, and the ESP32 microcontroller. Its responsibilities include receiving and processing incoming data, managing routine states, and storing processed results in Firebase.
To support the system's operation, we developed four main HTTP endpoints: