Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello, I have created the project on ultrasonic haptics and have tested over ten people with it; however, I believe there is an issue that arose a couple of days ago that the sensations was suddenly gone. I had gone back to the people I tested to get the input on the feeling and said they barely felt it or nothing was felt at all... Everything seems to be working and you can even hear the high pitched sound, but the sensation is gone and I cannot test anymore people because it might skew my data. I have a limited time to finish this; any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi -

We have had several students report that they had trouble getting this project to work *initially*; but it's usually because they weren't properly providing power to the breadboard. We haven't had anyone report that it was working and suddenly stopped.

Can you post pictures of your circuit using the "attachments" feature below? If you have been moving the circuit around and having different people test it, is there any chance something came loose? Maybe some exposed alligator clips bumped together and caused a short circuit?

Did you order more than one ultrasonic transmitter? If so, have you tried testing more than one, in case the original one is damaged somehow?

Thanks,

Ben (project author)

I don't have the project on me at the moment. I did switch the transmitter with many different ones and got the same effect. It seems to be working fine until you try to feel something and its not there. I took apart the experiment and put it back together but it resulted in the same trouble. It did randomly work when I was trying to fix it; however, it stopped working the next day. I have tried so many ways to troubleshoot this but none has worked... Sorry for not having the pictures though. Thank you!

Ok - "it did randomly work when I was trying to fix it; however it stopped working the next day" makes me suspect a loose connection somewhere, like a wire that isn't pushed all the way into the breadboard or a loose alligator clip. When electronic components (like the Arduino, H-bridge, transmitter, etc) "burn out," they tend to STAY broken and not randomly start working again.

However, another possibility could be issues with the power supply - which might not just completely "die" right away. Can you describe how you're powering the project?