Update 14: New Stuff

Credit: Google
This week, I mainly got supplies so that the second attempt is hopefully the last one. I bought another copy of the last pack I used because it was the cheapest, easy to dismantle, and has a useful circuit board which should make my life 10x easier. The more important addition was these small solar panels. They are already small so I don't have to worry about cutting them, and they deal with the proper amount of voltage. Also good news, it came in a set of a lot so I can have multiple attempts without getting more

Update 13: First Times an Almost Charm

Source: My iPhone Camera

So I finally got to attempt the whole shrinking a solar panel and having it still work thing and BOY was I close. I first disassembled the charger pack with relative ease, and disconnected the solar panel from the circuit board and the battery. I then sliced the sides of the panel off that were not attached to any wireing, and it seemed to be working at full power still. When I cut down the middle and into wires, it got hairy. Even though I reattached the two ends of the circuit and it should have worked, the panel was much weaker which makes sense. The issue is when I reintegrated the panel into the whole setup, it seems to not charge the battery as the green indicator light wont turn on. I won't know for sure, as I have to drain the battery first(as it already had charge when it was delivered) so I don't know 100% if it worked yet, but I kinda doubt it. Good news is, this is just one iteration of likely a few, and I know what generally works and doesn't. I will likely need to get a different pack for the second attempt so stay tuned for that.

Update 12: Party!!!!

Source: Google Images

I finally did it. I got the supplies. I went to Diddams and bought like 24 wristbands for like $6. Then I ordered the solar charger pack I am going to modify off Amazon, but it hasn't arrived yet. I plan to start modding the solar pack this weekend, which hopefully won't take longer than two weekends. Then I can just put the arm/wrist attachments on and hopefully the prototype(?) should be done before April.

Update 11: No more puns, time to hit the grind

Source:Google

That emoji represents me right now with the project. I'm not suuuuper worried, I just hope it all works ya know? I have everything planned out finally, and I hope to go buy everything sometime this week(the real question is will it ship fast enough lol). Im just now in the "please work out otherwise I need to explain why it did not work" phase. Yay. Uhhhh that's about it honestly. The update should be a lot more interesting next week.

Update 10: Band Ideas

Credit:Amazon

So I think I am finally not doing the Fitbit idea (so it's banned, like the title[I really need to get at least better puns if I am going to keep this up lol) because of two reasons. 1. It's not that cheap to buy just the band. 2. Even though I have a couple of my own to spare, I don't think hooking them up will be super easy, and even then I will need more than 2 for tests. ATM, I am seriously considering a giant bag of generic wristbands at like a party store because they would be flexible enough, comfy enough, and cheap enough, and I would get enough to test with a lot of them. That's about it for this week