Process

Below, we included a process for how the frame works.

With respect to a reflection on the process itself and the many iterations, refinements, and challenges:

Initially, we wanted to pull the 50 most recently played songs and display the ratio of those genres on the neopixel (i.e. if there are 50% pop songs, 50% rock songs, 50% of the neopixels would show as one color and 50% another). However, we realized that there were limitations to the API and how many webhooks could be used, so we had to be very deliberate with the webhooks we used for our device.

Knowing that the particle can only use 4 webhooks in a program, we decided to leverage the 'currently playing' webhook to retrieve the track's artist (and their primary genre).

We struggled initially with the Sptofiy APIs, too. For example, with the add song to playlist webhook, we were unsure initially how to pass the value of one API (get currently playing track) to the other. After some research, we were able to figure out how to execute this task.

Additionally, as we were finalizing the completion of our frames, we ran into an unexpected issue. For some reason, our program was no longer running. We hadn't changed the code, so we began to look at the wiring to see if perhaps there was loose wire. We also reviewed the code to ensure nothing had changed. After nearly an hour of pouring through the code and checking the breadboard and the wires and all the connections, we realized that the only explanation was that the particle had been fried. When we checked the code on another device (and the same wire setup), we realized that this was indeed the case.