Senior Design Project

A FEW PROJECT IDEAS

Presentation on February 3 2010

Note: first few pages are the same as in the prior lecture notes

Marek Sosnowski 319 ECE Department

e-mail: sosnowski@njit.edu

A few project ideas

2-34. Monitoring electrical energy use

3-4

2-3

2-32

2-3

TeamSize

ECE-4175. Solar powered vehicle (play golf!)

ECE-4171. Simple EKG system

ECE-4166. All solar powered living

ECE-4163. Smart home thermostatECE-4162. Personal mini phone

ProjectType

Project title

.

1. Simple EKG system

• Design and build a two electrode heart signal sensing system for demonstration and education purpose

• Successful project can become a module in one of ECE student labs

• The project involves hardware development (analog) and signal analysis: select an appropriate instrumentation amplifier (operational amplifier), power supply (battery or ac with opto-coupler).

• The data can be displayer on an oscilloscope or (better) on a PC.

BACKGROUND

• Standard EKG,” generally involves the connection of between twelve and fifteen leads to a patient’s chest, arms and right leg via adhesive foam pads. The device records a short sampling of the heart’s electrical activity between various pairs of electrodes

• An experienced cardiologist can rapidly interpret a standard EKG tracing to diagnose a wide range of possible ailments.

The principle

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/9639/30462/01403627.pdf?arnumber=1403627

EKG signals

•Some health problem can be better diagnosed by continuous monitoring.•Vital sign recording (particularly the heart rate and breathing can be of great help in sports training and endurance testing.•Vital signs of a human body vary during day and night. A standard test at doctor’s office gives only momentary values.

Need for extended monitoring

EKG system (expanded)

• Design a compact wearable device that can over a period of many hours or even days.

• The data should be easily uploaded to a PC (USB)

• Standard software can be used to display the results.

2. Personal mini phone

Design and build a two-way wireless phone for two (or more) users

Specifications:– Small size and weight (less than cell phone)– Minimum range 50 m– Immune to interference

Explore existing technology and use standard off the shelf components

Test in performance in various environments

3. SMART HOME THERMOSTAT

• Energy saving at home is of major concern of the public today.

• Heating and air conditioning is supposed to keep home environment in the “comfort zone”.

• Human experience of thermal comfort depends on both temperature and humidity but standard thermostats regulate only temperature.

3. SMART HOME THERMOSTAT

OBJECTIVE:

• Design a “smart thermostat” that uses both temperature and humidity to provide optimum comfort conditions.

• The smart thermostat should be able to learn the homeowner’s “comfort curve”. After a few weeks of “training” the device should control a heating or air conditioning system following the preferences of a particular user.

4. Monitoring electrical energy use

Problem:• We often do not know how much energy is

really consumed by different electrical appliances in actual operation

• This information is needed to make intelligent choices for saving energy and its cost.

Monitoring electrical energy use

• Design a device recording electrical energy use by an appliance over extended time (weeks or more)

• Plug-in type for standard AC receptacles or wired-in for larger units

• Potentially a system of several units with data analysis on a PC (communication?)

• Target markets: home owners, small businesses

5. SOLAR GOLF CAR

POTENTIAL SPONSOR LB ELECTRIC Co.

+

Length 65.94 in (1675 mm)Width 39.41 in (1001 mm)Height 1.34 in (34 mm)Frame AluminumWeight 48.5 lbs (22 kg)

Project tasks

• Select appropriate solar panel• Investigate vehicle specification and

performance requirements• Design and build electronics

– Charging monitor/controller (easy)– Matching converter (challenging)

• Testing of system performance testing

Learn about:

solar power, batteries, power electronics

All solar powered living

(Electrifying hermit’s dwelling with solar power)

Project:Electrical system for a remote dwelling

(no utilities) powered only by solar energy

Prof. M. Sosnowski, ECE Department

Potential applications

• Isolated vacation cabin (mountains, lake island, woods)

• Remote research station (jungle, desert)• Nature filming and photography• Emergency service for prolonged power

outage

Project tasks• Research current and emerging solar photovoltaic cells

(efficiency, cost)• Design an electrical system using a solar panel of

reasonable size, a battery, and minimal electrical appliances of high efficiency: lights (LED, fluorescent?), refrigeration, computer, communication etc.

• Design a controller powering circuits with 2-3 priority levels.

• Build a scaled-down model of the system and measure its performance in real environment (obtain data over extended time)

• See Apollo 13 (the movie)

Experimental System

Engineering experience

• Energy and Power Design• Circuit and system design• Solar cell technology• High efficiency light sources and

appliances

PAnalog

inputs

Digital

I/O

ETHERNET

USBA

DC

Microprocessor development board

USEFUL IN MANY PROJECTSPC/Network Data Acquisition System

RF

Basic features

• 4 analog inputs, 12 bits minimum• 4 digital I/O• Generate files for graphic display (ASCII?) • Graphic user interface with basic functions• More sophisticated application-specific

display can be developed (JAVA, LabView?)• Inexpensive (~ $150 - $300)

Analog

signals

Digital

I/O

DATA

ACQUISITION

BOARD

USB

A SIMPLER SOLUTIONPC Data Acquisition System

Sensors with digital outputs

Digital

I/O

DATA

ACQUISITION

BOARD

USB

PC Data Acquisition SystemDigital signals