Week 15 (Dec. 5, 2018): Pres. #3 (Final Design Specs.) Day 2 – Battery Charge Time Calc. & Reflection

-
The second set of Final Senior Project Presentations were delivered today, including us, the Small-Scale Controls Team. We found that our revised slides were a much better improvement compared to our old slides. Please refer to our improved Presentation #3 slides, embedded below.

The objectives of our presentation were to: (1) reiterate the significance and overarching aspirations of SPARTAN Superway and the purpose of the collective Small-Scale Team; (2) finalize our project design; (3) present continuing research and calculations; (4) check-off completed tasks on our Gantt Chart; and (5) plan ahead for the 2nd semester of senior project, ME 195B. We included our plans for the remainder of this semester, Winter Break, and the weeks leading up to ME 195B in our Gantt Chart.

Upon the conclusion of our presentation, Dr. Furman showed appreciation for the balance between detail and succinctness on our introduction slides, i.e. the slides that present the current transportation issues and present SPARTAN Superway as the solution as well as the quick reminder of the purpose of the Small-Scale Model. However, understandably, there are some things we need to improve upon: the calculation for the time required to charge the battery and the max distance that the tablet can be from the track. We should also work on making our slides, especially our calculations, legible. We should also avoid posting code (Arduino, C, and Python code) on presentation slides, but instead post the general idea (pseudocode or flowchart) as well as tell/show the results. Most importantly, we should start with testing out the motors and induction charger module with amplifier once we receive them. Also, since the voltage-regulator current-amplifier is a surface mount IC, it will be a challenge to solder it to the induction charge; Dr. Furman suggested getting a testing/expansion board to test the IC before using reflow soldering, which makes the connection permanent. 


<< Spartan Superway Small Scale Controls - 112818 Presentation #3>>













Source: Battery Life Calculator 
Source: Battery Charge Time Calculator

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 6 (Oct. 3, 2018): Coordination with the Small-Scale Bogie and Track Team

-
Image
Today, we discussed overlapping aspects of the small-scale system with the bogie team and the tracks team. The track team has settled on a design for the new track: a rectangular shape track with a Y-junction junction in the center to accommodate two charging stations, one at each branch. We are hoping to implement induction charging at these stations, which requires a 3.7 V Li-ion battery. Something else to consider is if we can use a transistor to amplify the current draw from the induction charger to speed up charging of the Li-ion battery and if we can use a boost converter (step-up transformer) for the brushless motor we will use. With the bogie team, we discussed motor sizing, as this selecting the appropriate motor would affect the force that the wheels would experience, and thus the design of the bogie. The force of the motor would be found by: (1) determining the power supply current output to the motor, I ; (2) converting the speed constant, K V , which is provided
Read more

Week 10 (Oct. 31, 2018): Battery Selection

-
Image
 UPDATE: Calculations for the induction charging and battery are found in the Week 14 and Week 15 blog posts. After finishing the last of the Presentation #2’s, time was provided to continue working on our projects. The first subject we wanted to address was to finalize the selection of our battery. So, we listed the pros and cons of the three main battery types: LiPo (Lithium-Polymer), NiMH (Nickel-Metal-Hydride), and Li-ion (Lithium-ion).   Sources: Roger’s Hobby Center | A Guide to Understanding LiPo Batteries and NiMH Vs LiPo Batteries - Which is better? and All About Batteries We eventually decided that we will be using LiPo batteries, like last year’s team, since they are more efficient and have a high energy density, along with their other benefits that outweigh their disadvantages and dominate the other battery types. Also, the fact that mini-LiPo chargers exist, such as the one below from Adafruit, will make charging more robust due to its compact design.
Read more

Week 4 (Sept. 19, 2018): Revised Project Objectives & Proposals

-
Today, Colin, a member of last year’s Small-Scale Controls Team and possibly our mentor/contact/guide, visited the Spartan Superway Design Center to provide us with advice, problems his team faced, features that they were hoping to implement but never got around to, and feedback on the design ideas we proposed.   Addressing our first idea of installing a differential drive system that would drive the wheels that move along the outer rail faster than the inner wheels when making a turn, preventing over-exertion of the servo motor steering the wheels when making a turn , Colin stated that we have two options: (1) Use two servo motors and incorporate the drive differential. However, Colin warned that he and his team used up all of their extra servo motors (about six extra) during their exhibition at Make’s Faire. So, he suggested buying three servos for each day spent at the Faire (three servos x three days = nine servos). If we want to pursue this idea, he suggested looking int
Read more