Weekly Reports - EE 491
*click on the period buttons to see pdf report
The main goal that our group had this week was to meet with our advisors, designate positions for team members, and find meeting times that would work for the entire group. Johnnie Weaver, Brandon Wachtel, and Tyler Fish researched information regarding road health systems for 1 hour each before the meeting with our advisors. The Web Masters were given the task to construct a basic design for the webpage prior to our first group meeting.
Our group focused mainly on individual research to later discuss as a group and as preparation for our weekly meeting with our professors. Awaiting to receive datasheets for the sensors from our advisors as well as contact information for the Civil group that we will be working with.
Held weekly team meeting on Thursday. We discussed and created our system level block diagram for the entire project to show to our advisors in our meeting on Friday. Attended weekly Advisor meeting on Friday. Spoke with Civil Engineering professors and graduate student about past work with the project and were informed on basic properties of concrete. Group members continued to do individual research on their own time.
Advisor meeting was cancelled but Jeremey attended our weekly group meeting on Thursday. We discussed the next steps in the project such as finalizing our components and looking to build a prototype. We are hoping to have our parts picked out by the end of this week. Plan to finish Project Plan finished during our weekly group meeting coming this next Thursday.
Drafted and reviewed our Design Plan. Worked in our small groups on our assigned parts of the project. Planned to wear suits to take photos for our website during the next advisor meeting. During our advisor meeting, our advisors reviewed our timeline/design plan and made small changes to it but overall were satisfied. Ordered and received microcontroller samples from TI.
Previously ordered parts are slowly coming in. We have pretty much wrapped up the research portion of the project. We are going to look further into electromagnetic charging as a possibility for charging the system if the RF charging is not possible. We scheduled weekly subgroup meetings to better progress through the project. The CprE members have been testing the microcontrollers as they have come in. Currently, they are having issues receiving data from the sensors and we may need to find a new sensor for the project. The power group has ordered samples of a charging circuit that will fit our needs. The communications group has been working on identifying antennas to use for receiving the RF signal for power as well as looking into LC circuits for the transmitter. Our advisors are letting us borrow an antenna kit that has been currently stored in their lab for testing purposes.
Finalizing the component list for our first prototype. Working to try to solve issues using surface mount ICs. Mitch and Brandon Maier are still testing the microcontrollers for functionality and looking into alternative sensors with lower power consumption, better communication protocols, and sturdier packaging for contact with concrete. Bought materials to start designing antenna for power reception. Have located a charging IC and plan to test as soon as prototyping PCB is ordered and received along with other components.
Parts are coming in and we have briefly tested our RF transceiver. The RF transceiver does not appear to meet the specs listed in the datasheet, so we will need to do further testing. Mitch Balke and Brandon Maier tested the power consumption of the microcontrollers and the values are much higher than listed in the datasheet. We will test them again but measure the voltage to see if the multimeter is having troubles measuring such small currents. Antenna group purchased materials for the antennas and created files for cutting.
Mitch Balke’s components have come in for the microcontroller. Mitch discovered that the microcontroller that we were using was consuming too much power and decided to go with a new one that only uses 0.1uA in sleep mode. We are continuing to order parts. We hope to get our lithium battery within a week. The prototype board came in for the charging chip and Brandon Wachtel made the charging circuit for the prototype. Chris and Tyler are waiting on the metal to be cut to start putting together antennas for testing. Johnnie bought some cinder blocks for testing the charging circuit.
Parts have been coming in. We are making final decisions on microcontrollers. We have been designing and making EM coils for magnetic charging testing. Started preliminary testing with EM coils. Parts came in for patch antennas to be created. Worked on our second version of the project plan. We are about to enter the testing phase of the project.
We changed the overall design of the project. Instead of doing periodic charging, we have decided to use continuous charging by placing charging circuitry beneath the nodes underground. It will increase the reliability and lifespan of the nodes and decrease the need for continuous maintenance by the DOT for charging. We have built the antennas for RF charging testing applications and are waiting on a few more components to come in to finish those. We are hoping to get the DOT to come to a weekly meeting to talk to them about the logistics of the project. We are continuing work on the new microcontrollers. Still heavily testing and working on getting a prototype built by the end of the semester. The biggest issue that we are running into is shipping times.
We started constructing our prototype. The transmitter ran into a few problems with our printed circuit board having incorrect connections. First attempt at the charging circuit did not succeed and we are in the process of reconstructing it. Regardless of the final charging method, we need to do wireless charging as a requirement for the project. Met with Civil Engineering group and they informed us of Department of Transportation procedures, the process of constructing a road, the hazards of road construction that concern our design, and a demonstration of concrete mixing and setting.
Finished up initial prototypes, final version of the project plan, and final version of the design document. Started working on the PowerPoint for our final presentation. Redesigned and built the charging circuit. Continued working on talking between the microcontroller and the antenna.