*156B Week 1

MAE 156B – Spring 2012 – Week 1

Overview of Status of Analysis, Design, Fabrication, Tests, etc.

• Transitioning to fabrication/testing phase

• Preliminary software code developed and ready to begin testing

• Still exploring/shopping for better components

Accomplishments from Previous Week

• Purchased Arduino Mega, 20x Tept4400 photodiodes, breadboard, and 100x XkOhm resistors

• Completed a simple analogRead() Arduino sketch waiting for tests

Goals for Next Week (list names after each item). Use specific and measurable objectives.

• Look for power supply: Battery/Solar Panel:  Tyler C.

• SolidWorks model of sensor array (housing):  Jeff H.

• Develop code for sensing process: Andy C.

• Testing best resistance combination for the best readings:  Victor F.

• Look for better sensors: Victor F.

Sponsor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)

Sponsor's comments:

·         The sensor array should be less than 10x10in (March 22, 2012, in person)

·         Consider a battery pack with solar panel as the recharging mechanism (April 4, 2012 – 1:30pm, in person)

Actions Taken:

·         Jeff is designing array in Solidworks by next week

·         Tyler is researching rechargeable batteries and solar panels to tie into system

Instructor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)

Note: All from March 20, 2012

Instructor's comments:

·         Analysis on the fluctuation of cloud (I assume the shadows of the clouds) and its "dollar impact" on energy costs (on solar panel?)    Jeff

·         Why do we have to use the Datalogger?      Tyler

·         Why will more data cause problems? => Consider filtering covered in 156A     Charlie

·         Summarize physics and characteristics of pyranometers and photodiode (also is there a limitation to using photodiodes?)                Victor

·         Calculate the required sample rate of the new system so that it at least matches the accuracy of the old system.                            Tyler

·         Consider performance required with specific quantities values for our next. (Assuming this means *specific quantified values)        Andy

Actions Taken:

·         Small solar on grid, negligible impact. Large solar on grid (by 2020) 10-20% of energy production costs related to upwards of billions of dollars

·         Datalogger was chosen because it was already available in the lab. I’m assuming it was originally based on the accompanying extended warranties and certified calibrations. Wasn’t yet foreseen that they required on-board processing

·         More data will not cause more problems. Steve clarified.

·         When light is sensed, current is produced which tied in with a resistor creates voltage.

·         Contacted application engineer at Arduino: Arduino samples each analog pin at 100μs, and sampling 16 pins leads to a complete cycling rate of 625Hz which is 6.25 times faster than the sponsor’s desire.

·         Photodiodes generate 0-5V.

Comments from Other Students in the Class (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)

• Why is the new sensor (tept4400 photodiode) better than current sensor (pyranometer)?  -  Sam (after presentation)

• Will filters help with unwanted noise? – Thomas Tran (presentation suggestions)

• Explore wirelessly sending information to a computer – Sonya Spala (presentation suggestion)

• Does making the system smaller, increase the sensitivity to quick changes in velocity?

-          Travis Weightman (presentation suggestion)

·         How fine of a measurement will the cloud provide given the light scatter?

-          Mike Guidel (presentation suggestion)

·         Consider using PID control?  - Nima (presentation suggestion)

·         Amplifier required?  -  No name (presentation suggestion)

·         Consider keeping the pyranometers. They might have a higher resolution than that of the photodiodes. – Sam Aminfard (presentation suggestion)

·         How far away from the solar panels does your device need to be placed to get the data in time to tell panel operations what adjustments to make?  - Stephanie (suggestion)

Risks and Areas of Concern

• Complete structure of the codes is still unclear

• The suitable size of solar panel that can provide enough power supply

• Accompanying rechargeable battery will always be able to provide necessary power to device

Resources or Information Required but not Available

• N/A

Schedule

• Milestone one: purchasing parts is mainly complete. The next milestone will be finalize sensor array that optimizes the performance

• Update Gantt chart.

Budget (list amount spent and amount remaining)

• Amount Available: $ 1930.98

• Amount Spent: $ 69.02

Progress on Report and Webpage

• Updated and completed