Engineering Design VI
Assignment 11.3: Senior Design Plan
Develop technical skills to produce and assemble solar protect model
Experiment and research different parts and materials to model first Solar Protect prototype
Test and refine design to increase product effectiveness
Create technical document and manual for product
Obtain patents for design and trademark company name
Create models for all phones, branching away from only apple supported cases
Assignment 11.2 : Gantt Chart
Assignment 11.1 : Design Diagrams
For this assignment, the first image is an expanded version of the solar protect phone case. There is an iPhone, followed by a case that contains a small pocket. This area is for additional circuitry and the battery that will charge the phone when desired. Following the case are the solar cells that will also be protected by a thin plastic material. The next image is what the entire product will look like all together. Some of the parts are made transparent so that each component is visible.
Assignment 10 : Design Analysis
Assignment 8 & 9: Ethical Issues, Product Liability, and Social Impacts
Assignment 7 : Synthesis
Assignment 6: Abstraction and Modeling
Assignment 5: Intellectual Properties
Trademarks
Trademarks of competitor companies
"Stellar 8000 mAh Solar Power Bank" - A solar battery that stores charge to then be used as a portable charger.
solar power 1 iPhone Case by dreamy design | Society6
"solar power 1 iPhone Case" - A phone case with the design of the sun. No charging capabilities, only used for the protection of iPhones.
JEP, solar case battery for iPhone – Sunthetic
"JEP, solar case battery for iPhone" - Very similar idea to my design. It is a phone case with a battery attached to the case that is powered via solar energy.
Copyrights
This design uses no copyrighted elements.
Patents
US20080125188A1 - Cellular phone case capable of charging battery by solar energy - Google Patents
Patented by Jung-Yen Huang in 2008
A cellular phone case capable of charging battery by solar energy.
It has since been abandoned.
US20130040707A1 - Solar cell phone - Google Patents
Patented by Theoda METCALF in 2017
The claim was that it was a cell phone which had a switch for a diode which is electronically connected to a rechargeable battery.
The patent has since expired.
US20150256026A1 - Solar Powered Case for Charging Electronic Devices - Google Patents
Patented by Joachim Rybkiewicz
They claim a solar powered case made to charge portable electronic devices.
The patent is currently active
Assignment 4: Solution Development
The main task of my project is to develop a method for charging phones in the outdoors. The first task is to understand various charging methods. With limited electricity I would like to utilize solar energy by making a phone case that charges your phone. The case would be a battery storage system that you can then use to charge your phone. The material must be clear to allow sunlight and durable to protect that phone as any other case does.
With the idea of durability and charge capacity of the solar cells through the material, this is one of the most important decisions before moving forward with any design. There should be many tests for the viability of different materials.
Goals I would like to achieve would be the design of the case, the design of the solar power bank, the application of the power bank to charge the phone and lastly a finished product.
The power bank will not be used to power other products. It will also be a standard case made only for iPhones to begin.
Assignment 3: Problem Formulation
When outdoors, access to electricity is difficult, making it challenging to charge your phone when you want to charge it
Techniques/Strategies
Statement-Restatement: It's hard to charge your phone outside
3.
4. The possible cause of the problem is that there are few methods of getting power to your phone without direct connection to America's power grid. When you do have access to some of these sources, they are not constant energy sources and also run out of energy. For example, portable chargers only have a set amount of power it stores, and a car can only provide electricity as long as it has fuel, but that too eventually will run out unless constantly restored.
Assignment 2: Needs Assessment
Needs:
How fast something operates
Automation
Cost of operation
Precision of measurements
Increased capacities
The need to try to reduce fossil fuels and utilize green energy
Design Proposal:
After going on a camping trip this past weekend, I noticed how difficult it is to keep your phone charged without access to an outlet. Although leaving the car running and utilizing the cars battery as a means to charge my phone was viable, that could only happen in the morning, as the rest of the day was spent hiking and going on adventures. Within the next 2 years, I would like to create a phone case that has the capability to charge a phone through solar power. I would like to take solar cells and wire them to a case that protects the cells and the phone. The case itself will have its own electrical storage that when desired can provide power to the phone. The case itself can constantly be charged through the sun. In terms of cost, I am unsure how much it would take to manufacture and produce; however, I believe it would be affordable enough to function both as a case and a portable charger. In terms of cost, although it is hard to tell, I believe it could cost roughly $100-$200 to make a prototype, solar powered charging iPhone case.