Methodology

Methodology

We will list in order of phase the process that we went through during our time working on this project.

Phase 1

The first phase of our project we called “Project Start”. We were able to quickly form our group based on being a group in project management last semester and where we worked well together. The project idea was a little harder for no one could think of anything at first, but then Sangyeop came up with the idea of a touchless hand sanitizer with a temperature sensor. Our first milestone was submitting an application for the project.

Phase 2

The second phase was “Planning”. After acquiring a technical advisor, we came up with a pool of ideas (Figure 1) for building the touchless hand sanitizer.

Design sketches (Figure 2) on how the sanitizer would look were then developed, and at this point, we already started to deviate from the pool of ideas. We were originally going to have a unit that would have a bottle of sanitizer that could be replaced but was proving too hard to think of a design to incorporate this. Parts were then researched to see what the most effective way to build the circuit would be.

Our next milestone was completing the scope statement1 package which we split up as equally as possible. The technical sketch was then made after watching lots of YouTube and reading about how certain components worked like the 555-timer chip.

Phase 3

The third phase “Project Assembly” is where things started to go downhill for us. We started out wanting the temperature sensing circuit to use a microcontroller but finding info on how to do this was proving impossible to find since a microcontroller could do it so easily, so we went with a microcontroller.

We then wanted to have both the pump circuit3 and temperature sensing circuit4 running off the same battery source. The temperature sensing circuit would have an LCD that would be always on, and we figured it would drain the batteries too quickly, so it was decided to have it powered by a USB plug.

We tested and immediately had issues with the infrared sensor that would detect someone’s hand. The sensors came in a five-pack off Amazon and after reading some reviews found that they ranged all over with some people having all sensors work, to having some work to none working. Unfortunately, none of ours worked in that we couldn’t adjust the range of the sensor, so the hand has to be close for it to detect.

The pump circuit (Figure 3) was built on a breadboard initially everything was working as it should, a hand went in front of the sensor and then the pump would turn on for a set amount of time that was determined through an equation that used a value for a capacitor and a resistor. This was our third milestone.

Shortly after the pump circuit would have intermittent faults in which the timing portion for the pump to be on stopped working and would only pump when the hand was right close to the sensor, then without doing anything it would work ten minutes later.

After bringing this up with our technical advisor he suggested building a completely different pump circuit5. We decided to try this new circuit with still working on the original pump circuit in case we couldn’t get all the parts or get it working on time. At this point, we were quite behind on our schedule and over budget2 buying parts for the new pump circuit.

We acquired all the parts for the new circuit and built it on a breadboard. This circuit is more complex (Figure 4) than the original but because of its design, we could test it in different sections. Some sections of the circuit are now working as they are supposed to be, and a bunch of hours have been put into troubleshooting the issue.

Around this time all the parts for the temperature sensing circuit (Figure 5) had arrived and the circuit was built with no trouble. The microcontroller board required code for the circuit to work and it was proving hard to learn, but an already-written code was found and uploaded to the board which did allow the circuit to read the temperature.

While continuing to troubleshoot our new pump circuit the original pump circuit was soldered to a printed circuit board and tested.

Based on the size of the two circuits the sanitizer unit was built to house everything which was our next milestone. The new pump circuit is working but not as well as we would like in that the timing isn’t working all the time.

Our next milestone would be testing the sanitizer unit after it is all together but it looks like we won’t have it together before our presentation.

Phase 4

“Project closure” is our last phase. In this phase, our only task/ milestone is the presentation which will take place on March 10th.

Individual
We will now describe what each of us contributed to the project.

Jamie Ruppert
I had drawn the sanitizer design as well as came up with the original technical sketch. For the scope statement, I created the Gantt chart6 as well as did a lot of the parts research. I have acquired all the parts as well as paid for them both from an online and local shop. I have been updating the google website weekly with the EVA7, log8, decisions9, and tasks10 as well as adding all the documents and making sure they are shared correctly. I have built and programmed the temperature sensing circuit as well as built the original pump circuit on a breadboard and tested it, then soldered it to a printed circuit board. I have also built with help the new pump circuit and have been testing and troubleshooting it. I have built the sanitizer unit that houses all the components.

Sangyeop Kim
During this project, I started with the project statement and I was supposed to get involved in more portion of the physical work related to the circuitry; however, I ended up focusing on testing the circuity and confirming whether the wires were put in properly or the components were inserted properly and troubleshooting if the result did not come up as we expected, and I have completed the Risk11 Brainstorming as well and it led me to see if the project was going in the right direction on pace and allowed me to give some insights whether there were answers that we might be able to apply on the issues that we were under or what we will have.

With respect to the weekly tasks, I have prepared the team meeting sheet according to the tasks that we had done and what we are going to fix or change. It has been uploaded to our Google website. Besides, I have taken charge of the final project report such as Detailed Design Review, Physical Circuit and/or System Review, and Power Dissipation Calculations. Power dissipation calculation was done along with the actual circuit by feeding the source in case any surging value popped up, we confirmed the data sheet and re-tested and this part was taken with team member Jamie, and the Physical circuit Review and the design review parts were prepared based on the current situation of the project compared to the project scope statement.

Liam Lucas
During the project, I completed the PowerPoint slideshow for comm and the final report.  I also completed some of the group comm assignments and had some small add-ons to the project design. I completed the pool of ideas and picked the basic parts to use on the project.