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Electronic Engineering Portfolio 2011
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Transcript of Electronic Engineering Portfolio 2011
Engineering Portfolio
I believe a good engineer possesses not only strong theoretical
and analytical skills gained through further study, but can also
demonstrate a vast array of talents that can inspire creativity,
and maximize productivity in any situation.
My strongest traits are that I am a hard working individual and
team member. I can provide ideas based on engineering
principles but also on common sense and practicality.
The year’s industrial experience as part of my Degree soon gave
a clear indication that applying my University study in practical
situations was a must. Since then I have taken every
opportunity to practically apply my skills and knowledge.
This document is a showcase of my experience so far. This
includes my University study, but also stretches beyond this to
include 3 years industrial experience as an Electronic
Development Engineer and additional work carried out in my
spare time.
Swipe Card Reader for Monitoring Student Attendance UoM School of E&E
Design Challenges
Compact & Robust Design -
To be carried by lecturers to
their rooms around campus
and passed between
students in lectures.
Battery Operated - To
operate on two standard AA
batteries and have 2-3 month
service life.
Simple Operation - Give clear
indication to students that
the card swipe has been
successful.
Low Cost - Achieve product
at a cost considerably less
than existing product on the
market.
Developed outside of academia for The School of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, University of Manchester. Built to replace an existing market product
that did not fit the School’s requirements.
The project required me to work through the full product design cycle; from agree-
ing a specification, arranging and completing the hand soldering and assembly of an
initial 20 units, and more recently organising the assembly of an additional 20 units.
In addition, an accompanying Windows
Application has been developed for
extracting the card numbers that have
been swiped.
Since January 2011 the devices have
been distributed amongst the School’s
lecturers to monitor student’s
attendance in lectures.
Embedded System DesignI2C
RS232
SPI
Embedded CSourcing Parts
Assembly Drawings and BOM
Swipe Card Reader for Monitoring Student Attendance UoM School of E&E
PCB Layout Design
C#
Currently used in lectures...
The student ID numbers are read using the Magnetic Swipe Card
Reader and then processed and stored with a timestamp in flash
memory.
The ID numbers can then be uploaded onto a computer via a RS232
connection using the windows application.
The application then allows the user to export the ID
numbers to a Spreadsheet.
Post Graduate Research Degree Master of Philosophy.
Masters Research Project Title
Measurement and analysis of alkaline battery performance for low power wireless
applications
The main focus of my research has been in the
area of battery technology and the use of stan-
dard Alkaline batteries in Low Power Wireless
applications.
Here are some of the questions that have been
asked...
Focus of Research
What variables
affect the
battery service life?
How much can new low-power
Microcontrollers be used to
improve performance?
Can the life of a standard
pair of Alkaline Batteries be
prolonged?
My research has resulted in three sub projects and custom
designs that have been part of my research;
- Battery Monitoring System
- Peltier Controlled Temperature Block
- Low Power Wireless Sensor Node
The research has now been completed and is scheduled
for oral examination before the award of the degree.
The full text of the Thesis can be provided upon
request.
The Battery Monitoring System was designed in order
to tackle the problem of analysing the cell voltage and
service life performance of the Alkaline cells under
varying conditions.
The Board provides a method to perform a controlled
discharge of a pair of cells whilst being able to apply
various different current loads.
Battery Monitoring System Master of Philosophy.
All measured information is stored on
an SD card as Binary files. The raw
data stored in the Binary files can be
imported onto a PC, through use of a
Windows application written in C#.
This data can then be converted into
CSV files which allows for the data to
be imported into applications such as
MatLab for graphical analysis.
A total of three boards have been in operation,
discharging in excess of 100 batteries and
resulting in more than 350 days worth of
experimental results.
C# Programming
System Design
PCB Design
Schematic Capture
Component Identification
SPI Bus
Battery Monitoring System Master of Philosophy..
Since the discharge currents have
ranged between the nA and mA
range, different types of current source
have been used. Each current source is
therefore contained on a single mod-
ule. The discharge current can be
switched between two different
sources to produce a pulsed current
load on the batteries
Measurements of Voltage
and Temperature are
stored along with a
timestamp on the SD Card.
This data is stored within a Bi-
nary File, utilising FAT16
formatting and can therefore
be opened and read on a PC.
The board allows for up to
three pairs of AA cells to
be discharged simultaneously.
Each pair has a thermistor lo-
cated on flying leads between
the cells. Relays provide me-
chanical isolation to remove
any load from the cells.
SD Card
Current Source
Pair of AA Cells
Peltier Temperature Block Master of Philosophy.
Design Concept
Temperature has a significant effect on
battery service life, so this brought
about the requirement to discharge
the AA Batteries in a temperature
controlled environment.
This has been achieved by using a
custom designed aluminium
encasement for two AA batteries and a
Peltier Module to either cool or heat
the encasement.
Mechanical Design
The mechanical design was carried out
using Solidworks 3D CAD software,
which allowed for several design
iterations before manufacture.
Since this is a one-off design, certain
aspects have been simplified to allow
for quick manufacture and future
modifications if required, whilst still
proving the concept.
Tests Complete...
Fan and Heatsink, to draw heat
away from the Peltier Device
Peltier Module, can either heat
or cool the ALU encasement
Insulation, ensures that the
temperature difference is
achievable
Low Power Design Master of Philosophy.
Versatile Power
management
For use with standard
Alkaline Batteries
Sub MicroAmp
Deep Sleep Currents
Minimise Leakage Currents
Bypass DC DC
Boost Convertor
Reduce Battery
Cut-Off Voltage
Measure Temperature
Measure Cell Voltage
Monitor Network
Performance
2.4GHz Freq Band
Design Concept
The aim has been to design and deploy a low
power wireless sensor network.
The node design takes into consideration the
data gathered from the controlled battery
discharges and provides versatile power
management.
The power management and power supply
design will hopefully be able to increase the
amount of stored energy that can be used
from the standard Alkaline Batteries.
A prototype was built and tested but
unfortunately delays meant that the aim of
deploying a wireless sensor network was not
fulfilled.
Low Power Design Master of Philosophy.
Physical Deployment
Tubular pods have been designed to be
situated just below the surface
with only the antenna [Not shown]
above ground level
Transceiver, 2.4GHz radio
band balanced output.Flash, storage for logging
network activity and
performance.
Load Switch, ensures versatile
load management.
Boost Convertor, provides rail
from input as low as 0.9V and is
enabled via the PIC.
Adapter, provides programming
header and a RS232 transceiver.
PIC24, extremly low power
16-bit microcontroller.
Low Power Sensor Node
Prototype built...
Electronics Team UoM Formula Student Team
Formula Student is a student led project to design, build, develop, and
compete as a team with a single seated racing car.
I have been a member of the team for over 4 years and in 2008-2009 my
role was as Electronics Team Leader. The role involved various
responsibilities including, collaborating with mechanical members of the
team, and co-ordinating work among the Electronics team.
Two major design contributions during my time on the team included...
Controller Area Network
Final year project of BEng Degree but continued the project to implement
it on the car. It was applied to Formula Student car which entered the UK
2009 Formula Student Event and has been implemented since.
Network consisted of:
- ECU (Engine Control Unit)
- Dashboard VFD display
- Cooling Control Unit
- Power Distribution Unit
Cooling Control- Small enclosed solution for control of water pump and fan
- Eradicate the need for two separate controllers
- Variable speed control of water pump and fan
The team’s best performance in the UK event
came in 2008 where we achieved 23rd overall
and 6th within the UK entrants.
In 2009 the cars performance was hampered by
suspension problems, but the team finsihed a
respectable 34th out of 82 entrants.
Appliance Configuration
The application modifies the released Freescale S19 Binary files so that
the same hardware can be customised to the customer’s required
appliance setup. The modified files can then be programmed to the
device during production or for samples.
USB Diagnostics
The application provides a user interface between
the companies USB Diagnostics adapter and the
Appliance hardware.
Development Engineer Pactrol Controls Ltd
My responsibilities as a development engineer at Pactrol
are mainly focused on .Net windows application
development. This has been in Visual C++ and more
recently moved to C#.
The applications in general provide a form of
configuration or diagnostics presented in a clear graphical
user interface.
Other work has included the development of a Graphic
LCD control to accompany the main appliance control,
written in embedded C.
VC++
C#