Engineering Commons^™

Development And Prototyping Of A Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter For 3-Phase 480 Volt Systems, Matthew R. Norlander

Master's Theses

Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) technology was first introduced in the NEC in 1971, yet four decades later the technology has not been introduced to a great extent outside of the home environment. This thesis introduces the difficulties encountered in low-voltage three phase ground fault current detection, and adopts a previously patented tripping scheme to develop and prototype a digital relay for 3-phase 480 volt systems capable of the sensitivity and speed required for personnel safety. Results demonstrate the feasibility of the concept and suggest commercial development should be pursued. The prototype is capable of mA sensitivity and reliably detects …

902–928mhz Uhf Rfid Tag Antenna Design, Fabrication And Test, Chiweng Kam

Master's Theses

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) uses RF radiation to identify physical objects. With decreasing integrated circuit (IC) cost and size, RFID applications are becoming economically feasible and gaining popularity. Researchers at MIT suggest that RFID tags operating in the 900 MHz band (ultrahigh frequency, UHF) represent the best compromise of cost, read range, and capabilities [1]. Passive RFID tags, which exclude radio transmitters and internal power sources, are popular due to their small size and low cost [1].

This project produced Cal Poly’s first ever on-campus printed, assembled, and operational UHF (902 to 928 MHz) passive RFID tag. Project goals include …

Face Detection And Lip Localization, Benafsh Nadir Husain

Master's Theses

Integration of audio and video signals for automatic speech recognition has become an important field of study. The Audio-Visual Speech Recognition (AVSR) system is known to have accuracy higher than audio-only or visual-only system. The research focused on the visual front end and has been centered around lip segmentation. Experiments performed for lip feature extraction were mainly done in constrained environment with controlled background noise. In this thesis we focus our attention to a database collected in the environment of a moving car which hampered the quality of the imagery.

We first introduce the concept of illumination compensation, where we …

Terrain Classification For Autonomous Rmax Helicopter Search And Rescue, Erin West

Electrical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Dyl-Light: An Acn Controlled, Rgbw Led Light Fixture, Dylan Pavelko

Electrical Engineering

The Dyl-Light is a LED lighting fixture that is controlled with a recently released suite of entertainment technology protocols called A.C.N. This new protocol has a number of advantages to its use over the existing protocol, DMX512, used for controlling entertainment lighting fixtures. This project attempts to use this new protocol to directly control a light fixture, something that currently is not available on the market.

The project includes several aspects of engineering from electronics, embedded systems, applications, networking, power electronics, and computer interfacing.

Low-Power Self-Sustaining Schedule Display, Samuel (Sam) August

Electrical Engineering

The completed project is an Amazon Kindle, powered by a USB solar charger, running a student designed program to display a weekly schedule for a faculty member. The purpose of the project was to design a sustainable electronic schedule display for use outside a faculty office. It was designed in the hopes that faculty members could more easily update their schedules, and possibly allow for students to schedule appointments. The program was designed using Java and the solar-charger was designed using a solar cell, Schottky diode, and a USB to micro-B USB cable.

Rfid Home And Office Automation System: Based On Localized Room Entry, Nolan Clark

Electrical Engineering

Design and build a proof of concept model demonstrating an application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for use in a home or office lighting automation system. The system provides new means for reducing energy consumption through active light switching based on simplified location tracking. Often lighting systems use motion sensors and timers to determine when a person enters or leaves a room, but these platforms are based purely on motion meaning “no motion, no light.” The RFID based system utilizes medium range RFID readers and tags located at doorways or narrow passageways in the environment to provide a general …

Formula Hybrid Primary Electrical Systems Senior Project Report, Gregg Schultz, Matthew (Matt) Tolman

Electrical Engineering

This senior project involves the "Primary electrical systems" (excluding data-acquisition) for Cal Poly’s Hybrid Racecar Team: SAE Formula Hybrid. Effectively, this project involves the high-voltage and low-voltage electrical systems one would typically find in an electric car, with the addition of some circuitry for an on-board battery charger. The primary electrical systems need to follow strict rules and guidelines as given by the Formula Hybrid Competition, as well as provide reliable and high-performance operation to ensure a competition-worthy vehicle. In addition to designing, building, testing, and competing with the Primary electrical systems, we will also generate a detailed step-by-step "guide" …

Audio-Triggered El Wire Sequencer, Benjamin (Ben) Paik

Electrical Engineering

“Development of an Audio-Triggered EL Wire Sequencer” California Polytechnic State University 2011, Ben Paik and John Oliver, Ph.D. (advisor)

The purpose of this project is to investigate and develop a method for switching electroluminescent wire (EL wire) such that it can be activated by some audio source. EL wire is essentially a coaxial capacitor that luminesces when an alternating electric field excites the insulating phosphor layer in the wire (a 100Vp, 1kHz AC source is sufficient for this). The system involves the EL wire, a six channel sequencer to switch the EL wire, an method for processing the audio signal, …

Discrete Alarm Clock, Travis Moore, Collin Barth

Electrical Engineering

The standard alarm clock, as used daily by millions worldwide, has clear room for modification and improvement. This paper documents an implementation that rectifies many of these flaws. Improvements include adjustable snooze length, an IR remote for ease of use, and an RF headset for discrete alarm use or potential incorporation into a device much like a hearing aid. The processes involved in creating a digital alarm clock, as well as the obstacles met in the implementation of the enhanced design, are detailed within.

Wireless Sensor Network For Energy And Environmental Monitoring: Helping Old Buildings Go Green, Jacob Power

Electrical Engineering

Today, the rising cost of energy and social trend of “going green” has put increasing pressure on commercial property owners to improve the efficiency of their investments. There is good reason for this, too. In the State of California, office buildings represent the single largest user of energy in the commercial sector. This project consisted of the design, implementation, construction, testing, and deployment of a wireless sensor network for energy and environmental monitoring in retrofit commercial office installations. The analyzed data generated by this system can be used by building management and owners to identify areas of inefficiency within the …

Development Of Wind Tunnel For Laboratory Wind Turbine Testing, Danny Alexander Zepeda

Electrical Engineering

A wind tunnel with a 0.5 HP motor was purchased by Cal Poly Electrical Engineering Department from Hampden for $16,000. It can only simulate winds of up to 10 MPH. The tunnel has a manual dial that controls the wind speed. It also measures the voltage and current output with an analog measure display. This wind tunnel was expensive and unfortunately cannot achieve very high wind speeds. For this reason, a similar wind tunnel with more potential and with a smaller budget was proposed to be built for use in the Sustainable Energy Lab. The new wind tunnel that was …

Bridgeless Active Power Factor Correction Using A Current Fed Push Pull Converter, Jeramie Seth Bianchi

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Bridgeless Active Power Factor Correction

Using a Current Fed Push Pull Converter

Jeramie Seth Bianchi

Switched Mode Power Supplies have become increasingly popular for efficient methods of delivering power to an assortment of electronic devices. This thesis proposes a method of using a current fed push pull converter to provide active power factor correction and rectification in a single stage. While most AC-DC converters utilize a bridge rectifier to convert AC-DC and then perform DC-DC conversion, the proposed circuit will utilize its output diodes to perform rectification, thus eliminating the need for a bridge rectifier. This circuit will also …

Multiple-View Planetary Photogrammetry And Its Visualization, Kyle D. Husmann

Electrical Engineering

During the summer of 2010, Dr. Taemin Kim and Kyle Husmann jointly developed a novel new algorithm to generate topographical maps of planetary surfaces using a multiple-view photogrammetry approach. To evaluate and debug the algorithm, a program called mvpgui was developed to visualize and examine the objective function. After verifying the correct operation of the algorithm and mvpgui with synthetic data, it is run with real orbital data from the Apollo 15 mission. The results confirm the validity of the multiple-view algorithm as well as demonstrate the value of objective function visualization.

Electric Guitar Amplifier With Digital Effects, Shawn Garrett

Computer Engineering

During the course of this project, the research and development of an electric guitar amplifier was undertaken. This amplifier is divided into three distinct sections. The power distribution circuitry provides the proper voltages to safely operate all necessary components. The DSP and digital effects stage provides processing and allows the user to add digital effects to the original guitar sound. The amplification stage increases the power of the input signal to drive a loudspeaker. Due to several setbacks throughout the course of this project, the overall amplifier was not completed. All three of the sections were developed to working functionality, …

Micro-Forest Fire Detection (Mffd) Lwir Detector And Principle Component Analysis For Fire Detection, Bryce Du

Electrical Engineering

No abstract provided.