Engineering Commons^™

Programmable Vibration Table Retrofit With Eagle Medical, Jonathan Ilagan, Madhav Asok, Max Lewter

Biomedical Engineering

This project aimed to repair and upgrade a vibration table used for package testing for the sponsor, Eagle Medical - a medical packaging and sterilization company based in Paso Robles, California. The current vibration table is not programmable and lacks circuit diagrams, making it difficult to repair. In addition, it is not functional due to internal circuitry issues and power requirements. To address these issues, the team will implement several upgrades to improve the product and allow for better random cyclic vibration testing. A full assessment of the existing vibration table will be conducted to ensure the viability of these …

Checkerbot, Sean P. Whitty

Electrical Engineering

This product is able to play a game of checkers against the customer at three different preset difficulties. It can process the board on its turn, and displays its next turn to its opponent by updating the board state via the LEDs. It consists of a laptop screen display, and a computer chip with the programmed ability to process the checkers board and decide its next move. It provides the customer with an opponent that can be modified in difficulty so it can provide however much of a challenge as the customer desires, as well as allowing for a 2 …

Dc To Dc Usb-C Charger, Nikki Gmerek, Kenneth Nguyen, Uriel Serna

Electrical Engineering

The DC House USB-C Charger will convert the 48V input from the DC house, found on the Cal Poly campus, to 3 USB-C outputs: 5V, 12V, and 24 volts. The converter will deliver a total of 185 Watts out across all 3 outputs, with an efficiency greater than 82% at full load. The USB-C ports will be used to connect to compatible phones, laptops or any other device for charging/powering purposes. The goal of this project is to develop the most efficient and safe converter to deliver power to multiple outputs using USB-C, for items as small as a cell …

Passive Balancing Battery Management System For Cal Poly Racing's Formula Sae Electric Vehicle, Alvin Joseph Ha

Electrical Engineering

This senior project aims to replace the current battery management system (BMS) on Cal Poly’s Formula SAE electric vehicle with a more versatile, advanced, and reliable system. A BMS manages a rechargeable battery by ensuring the battery device operator’s safety, protecting battery cell integrity, prolonging battery lifetime, maintaining functional design requirements, and sending optimal usage information to the application controller. Passive balancing maximizes a battery pack’s capacity by dissipating excess energy through heat to regulate cell state of charge.

Wireless Audio Bridge, Daniel L. Hodges

Electrical Engineering

Bluetooth, a wireless technology standard used to exchange data using radio transmissions, has made a significant impact on the audio technology industry, specifically the way people listen to music. This technology enables a wireless listening experience, eliminating the need for wires or cables between audio devices as previously required. Audio can transmit from a cellphone or laptop (an output device) to a pair of headphones or speakers (an input device) without any physical connection. Compared to alternative wireless listening solutions (i.e. FM transmitter, radio broadcast), Bluetooth offers greater reliability, audio fidelity, portability, and ease of use. To obtain this functionality, …

Dc House Energy Management System, Zachary L. Eldredge, Zoe M. Hay

Electrical Engineering

In this work, a previously completed proof of concept for an Energy Management System (EMS) for the DC House project has been revised and re-implemented. The implemented design changes will improve the performance and reproducibility of the system. This new design of the EMS replaces the two-separate buck and boost DC-DC converters with a single bidirectional DC-DC converter to reduce components and improve efficiency. Analysis of the bidirectional DC-DC converter shows high efficiency especially at larger load currents. The code of the previous work was updated for smoother operation as well as to accommodate an LCD capable of displaying more …

Rubidium-Based Atomic Clock, Kate Miles

Physics

In this paper we will explore the process of building an atomic clock from a function generator, go into an in-depth introductory discussion of the Datum LPRO, and examine how rubidium function generators work.

3-Input Pre-Amp, Daniel Pico, Carla Salome Ramirez

Electrical Engineering

There is no commercial available pre-amplifier that takes 3 individual input signals and synthesizes them for an acoustic guitar. The acoustic pre-amplifier takes three separate small signal inputs and combines or isolates to endure amplification depending with user setting. The user deciphers which signal or signal combination is desired. The device features coil pick-up, microphone pick-up, and piezo disc pick-up for variety of tone quality and control.

Continuous Hand-Tool Leveling Device, Shaun Villa Koide

Electrical Engineering

To produce clean and precise cuts, hand-tools (e.g. knives and saws) must maintain a consistent angle of orientation during the entire cutting process. The Continuous Hand-Tool Leveling Device mounts on the desired hand-tool and the user inputs the desired angle of the cutting plane. The device utilizes a microcontroller unit (MCU) and accelerometer to implement real-time angle measurement. When using a hand-tool, the device uses an LED that indicates that the hand-tool’s angle deviates from the user-set desired angle, which prevents any potential mistakes from occurring due to user error. The device easily mounts on many common cutting tools. Additionally, …

Portable Solar Powered Charging Station, Jordan Bonner

Electrical Engineering

The portable solar powered charging station uses a solar powered mat that can be folded for portability. The device has the ability to charge small electronics during both day and night. When sunlight is available, the charger charges two C batteries in series and at the same time it charges any electronic device that can be connected via USB or cigarette lighter. At night the charger will charge the same electronic devices from the onboard batteries. The charging station must be able to interface with electronic devices using USB and a car cigarette lighter to charge the device’s battery.

Design And Production Aspects Of An Electroluminescent Segment Display, Veronica Kopp, Chris Nixon

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to get a better understanding of the different ways printed circuits could be constructed and then implemented into creative, visual designs for printed electroluminescent displays. A variety of circuit design variables, such as area and length, were tested that will help create solutions for printed electronics.

This study tested different variables of circuit design, such as length of silver traces and the size of the image area, to help optimize ways to build a printed circuit. Then, findings were implemented into a segmented graphic display in order to analyze innovative ways to utilize multiple …

Digitally Controlled, Modular Electronic Load, Jason L. March

Master's Theses

This project entails the design and development of a digitally controlled, modular electronic load. The proposed load is unique from existing designs because it has the added ability to increase its maximum current level by adding identical modules in parallel. Each module is designed to sink a maximum of 5A at 60V but more modules allow for more current. The cost and simplicity of the design are considered such that it can be reproduced in-house to replace, whenever possible, the resistor box for load testing of any analog circuits but more specifically power electronic circuits.

The design process as well …

Modular Electronic Load, Jason March

Electrical Engineering

This project entails the design and development of a modular electronic load. The cost and simplicity of the design are considered such that it can be reproduced in-house to replace whenever possible resistor box for load testing of any analog circuits but more specifically power electronic circuits.

The design process as well as the hardware development is explained in details in this report. Results from hardware testing are also provided.

The Applications And Limitations Of Printable Batteries, Matthew Delmanowski

Graphic Communication

This study focuses on the potential applications for printed batteries and how they could affect the printing industry. It also analyzes the main problems associated with manufacturing this technology and what needs to be done to overcome these issues. To find the answers to these questions, two methods of research were used. The first was through the elite and specialized interviewing of Dr. Scott Williams of Rochester Institute of Technology and Professor Nancy Cullins from Cal Poly. The second form of research was a common, yet useful, method called secondary research. This entailed looking at recent written research papers about …