Engineering Commons^™

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 …

Ac/Dc Led Light Bulb Adaptor With Internal Rechargeable Batteries, Esteban A. Rubio, Matthew R. Delaby

Electrical Engineering

To make a sustainable product and provide a temporary source of lights on during emergencies, this project aims to create a small unit that can be attached to a light bulb of any variety and connect it to a socket. Within the device is a rechargeable battery that, when the device is not connected to an 120V AC, 240V AC, or 48V DC power source, will power the light for a short period of time. The battery can be charged during the standard operation of the device and can be powered by the US and EU standard outlet voltages as …

Power Line Coupling Power Supply Design, Janine Gian Christii C. Darato, Jeni K. Kawate, Nicholas A. Marta

Electrical Engineering

In this project, a power supply was designed for a startup company, Perch Sensing, to detect wildfires with the use of distributed sensors across power lines. The purpose of the power supply is to provide 15W of power to a microcontroller, which controls the sensor nodes. The power supply hangs from power lines and draws energy by inductively coupling to these lines. Our design starts with a current transformer that steps down the current from the power line, which is fed into a shunting mechanism as a safety precaution when the load is absent, then to the power supply itself. …

Miniaturized Ultraviolet Imager High Voltage Power Supply, Nicholas Palmer, Jason Thomas Heil

Electrical Engineering

Sending satellites into orbit becomes exponentially more expensive with weight and size, so designing high-voltage DC-DC converters that can achieve kilovolt level outputs in a small form factor is crucial to reducing costs. The Miniaturized Ultraviolet Imager (MUVI) aims to monitor Earth’s ionosphere and report weather patterns to climate scientists within a 2U cube satellite footprint. The imaging equipment consists of a microchannel plate and phosphor screen that require 2.5kV and 5.5kV respectively at microamp level currents. This report explains the implementation of a high voltage boost cascaded flyback converter to meet all of the MUVI satellite output voltage requirements. …

Buck Converter With Voltage Foldback Protection, Fabian Aaron Enriquez, Pedro Rincon Rosales

Electrical Engineering

In this work, we implemented the idea of current foldback protection onto a buck converter. Current foldback protection essentially helps reduce the power dissipation which may be caused by a short circuit or overload scenario. To achieve the goal of this project, we used a combination of comparators, operational amplifiers and MOSFETs to create a current foldback sub controller. This controller would then serve as a feedback device between the output of the converter and the main controller to detect if a fault condition has occurred. Following the design, we performed simulation of the current foldback controller using PSpice and …

Pilltank, Lucas Chang, Hayden Tam, Aaron Teh, Krista Round

Electrical Engineering

Imagine an elderly family member, going through their daily routine of taking their pills. They find their pill box; however, they are having trouble identifying all the pills in there. Is there a name on the tablet? Can they read what it says? Do they just trust that the medication in their box is correct? How can they properly take care of themselves if they can not even confirm that what they are taking is the right medication? To combat this issue that many face, we present PillTank.

To decrease the risk of consuming the wrong medication, PillTank identifies the …

Development Of A Low-Cost Hybrid Music Synthesizer, Spencer Rollins Drewry

Electrical Engineering

Until recently, affordable music equipment has always been seen as “budget”, providing a poor user experience. Inexpensive equipment was plagued with audible noise, signal integrity issues, and convoluted user interfaces. Companies like Teenage Engineering have proven that this does not have to be the case, in 2019 introducing their "Pocket Operator” series for $89. Due to the modern availability of low cost, high quality, consumer off the shelf [COTS] analog and digital components as well as creative engineering, the quality of inexpensive audio equipment has increased significantly. Despite these industry advances, the market is relatively small and shows a great …

Dc-Dc Buck Boost Converter Using The Lt8390 Controller And Gan High Electron Mobility Transistors, Juan Manuel Urbano Jr, Brian Thongchai Keokot

Electrical Engineering

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo’s ongoing Energy Harvesting from Exercise Machines (EHFEM) project creates a sustainable energy source by converting physical exercise from exercise machines into renewable electricity. Implementing energy harvesting technology into the Recreation Center’s exercise machines helps Cal Poly make progress on its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 [1]. An improvement to the system with new technology increases Cal Poly Recreation Center’s ability to save money and improve sustainability.

The focus of this project improves the design of Nicholas Serres, who used the LT8390 controller in his buck boost DC-DC converter [2]. This project improves …

Wildfire Early Detection System (Weds), Mason Mciver, Vincent Liang, Jeanreno Racines

Electrical Engineering

With climate change causing an increase in temperature over the past several decades, wildfires have been burning hotter and moving quicker leaving a trail of destruction in their path. Detecting a wildfire early allows firefighters to respond efficiently and effectively to ensure containment. With the rise of advanced computer vision and algorithms, autonomous systems can be used to monitor and report any fire activity. Having multiple devices spread out across a large area will allow first responders to map out the fire location and track the fire. By utilizing smart technologies, property damage can be minimized and residents living in …

Portable Ventilator, Bradley C. Weeks, Jack W. Brewer, Sanders Sanabria

Electrical Engineering

The current COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted the healthcare system in the United States and elsewhere. The need for patients to have access to a hospital with a ventilator along with a shortage of ventilators for recovery and at-home care as a result of minimal hospital vacancy for patients has been greatly stressed. The presented problem is both an unmet demand and supply of portable and effective ventilators. Existing ventilators have many shortcomings that should be addressed: size, weight, cost, and complexity of current ventilators confines users to stay in a medical facility whilst being monitored by professionals. This both …

Tractor Hacking, Jin Huang, Kyle B. Kesler

Electrical Engineering

Tractor hacking arose from tractor owners' desire for full control over the tractors they purchase. Tractor manufacturers set strict security on the electrical components of their tractors, making it difficult for tractor owners to diagnose and monitor their tractors on their own. The UltraBlue Tractor Hacking project is a solution to this problem, allowing tractor owners to perform diagnostics and monitor the equipment they purchased without having to go through dealerships. From talking to farmers, we found that they valued a diagnostic tool that allows for clearing and resetting Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs), viewing diagnostic data pertaining to a specific …

Survey And Design Of Microwave Low-Noise Amplifiers, Omri Yaari, Pavin Virdee

Electrical Engineering

This project is a contest entry in the Wide In-band Receiver area of the 2020 International Microwave Symposium, 5G Low Noise Amplifier Competition [1]. The project includes RF transistor selection, single, two-stage, and cascode models, and RF parameter optimization to maximize the IMS Competition figure of merit along with a supplemental figure of merit [2]. 5G technologies (used in cellphones, IoT, etc.), first introduced in 2018, are on the rise in current society. Fifth generation hardware requires extended capabilities in comparison to 4G (5-20MHz bandwidth EU: 0.6-2.6GHz), including the newly allocated sub 6GHz frequency bands (EU: 3.4-3.8GHz) and wider bandwidth …

Led-Based Solar Simulator, Jonathan E. Honrada

Electrical Engineering

Solar simulators are great laboratory tools that help users conduct tests with solar cells indoors. Conventional solar simulators typically use xenon arc bulbs as a light source, which can have considerable disadvantages. Recent projects have sought to design and implement LED-based solar simulators, as they are more power-efficient, inexpensive, and durable.

Based on these advantages, the goal of this project is to create an LED-based solar simulator that can replicate the characteristics of solar light, but also be tunable with controls. This broadens the testing capabilities of the device, allowing users to conduct tests with more narrow spectrums of light …