Electrical and Electronics Commons^™

Standalone Wireless Humming Music Synthesizer, Elizaveta Viktorovna Koush, Conrad Kinsey, Alberto Munoz

Electrical Engineering

This project, called a standalone wireless humming music synthesizer, aimed to provide a tool for musicians to make creating music easier. It did this by removing learning barriers and adding an assistive functionality element that current synthesizers fail to address.

Existing methods for synthesizers typically include a keyboard or some collection of buttons to play melodies on. This requires the knowledge of music theory and a learning curve for the instrument, and this device aims to tackle this barrier. A device that can synthesize your voice into high-quality audio removes this musical knowledge barrier and allows anyone to easily convert …

Smartphone Control Of Rc Cars, Weston R. Fitzgerald

Electrical Engineering

The smartphone-controlled RC (remote-controlled) car is an inexpensive remote-controlled car designed to be fast and portable. Instead of manufacturing, packaging, and shipping a separate controller, the remote control is implemented in a phone application, which saves time and money in both the design process and the manufacturing process. Utilizing the user’s smartphone is more cost-effective since mobile devices are a common recurrence, and packaging fewer devices results in overall better portability of the product.

This smartphone-controlled car is speedy and intuitive to learn for typical smartphone users. The user can change the car’s speed and direction wirelessly using their phone; …

Behind The Ear (Bte) Hearing Aid, Marco Gaitan, Jaclyn Kimoto, Lawrence Lai, Billy Pho

Electrical Engineering

The product is a Behind The Ear (BTE) hearing aid with the capability to improve the quality of life for people with mild to severe hearing loss and caters to a different consumer through bold exterior design to increase awareness of deafness and normalize hearing loss. In comparison to In The Ear (ITE) and In The Canal (ITC) hearing aids, the BTE hearing aid provides the best amplification while retaining an affordable price. Sound amplification depends on two or more directional microphones embedded in the product to give users the ability to discern the direction of incoming sound easily in …

Microgrid Energy Storage Branch, Evan Luu, Jeffrey Shieh

Electrical Engineering

The microgrid is the future for the electrical utility system. Because of this, future power engineers need to be well-versed in this topic when they go into industry. Cal Poly has created a microgrid laboratory for this very purpose. However, it is missing its battery based energy storage branch. Due to safety concerns, a traditional chemical battery is not suitable for student use. In order to maintain Cal Poly’s learn-by-doing approach, an alternative solution must be implemented. A regenerative power supply meets the criteria for student use. It is capable of simulating the sinking and sourcing capabilities of a battery …

Multi-Effect Guitar Pedal, Ryan K. Madden

Electrical Engineering

This product is a multi-effect pedal to be used with an electric guitar. This unit can distort and overdrive the weak signal from a guitar as well as add chorus, phaser, and compressor effects to the signal. Additionally, the user can choose different serial combinations of the effects, allowing full creativity and experimentation with a multitude of signal chain options. This product, having many different effects, saves space than if the effects were all individual devices. To interact with the product, there is a user interface with buttons, LEDs, and an OLED screen to allow the user to customize the …

Carrier Card For Nvidia Jetson Agx Xavier, Kyle Chang

Electrical Engineering

This project prototypes and implements custom carrier cards for interfacing with the Nvidia Jetson AGX Javier within the Zendar Processing Unit (ZPU). The Jetson module is an AI computer used as a computing system for autonomous machines, including robots, drones, and self-driving cars. The carrier card functions as an I/O interface with the Jetson module, and it is designed for and sponsored by Zendar, a start-up designing high-resolution radar imaging systems. The purpose of the carrier card is to function as a collection of multiple I/O interfaces, including HDMI, USB, and PCIE, for users to control the Jetson, to input …

Load Slammer Design For Dc-Dc Converter Testing, Jonathan Hidalgo, Quinton Lacomb

Electrical Engineering

In this work, we dive into the detailed design of a test load or load slammer circuit for DC/DC converters to ensure their correct functioning. This is accomplished through quick variations in frequency, amplitude, and duty cycle of the current being drawn by the converter into the load. Computer simulations of the design were performed using LTSpice and the results show that the load current could be varied per design objectives. Hardware implementation of the design was also conducted and then tested. Results were then compared with the design requirements at lower currents to evaluate the validity of the design. …

Reverse Engineering And Enhancement Of Automobile Infotainment System, Cole Brinsfield

Electrical Engineering

In 2011, luxury cars were released with displays built into the center. With modern computing power and technology such as Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, these older infotainment systems degrade the value of cars that are otherwise comparable to 2021 models. This project upgrades the infotainment system of one such car, a 2011 Infiniti G37. Through use of an additional microcomputer in the car, an infotainment upgrade can be achieved. This upgraded infotainment adds navigation, wireless audio, and data display capabilities to the car, while maintaining the functionality of the stock infotainment. While customized for the 2011 Infiniti G37, the …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

Programmable Battery Management System, Jason Erbert

Electrical Engineering

Lithium batteries provide excellent energy storage capabilities at a relatively high density; however, precautions must be taken with these high energy devices to ensure safe operation. A battery management system (BMS) provides protection by monitoring cell and pack voltage levels and maintaining them in a specific range. They limit the output current and disable the output in extreme conditions. Most devices in the targeted power range (<1000W) do not allow the user to manipulate the values for maximum current, cut-off voltage, or other limits. This project introduces the Programmable BMS (PBMS), which instead allows the user to select these values through a physical interface. The interface displays measurements including pack voltage and output current, and it reports additional characteristics of interest such as the battery’s temperature, state of charge, and cumulative number of charge cycles. This level of access and control permits users to receive the maximum performance and safety from common lithium battery packs.

Smart Motor Syringe System, Conard Chan, Jenny Chiao

Electrical Engineering

Syringe pumps are widely used in many research applications especially in the applications that need precise control. Today most medical research utilizes syringes to control the fluid being pumped to the experiment objects. In most cases microscopic or nano-scopic motion control is required to acquire optimal results, such application includes purification of DNA/RNA from contaminants[1]. The high precision required to control the syringe pump makes it difficult to perform manually. This paper focuses on the design of an intelligent syringe pump motor control system to achieve reliable and precise control for biomedical experiments. This project improves medical research quality with …

Iot Asset Tracker, Jonny M. Erickson, Matt A. Murray

Electrical Engineering

This senior project will be the completion of an IoT asset Tracker. In today’s day and age, technology is weaving its way into every aspect of life. Because of this, we demand to know more and more information about everything that is going on in our lives. One of these needed pieces of information is knowing the location of our most valuable assets. This is the main goal of this project: to build a portable SMS driven GNSS tracking device. The device is designed to provide two methods of tracking for any mobile asset. The device will utilize a large …

Cooperative Spectrum Sensing Using Maximum A Posteriori As A Detection Technique For Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks, Mohammad Abdellatif, Ahmed Tohamy, Usama Sayed Mohamed, Taha A. Khalaf, Mohamed Abdelraheem

Electrical Engineering

Over the past few years, dynamic spectrum access has been gaining an increasing attention as a solution to the spectrum scarcity problem. In this paper, a primary user detection technique based on Maximum A Posteriori estimation is proposed for dynamic spectrum access networks. In the proposed technique, a set of secondary users acting as sensing nodes send their individual decisions about the existence of the primary user to a central fusion center. The fusion center uses the received data to form a codeword then, applies the maximum a posteriori estimation rule to make a final decision regarding the presence of …

Telemedicine: An Iot Based Remote Healthcare System., Mohammad Abdellatif, Walaa Mohamed

Electrical Engineering

This paper proposes a remote healthcare system which is referred to as Telemedicine. Telemedicine is a platform that establishes a connection be-tween the patient and the doctor. This platform belongs to the internet of medical things (IoMT) by enabling multiple medical sensors to connect to a server either using multiple communication technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or GSM technologies. The system collects data from several sensors and sends them using one of the aforementioned technologies using an Arduino Board, while the inter-face is made with matlab and C#. Additionally, a comparative study between the three communications technologies used to connect …

Rf Power Amplifier, Angel De Jesus Delgado, Rachanon Wajanakunakorn, Andrew John Ferguson

Electrical Engineering

Wireless devices are part of everyday life, cellphones and radio receivers impact more people than any piece of technology. Thus, the respective building blocks continue to advance and achieve better performance. A primary component of all wireless communication systems is the power amplifier that drives the antenna. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) holds the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) every year where teams compete internationally for the most efficient RF Power Amplifier (PA). Power amplifier technologies strive to maximize efficiency and linearity. Topologies to consider are D, E, F, F-1 and Doherty since they have a maximum theoretical …

High Speed, High Current Monitoring System, Nicolette Lila Ray

Electrical Engineering

Electronics testing requires lengthy data collection and analysis. Streamlining at least part of this process allows resource reallocation, and faster data processing. Verifying a signal’s efficiency is key specification for a component’s datasheet. This project focuses on streamlining data collection when measuring a device’s output current. It combines amplifier design and digital interfacing to perform monitor a device’s output current. A computer-enable interface displays a graphical output current representation. It ensures accurate, high speed, high current measurements while removing a person’s need to manually plot data after testing. A new testing method provides room for company and product growth with …

Fuzz Distortion Guitar Stompbox, James Dennis Cleary

Electrical Engineering

My Fuzz Distortion Pedal offers guitar players a full-fledged fuzz distortion pedal with gain, frequency cutoff and volume controls. The pedal offers a true bypass when inactive which allows the signal to pass through the effect with no coloration. The distortion pedal offers hard clipping of the input signal by amplifying it by a high amount, and then clipping the voltage of the signal through the use of diodes.

Conducted And Radiated Emi Measurements Of Parallel Buck Converters Under Varying Spread Spectrum Parameters, Elena Postupalskaya, Nathan Wang

Electrical Engineering

The Conducted and Radiated EMI Measurements with Parallel Buck Converters Under Varying Spread Spectrum Parameters research senior project aims to explore the effects from Spread Spectrum Frequency Modulation (SSFM) on the input electromagnetic interference (EMI) or noise of a switching power supply, specifically with LM53601MAEVM hardware. The input EMI is important as the main input bus needs to be clean to provide a reliable source for other sensitive devices connected to it. SSFM can replace a conventional EMI filter and save weight, space, and cost. This project provides a basis in terms of the impacts of variable SSFM in simulation …