Work Night 3.21.19

Work Night

Date: 3.21.19
Location: Logan HS
Time: 5:00-7:00 PM
Students: Avery, Thaying, Thomas, Alex and Seth
Goal: Work on finalizing the energy storage system and test it.

With spring sports in full swing we have to start our work nights later to allow many of our team members to get their practice in before we have our meeting. It makes for some long days and late nights but we continue to move forward as we near our target date for completion.

Tonight we wanted to bench test our new energy storage unit. The old unit worked ok in our previous tests but we wanted to experiment with super capacitors. We have never used them before on a project and Mr. Foye (our electrical engineering consultant) suggested we give them a try. It took two weeks to design, build and test the circuit but it worked. Now we have to mount it on our limb tester to give it a walking test.

What we want to see is the unit store the electricity created by our generators and then slowly discharge it. You will see a video below that documents that charge dissipation. By storing more electricity we hope to power both the SmartPuck battery and our BlueTooth module. We met our goal earlier by generating enough energy to power the battery, now we just want to see if we can improve it to also power our wireless connection.

Next week will be the big test to see if it works with our limb tester.

Thomas worked on cleaning up some of our electrical sketches that were done on paper.

Paige and Alex documenting the testing of the storage circuit.

Image of the new storage unit being tested before we mount it. In our new configuration, we are using 22 milli Farad Super Caps and 7500 micro Farad electrolytic capacitors. All the probes you see are running to an oscilloscope. 

Alex soldering in the final connections on the storage unit.

Seth working on a new adapter for the shock absorber  for the production concept.

Bench test showing the slow discharge of the super cap storage system. The power supply is disengaged and the voltage will slowly discharge to zero.

Work Day 3.11.19

Work Day 

Date: 3.11.19
Location: Logan HS
Time: 10:00-Noon
Goal: Finalize storage system and work on the design for the production prototype.
Students: Seth, Austin, Alex, Caitlin, Thomas, Avery

Today the students had a day off school due to PTC but came in anyway from 10-Noon. We needed to work on the "production concept" which is just a 3d printed model of what we envision the final prototype to look like. We also needed to finish the storage circuit with the super caps in place.

Alex worked on the storage circuit which is very time consuming as it needs to include the rectifiers (a lot of diodes) to function. These components all had to be put in individually and then soldered in place.

We have the App controls worked out to include an on/off, voltage monitor coming into the Buck Boost system and battery life in the form of a percent.

We are beginning to switch gears to incorporate time for patent writing and final testing. What we want to get from our final testing is the time it takes to charge the Smart Puck battery in how many foot cycles.

Thomas demonstrating the size of some of the surface mount components that we are working with.

Seth getting some measurements for the production concept model.

Alex soldering some surface mount components and jumper to the bottom of the buck boost board. As you can see, this is very detailed work.

Austin and Avery working on the Nano BlueTooth module.

Schematic showing the LTC modification that we are building.

Work Night 2.28.19

Work Night

Date: 2.28.19
Time: 4:30-7:00 PM
Location: Logan HS
Students: Alex, Paige, Avery, Austin,Thomas and Seth
Goal: The goal for tonight is to test the charging system in its entirety to see if we can output to our phone App.

There was quite a bit of preliminary work done prior to tonights work night. 3-4 hours were put in yesterday and today working on the Super Cap storage system, the BlueTooth circuit and mounting the completed circuit boards on the tester.

The last two weeks have been a series of "fail forward's". We have wanted to test our system but we would have a mechanical gear breakdown, or a poorly soldered joint or a IC problem. We really needed some positive news in our testing tonight to give us a boost and we got it.

We took some time to wire up the charging system and test out our generator to make sure we had functionality. This proved successful so we were going to hook up a 5 V power supply to test the system but we changed our mind and hooked up the generator to cycle the limb tester. This would be our first full system test so a lot was riding on it. We cycled our tester and the BlueTooth connection with our App was enabled. When we read the output of a regulated 4.2 V on the cellphone there was a cheer. 

This proves the system can produce enough electricity to power the Smart Puck voltage requirements!!!

Now we refocus on reducing the size of the circuit boards, design a new mount for the display model prototype, adding in the super cap circuit and working on our patent.

Probably our most important video documentation to date. This shows our charging system fully in action. The BlueTooth connection with our App is enabled and we are reading an output of 4.2 V on the cellphone. This proves the system can produce enough electricity to power the Smart Puck voltage requirements!!!

Paige majorly updated the big book. Then I worked on requesting money from both Mayo and McDonalds. I also started a list of companies we have contacted for Inland Printing. My dad and I plan on talking to some local companies about donation.

Thomas worked on the new Super Cap circuit that will replace our existing rectifier and storage system. He should be done by next week and ready for another test. Alex worked on mounting components and added a new terminal to the charge control system.

Seth worked on the battery holder with LED's to demonstrate the system is charging the battery. He is also starting to work on the new mount for the display prototype.

Avery worked on...well Avery stuff but he said he will make a blog post on Friday.

Austin successfully tested his BlueTooth circuit and is working on reducing the size of it.

Using marine epoxy to attached the pinion gear to the shaft of the 8-1 gear head. The wooden platform is a jig we built to ensure the motor and shaft stay inline while the epoxy sets.

Charge controller circuit mounted at the top of the plexiglass now and ready to be wired.

Austin tightening up connections and mounting circuit boards.

9 V battery holder and BlueTooth circuit board installed on tester. 

Thomas setting up the O-scope for our big test tonight.

Screen shot of the generator output showing almost 10 V with one generator.

Alex wiring the system together for the test.

Our complete prototype system on the tester. Now we work to condense the size and scale and make a model prototype.

Video of Austin mounting circuit boards on the tester.

Work Day 2.20.19

Work Day

Date: 2.20.19
Time: 10:00 AM-2:00 PM
Location: Logan HS
Goal: Test charging system and BlueTooth connection
Students:

Some work was done leading up to this meeting on Monday, 2.18.19. Alex worked worked on resoldering some electrical connections on the battery charging circuit. We were not getting any output when we bench tested it with a voltage. Some troubleshooting found a loose solder connection that was corrected and the circuit worked. Again when we are working with surface mount components the scale is much smaller and we seem to have more soldering faults.

Also, the new spring was mounted on the heel linkage and the new motor an pinion gear were installed with 3 ft. wire leads soldered and shrink warped to connect to our circuit. We wanted to be ready to test the device today, so all this had to be completed prior to it.

During our workday today, we experienced more failures than successes. We were excited to test our new generator but when we hooked it up to our charging system the output was not what was expected. We checked the mechanical linkages of the tester and they seemed good. We started testing the charging circuit and found a couple of solder joints that were suspect and repaired them but still not getting the output we expected (10-12 V). Seth inspected the generator and found the pinion gear spot weld from the factory had cracked. We were not rotating the generator at higher speeds. This is a problem that has to be repaired. It took about an hour to track it down.

The software side of the project is progressing along with Austin getting the Nano to function and Caitlin making progress on the design of the App interface.

Thomas reported the wiring schematic for the storage output to Arduino:

• Tested output of generator with and without load
• Made system schematic
• Power wiring only
• Power and sensor wiring
• Power and sensor and control wiring
• Labeled schematic and created document with functions of different wires 

Power Wires
1. + from generator 1 to RectifierStorage
2. - from generator 1 to RectifierStorage
3. + from generator 2 to RectifierStorage
4. - from generator 2 to RectifierStorage
5. + output of RectifierStorage to BuckBoost
6. - output of RectifierStorage to BuckBoost
7. + output of BuckBoost to Charger
8. - output of Buckboost to Charger
9. + power from BuckBoost for ProcessorBluetooth
10. - power from BuckBoost for ProcessorBluetooth

Sensor Wires
1. Sensor for + output of RectifierStorage module
2. Sensor for - output of RectifierStorage module
3. Sensor for output of generators
4. Sensor for + output of Charger module or Battery status
5. Sensor for - output of Charger module or Battery status

Controller Wires
1. Control for output of Charger circuit
2. Control for output of Charger circuit


Caitlin pasted/altered some code for the Android Studio that will work with the Arduino & HC-05. It is in bluetooth instead of bluetooth led.
The code includes a checkbox that the user can click on if they want their device to connect to bluetooth. There are two buttons the user can press--one to enable bluetooth and one to search for devices (and show which devices can be connected to).

Screen Shot from Caitlin as she works with the interface.

Some barriers: some of the code I found from a guide wasn't built for the most recent Android studio update. So I had to do some extra research to fix some components so it would be compatible with the most recent Android Studio update. Also, the emulator keeps crashing. I'm not sure why, but the wifi is also not working right now.

Avery:
Today I worked on the blog posts for our MGTR and for our previous work night. I also ate a lot of pizza.

Alex:
Drilled new hole into gear
Discovered because hole was close to center the housing impeded on the rod so I had to Dremel out housing to fit rod. The rectifier circuit needed repair on some soldering joints so I replaced those.
We also determined that the torque from the testing device is too much and it destroyed the spot weld on the gear. So we need to make a new gear.


Thaying:
I viewed hotels, tours food locations and pricing of each in the Boston area.

Austin:
I soldered on the Arduino Nano to the circuit board. I also got the code uploaded onto the Nano and tested the circuit. It worked as expected and I’m hoping to connect it to the main leg to try and get readings. We had a meeting about integrating the hardware and software, and how the list of processes would work. I took notes on that. I also wrote a request to Kwik Trip for a donation so we can go to MIT in June.

Students deciding how they want the hardware to interact with the software.

Alex troubleshooting the charging circuit.

New spring mount next to the old push rod. We are testing to see which one works better.

Before the spring is bent in a brake to get correct angle.

After the spring is bent in the brake to get desired angle.

The mount was cut out to accommodate the new spring linkage and then attached to the main gear.

Rear view of the attached spring linkage.

Work Night 2.14.19

Work Night
Date: 2.14.19
Location: Logan HS
Time: 4:30-7:00 PM
Goal: Replace old generator with new generator and wire in battery charging circuit.
Students:Paige, Avery, Austin, Alex, Tanner and Thomas.

Well weather has not been on our side this week. We had another snow day bringing our total up for the year to 5 (so far). This is impacting our planning and work times.

We got some good news in the buck boost chip came in today from the Netherlands. Alex can start to solder it into the circuit after the diodes are spec'd out.

We are experimenting with two things tonight. The first is the new motor/generator that our simulations indicated would give us the most current and lowest inpedance. We are also experimenting with a new linkage using a bi-directional spring connecting the heel to the main gear.

More failure than success tonight. The new motor and gear heads were the biggest disappointment as the modified gearhead we made slips and will not initiate the main motor at high speed. We think we damaged it when we installed our pinion gear or the internal gearhead gears are slipping. Regardless, we have to make a new one. The first test of our charging circuit did not go as planned also. We found one of the problems (ground issue) and will trace the other one down on Monday.

Paige worked on catching up on the big book and starting to look at fundraising from companies.
Tomorrow she will keep working on my list of things to do. Tanner worked on updating the financials on our spreadsheet, while Avery worked on the blog and figuring out some of the finer details of blog posting.

Alex worked on:
Finished soldering charging circuit
Added extension leads to new motor
Dremeled out motor mount to fit new motor
Attached new motor to testing device
Tested motor, got poor results, motor gear slipping
In addition the testing circuit does not output, unsure why
Testing circuit does work but it will need to be revamped at some point
When tested manually with new motor it was discovered the testing circuit does work properly
Began to test charging circuit, am not getting output, needs to be looked into

Thomas worked on:
Talked with Mr. Foye on design for new rectifier circuit
Tested function of super zener diode. This is to protect the charging circuit. In our current system, we can store 4.6  joules which is our goal, with the new super capacitors we can store 6.7 to 9.2 joules. Our charging circuit still has questions as we have to work out the mechanics with our motors.
Put most of new circuit onto multisim in preparation for simulation.
Waiting on more data from new motor tests to finalize parameters.

Our new motor with the 8-1 gearhead and pinion gear installed. This did not hold up to the testing we did.

Alex replacing motors on the mount.

Austin working on soldering the new Bluetooth module to a board.

Tanner updating the finances.

Paige updating the Big Book!

Video of Austin testing the Bluetooth and Arduino setup.

Austin soldering components for the communication module. 

Basic functions of our wireless communication system are:

When and how often to communicate.

How to maintain processor on and in control.

How to control battery charging. What level of battery charging current and when.

How to use system voltages to decide above activities.

To make it easier a multi-pin cable with power and signals could be used.

Cable Signals could be:

1)      Generator voltage(analog-<50V)

2)      Stored charge voltage(analog-<50V)

3)      Battery voltage(analog-<5V)

4)      Power for processor and Bluetooth modules(5VDC)

5)      Common

6)      Common

7)      Battery charger enable(logic- processor output)

8)      Battery charger current level(logic- processor output)

Mid Grant Technical Review

Mid Grant Technical Review

Date: 2.7.19
Location: Logan HS
Time: 5:00-7:30 PM
Goal: To receive feedback and demonstrate progress to parents, business contacts and other stakeholders.

We were very concerned the night before if we were even going to be able to have this MGTR. The weather forecast was looking at 6-9 inches of snow starting Thursday at 9:00 AM. In the morning of the MGTR the forecast was changed to 4-6" of snow. Schools around us were delayed and cancelled evening activities. Our administration was very supportive and allowed us to have our event.

Paige put quite a bit of work into getting everything organized for this event. The poster board looked great.

The number of attendee's was down. We had about 10 people that contacted us to let us know the weather prohibited travel.

The people that did show up asked good questions and by the evaluations, seemed to like our progress on the invention. This was the first time the students had run through their presentation in  public. Everyone did well and it was a learning experience.

The following are notes from the evening from Paige Treakle:

On Thursday, February 7th, our InvenTeam had our Mid-Technical Grant Review. After working for weeks on a version of our prototype and testing machine, we were able to present them at this occasion. We began with a presentation where Paige Treakle and Thomas Kujak talked to the group about the project including our story, our financial situation, our goals, and how our project is sustainable. After we finished presenting the group, we opened up to answer questions from the crowd. We were able to answer many of the questions, but we also found that we have a lot left to learn. Then our group members separated to our designated posts. We had areas for the hardware, software, sustainability, and financial teams to answer individual questions and give the viewers a more in depth idea of our project. After about thirty minutes of talking to our parents, advisors, and local business attendees, we wrapped up and thanked the crowd for attending our event.

Thomas and Paige leading off the presentation for our MGTR.

Panel of students answering technical questions before breaking into small groups.

Students talking with Mark Glendenning COE, Inland Printing

Students talking with parents.

Gary Moe Guest Speaker 2.4.19

Date: 2.4.19
Guest Speaker: Gary Moe, Amputee
Time: 9:30 AM
Location: Logan HS
Students: Paige, Alex, Seth, Tanner, Thomas, Avery, Thaying and Nathan

Gary Moe was recommended to us from the VA in Tomah, WI. He agreed to come in to talk to the students on what is was like to have a lower limb amputation.

Gary had a below knee amputation as the result of a car accident when he was 19 years old. He said he prosthesis cost between $12,000 and $16,000 and needs to be replace every 5 year. He said if his socket gets loose it creates an abrasive scrape on his residual limb and the biggest problem is controlling how much he sweats so the sleeve stays dry. He also mentioned that anytime someone loses weight it impacts the fit of the socket and a new one needs to be made.

Gary looked at our progress on our heel adapter, the linkage and the generator mount. He did not feel there would be any issue with walking on his prosthesis when using a device like this. It would not impair him in any way. He recommended building up on the prosthetic limb and not going any farther down. Gary was asked if he had any concerns on the direction we were going and he said he did not.

Special thanks to Gary for coming in and talking to the team.

Paige and Alex with Gary after his talk to the team.