Extra-Curricular

This page contains details on extra-curricular projects undertaken by me during my degree. All of the projects detailed below were sponsored either by a corporation or a society within the university.

 


Arduino Project

This project was sponsored by Thales and began with a workshop on the basics of Arduino. Participants then formed groups and worked on a project of their choosing to be presented in a competition at the end.

The aim of our project was to design a security device to protect an entrance using the Arduino. If an unauthorised person was to enter, the device owner would be notified.

The system contained a laser beam, projected across the entrance. A keypad was connected to it for access and configured with a password. To enter, the person enters the password, and if it is incorrect 3 times, an alarm sounds. Alternatively, if they try to enter without entering a password the result will be the same. The laser will only turn off upon entry of the correct password.

 


CUBE: Solar-Powered Water Pumps

For this project, my team at CUBE Consulting worked with Maji Pump on their solar-powered water pumps designed for crop farmers in under-developed countries such as Kenya. Their existing design delivered DC, which they wanted changed to AC.

In order to deliver this, we used a solar-micro inverter to switch the current. We then integrated it into the existing system using a linear regulator circuit designed by our team. Further to this, we lab-tested an alternative integration method using a switching regulator.

The switching regulator schematic is shown below.

switching_reg

Component Functionality

  • Potential Divider: Drop the voltage from 17 V at the input to 12 V at the output.
  • Decoupling Capacitor: Large capacitance to filter noise from the input and limit the ripple voltage whilst supplying the switch current during the ON time.
  • Inductor: Supply a smooth current to the output when driven by a switching voltage. Larger inductances can also limit ripple at the output.
  • Schottky Diode: Limits current flow to a particular direction.

Next, we have the linear regulator schematic.

linear_reg

L7812A

  • Accepts a wide range of input voltage (14.525V).
  • Produces a stable output voltage of 12V with minimal fluctuations.
  • Capacitors employed for input stability and favorable transient response.

The linear regulator turned out to be a much simpler circuit and was able to provide the necessary current for the required application. However, for higher loads, a switching regulator would be more desirable as it is better at conserving power.

Some pictures of our system are shown below.

DSC_0240DSC_0239

 

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