Engineering Projects/Car Hack/Howard Community College/Spring2012/p1501kmd 2

Problem Statement
Increase gas mileage and read tire pressure using an arduino on vehicle

Team Members

 * Kimberly
 * Martin
 * David

Summary
For this project, our team decided to stay with the process of hacking a vehicle (2002 Toyota Corolla) in order to better the miles per gallon. First, we brainstormed the different routes we could take in order to reach our goal, and decided it would be best if each of us took on "sub-projects" instead of all of us working on one whole project so that we could get more work done within the time we were given. We all split up, Martin making a MPGuino, David writing codes to control the fuel injection, and Kim trying to tamper with the tire pressure on the car.

We all did research on our separate projects and started getting to work. Martin researched how to solder and started making the MPGuino from scratch while Kim and David used past projects of other teams as a tutorial/guideline to write codes and figure out of to read the tire pressure from certain devices. With all of us being by ourselves for the small projects, we had limited resources and had to order parts for some of our projects then wait for those to come in, but once we all had what we need by the third and fourth week, we started but our projects back into one whole project.

For example, Martin's MPGuino could be used in David's controlling the fuel injection and could also be used to hack the wireless tire pressure sensors in Kim's project giving us more control over the car as a whole through just one item. We also decided to make the project an open-ended project by trying to write a program for the LCD screen in the MPGuino to signal either or red backlight or blue backlight to tell if the program we wrote to control the Fuel injection and tire pressure bettered or worsened the initial/factory MPG for the vehicle.

Story
Week 1-This week was more of brainstorming than actual hands on work. We decided to better the MPG within a vehicle, but each took on "sub-projects" within the overall idea.

Week 2- We all started to go our separate ways with our sub-projects. Martin trying to build the MPGuino, David writing codes to control the fuel injection within the vehicle, and Kim trying to figure out how to tamper with the tire pressure on the car.

Week 3- This week was about collecting efficient data on our vehicle and learning what to use and how to go about getting the results we wanted in each of our experiments, this week also consisted of gaining those materials, installing software, and actually doing hands on work once we had received the materials we all needed.

Week 4- The last week of this project, all of us started finishing up our own projects to bring them back together within one project, our overall goal, and make them all merge. For example, David's project of controlling the fuel injection valve with the arduino played into Martin's MPGuino which then played into to wireless signals within Kim's tire pressure project allowing us to control a whole range of items in one thing, the arduino. We also made the project an open-end project by using the LCD screen in the MPGuino to signal if the MPG on the vehicle gets better or worse than the original after the codes we send to the arduino.

Individual Work

 * David's Story and work completed
 * Kim's Story and work completed
 * Martin's Story and work completed

Decision List
The decisions we had to make during this project was in which way were we going to lower the MPG within the vehicle. Being that there were so many, we all decided to take on "sub-projects" meaning that each of us decided to due our own project that could be done within the timeframe given, but that was also still relevant to the overall outcome of the project. This way we could get a lot more done in the given timeframe rather than each of us working on the same project that could've been done by one person in the first place. So Martin decided to take on the project of creating a way to read the MPG in the vehicle once we tampered with it. David decided to take Martin's idea of creating a MPGuino to read the MPG on the car and make the LCD screen on the arduino tell us if the MPG on the vehicle was better or worse than the vehicle's manufactured MPG by signaling red or blue lights. David also decided to use the arduino to create a program allowing us to control the fuel injection within the vehicle making the whole MPGuino idea into a "game" for engineers; "who could create the best program to better the MPG".Kim decided to take another approach and try to better the MPG on the vehicle by tampering with the tire pressure on the car.

Material List

 * Arduino Uno USB, 1, $12
 * 02 Toyota Corolla Fuel Injector, 1, $20 (junkyard) $196.02 ( Factory )
 * SSR, 1, $13 ( Amazon )
 * Arduino LCD Screen, 1, $24 ( Adafruit )
 * ATEQ VT55 TPMS trigger tool, 1, $1300 ( Orange Electronic )
 * Tire pressure sensors, 2, $30 ( Amazon )
 * Low noise amplifier (LNA), 1, ?
 * Screwdrivers, 4, $7 ( Amazon )
 * Soldering Iron, 1, $45 ( Amazon )

Software List
We used a software package called Arduino to aid us in creating codes and processing them from the arduino to control the fuel injection timing, and to create an custom LCD screen for the arduino from a printer LCD screen.

We also used GNU Radio to read off the tire pressure from the sensors

Time
In total, all of us spent a collective: 25.10 hours on the project

Tutorials
Creating the LCD screen for the arduino: MPGuino Assemble and Wiring the arduino

Creating the codes for the MPGuino Screen: Arduino Codes for LCD Screen

Next Steps
The successors will have to finish writing the program to make the LCD screen on the MPGuino signal the red backlight or the blue backlight to tell if the MPG in the vehicle is getting better or worse. Once this is done, one can continue using arduino to write own programs to control the fuel injection and tire pressure to better the MPG in the vehicle while using the MPGuino to tell if they are making the MPG better or worse.