User:Gulraize1/ENES100/Project 1

Project Preference
The three projects I want to work on are Mobile Robot Hallway Navigation, Wind Turbine, and Smart Shoe.

Problem Statement
To design and create different shrouds that improves the power level and wattage output on a wind turbine using CAD and a 3D printer.

Project Plan
What we are trying to ultimately do with this project is increasing the amount of power we can get from the turbine and stabilize the turbine. Also, We need to find out the cost of the materials to make the turbine.

Week 1 Narrative
This week my group, consisting of me, Anthony, Joe, and Lucas, were assigned to the Wind Turbine project. The project is now in the implementing phase and the wind turbine is already built and running. So, we had to start making task for what exactly it is we need to do to finish the project completely. My task this week is to research what shrouds are and how they affect wind turbines.

After, doing some research on my own I found that shrouds, or wind lens, are used to more efficiently angles the air to make turbulence which is used to make the wind blades sin faster. This is a huge deal because in the formula for wind power if the speed increases it will be cubed and thus a lot more power, watts, can be generated. So to apply this to our project we will most likely have to build a shroud on CAD and use the 3-D printer to make it. Also, we need to put magnets in the shroud to make it stay to the turbine.

Week 2 Narrative
This week my specific task was to look at the code that the group from last semester used and understand what it is suppose to do. Also, I was in charge of testing the program and seeing if it actually worked. This is the code that the group from last semester left us. I spent some time looking at the code to understand what it is saying. The main function of this code is to display the Amps, Volts, Watts, and Sensor Value on the display affront of the wind turbine. After, I fully understood the code I plugged in the wind turbine to the computer with my team. We found that the display was showing random characters. I took apart the display to see if the Arduino was working fine. I found that two wires were unplugged, one of which being the input for pin 4 and the other was the negative side of the battery. The negative side of the battery had to be soldered on to the board, which at first I tried to do, but could not so Joe helped me out and did it. After, I rechecked the board to make sure all the wires were in the correct location I plugged the wind turbine back into the computer and it worked fine. Also, I helped out my team find a way to stabilize the Wind Turbine. We decided to use wood to make it more sturdy.

This is how our wind turbine currently looks.

Week 3 Narrative
My task this week was to find a way to combine the arduino and the wind turbine. What I found was that the group before us who did the design phase messed up somewhere. I found out that they never got the wind turbine to work with the arduino without the bread board. I figured this out because currently all the wires are plugged into the right spots according to the code. So I reviewed all the pictures and videos from the group before us and saw that all their testing was done with the breadboard. I found this somewhat late in the process, the only way I can picture finishing the task now is to rewire the circuit with a small breadboard and put that in the box. I do not think this will that big of a deal because if it works fine, no one will notice because the circuit is in the box. While I have not physically combined the arduino and wind turbine I now have the circuit planned out on how to breadboard it. The only problem with wiring it into the bread board is that the group before us soldered the wires onto the display and now I have to unsolder them. I plan on doing this Monday.

Week 4 Narrative
This week my task was to rewire the Audurino and imply the breadboard concept. So because the group before use soldered the wire on, I had to unsolder all of the wires so I could connect the screen to the breadboard. I did unsolder the board, but I realized what was wrong with the board and why were not getting the readings we were suppose to. On the circuit board the pin for ground was not actually connected to the display, and instead was soldered onto the display to keep it in place. I decided to still wire the board without the ground just to see what would happen and the screen would not light up because of it. I then talked to Mr. Edelen about this problem and he told me to make it display on the computer. I had to change the code a little bit to make it display on the computer and not the display anymore. After, I did all of that I plugged everything in to see if it worked. It finally started to work, it would display 0's for Watts, Voltage, and Sensor Value. Then, when we used the leaf-blower on the wind turbine it started to read data that was pretty accurate and constant. Unfortunately we could not doing anything else because the 3D printer was broken at HCC, so Joe tried to use the one at his old school and the printer could not print an object that big and scaled it down. This was a huge blow, but we do have the magnetic tape to use to keep the shroud on the turbine.