User:ZMougey/ENES100/Project3

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Project Preference
1. Wind Turbine

Problem Statement
This project is currently within the implement phase with our main focus on being creating and testing wind turbine shrouds to help better the output of our wind turbine. If time allows the project will move back to the design phase and the designing and creation of a new wind turbine will occur.

Project Plan
Major tasks that will need to be completed are as follows:

Week 1:
 * -Focus on the designs of shrouds and which shroud type works the best

Week 2:
 * - Create and test the shrouds that were designed within week 1.
 * - Begin thinking about new designs for the wind turbine to fix the current issues involved.
 * - Get the LCD screen to work with the current design so a laptop is not needed to operate.

Week 3:
 * - Determine the working shroud that produces the highest output number when attached to the wind turbine.

Week 4:
 * - Create and build the new and refined turbine design.

Week 1 Narrative
For week 1 my tasks were to create a new shroud design, work on connecting the LCD screen to the Arduino board to allow for easy reading of the output data, and start to think about a new design for the wind turbine.

From the previous project cycle's testing sessions, it appeared that the shroud that had internal features such as the spiral cone shroud design, worked well. So instead of creating a brand new shroud from scratch I decided it would be most efficient to create an add on device that could be attached to a shroud that was already made. I decided to choose the aluminum shroud as a base design because it was sturdy and could accept additions easily. Below is a shot of my brainstorming within my notebook as well as my idea placed over top of the previous design.

Issues that need to be addressed within the next Wind Turbine design are listed below:
 * Ability to accept change in wind direction
 * Play within the turbine blade needs to be minimal
 * Turbine blade cannot contact frame of turbine
 * Turbine needs to be aesthetically pleasing and clean

Week 2 Narrative
For week 2, my task was to fix the broken pin on the LCD display screen in order to get the screen to be working. After inspection a solder failed and broke and then pin fell out of the terminal.

After the repair on the broken pin was made, the LCD display was then wired through the bread board for operation. Upon starting up the Arduino program, the LCD display lit up however failed to display any data. It is unclear whether the error lies within the LCD display or if the code for the Arduino is not configured correctly. One issue that was seen with the LCD display is that it is displaying undesired displays in the bottom corner.

A video of the LCD display in use can be seen HERE

Week 3 Narrative
My task for this week was to continue working on getting a working and properly functioning LCD display screen to work with the arduino to remove the need to use a laptop computer to get the data readings from the wind turbine.

To start off the week, we learned last week that there may have been a crack within the old (blue) LCD display. We thought it would be best to try a new screen. The new screen required that new headers to be soldered on so we could properly use it on the breadboard. Below is a picture during the process off soldering the new pins on.

A video of the new screen being powered on can be seen HERE

Week 4 Narrative
To begin week 4, I organized the existing test data that we had and created a bar graph that showed the average output of data with the various shrouds. This allowed us to see what shroud worked efficiently and which shroud did not work well. The graph also served in creating a more comprehensive graph compared to the previous line graph that was created. After I created the graph, I began working on getting the LCD display screen to work. After testing we discovered that the original LCD display screen worked within our circuit and we had a faulty connection with the potentiometer that controlled the contrast of the LCD display screen. Once we learned of the bad connection, I removed the potentiometer from the breadboard and soldered on wires that would ensure a strong connection. After the soldering, we were able to get the LCD display to properly display the data that it was intended to display. Once the display was working we finalized the connections on the bread board and connected the wind turbine into our circuit.

The 3-D printed shroud was also in plans to be tested at the end of the week so we were able to successfully attach the 3D printed shroud to the wind turbine with the use of magnets and tape.

Video of working LCD Display Screen