final year project!

[student2003]

hi guys!

may you help me with a project idea for my electronic engineering course.

i have a fair amount of programming and playing around with circuit components.

and my interests are in programming micro controllers and robotics!.

i would highly appreciate your help

thanks

 

[colin55]

This request is too vague.

You will need to supply exact requirements.
Furthermore, we should not be engineering the whole project for you. This is what you should be doing.
After all, we don't want engineers coming out with absolutely no ability at all. That's for politicians.

 

[student2003]

This request is too vague.

You will need to supply exact requirements.
Furthermore, we should not be engineering the whole project for you. This is what you should be doing.
After all, we don't want engineers coming out with absolutely no ability at all. That's for politicians.

i was thinking of making a telephone remote control. and i just need more ideas to think about.

 

[Hero999]

Design a grid tie inverter or even a standalone pure sinewave inverter.

We would be very grateful because we get lots of people here who are interested in inverters.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Aww, the exclamation mark confused me. I thought you were offering to share your "final year project!"

A question mark would have been more appropriate. final year project?

Although a Grid Tie Inverter would be a impressive.
**broken link removed**
Or Neck Tie Solar array

 

[student2003]

i intend to do this intelligent lighting controller.

the system senses luminosity inside and outside a room, controls the angle of the blinds and dims the lamps accordingly.

it also counts the number of people inside the house, and if there there's no body inside, it turns all the light.

it can also extend into turning off unneccessary devices(i.e tv) when there is nobody inside the house.

any views and suggestions are highly accepted?

 

[Jules_Theone]

This might sound annoyingly obvious (and not helpful) but the easiest way to control the lights and appliances is to switch them off at the wall when you leave the room or put up a sign saying 'Please switch off lights / appliances when not in use'!

There already systems like this called mood lighting which control lights / blinds etc. They can be controlled from a central control interface or connect to a PC so more complicated things can be done.

If you want to go the 'intelligent' way you could have some sensors in the room / house which sense when there are people. PIR, motion sensors, break the beam sensors etc, then some intelligence like a uC which eventually drives transistors / relays to control the I'm assuming higher voltage appliances.

 

[colin55]

The features you are describing have already been attempted and been produced, including intelligent heating that only heats the rooms where movement is detected.
The biggest problem is the cost of wiring a house and I already have modules that connect to each light so that signals down the power-line can turn them on and off.
Another low-cost concept is X-10 and you can adapt this to do all the things you want.
We also have computers connected to the phone line so that items can be turned on and off, video cameras can be monitored and things like cooking can be started in advance.
We also have the smart fridge that takes a video of the inside of the fridge so that things can be automatically re-ordered without anyone taking an inventory.
All these things are already available and modules start at less than $15.00 each.
I don't think there is any need for you to re-invent the wheel. To start with, the cost of writing the code to enable each of the units talk to each other, is enormous. And this makes everything so expensive. That's why it has not taken.

 

[student2003]

This might sound annoyingly obvious (and not helpful) but the easiest way to control the lights and appliances is to switch them off at the wall when you leave the room or put up a sign saying 'Please switch off lights / appliances when not in use'!

There already systems like this called mood lighting which control lights / blinds etc. They can be controlled from a central control interface or connect to a PC so more complicated things can be done.

If you want to go the 'intelligent' way you could have some sensors in the room / house which sense when there are people. PIR, motion sensors, break the beam sensors etc, then some intelligence like a uC which eventually drives transistors / relays to control the I'm assuming higher voltage appliances.

what i was trying to say is that, there would be ir sensors mounted on the door which communicate with the uC when they are toggled.

again, there would be light sensors mounted inside and outside the room. each is connected to the uC.

was your comment based on this idea?

Kind regards,

 

[Jules_Theone]

Yeah basically every sensor goes to a uC and all the clever stuff is done in software. This is the best way to do it as you can hard wire everything in, add extra sensors, lights etc easily and modify the configuration in software without having to rip out wiring / control units when you want to change something.

I did this in my bedroom - everything is controlled from a PC (which is always on) so i can fiddle with the settings easier. I even had a RFID module, so the lights flash on and off when anyone else goes in my room! Although it got annoying pretty quickly - my parents stopped making my bed!

 

[student2003]

Yeah basically every sensor goes to a uC and all the clever stuff is done in software. This is the best way to do it as you can hard wire everything in, add extra sensors, lights etc easily and modify the configuration in software without having to rip out wiring / control units when you want to change something.

I did this in my bedroom - everything is controlled from a PC (which is always on) so i can fiddle with the settings easier. I even had a RFID module, so the lights flash on and off when anyone else goes in my room! Although it got annoying pretty quickly - my parents stopped making my bed!

that sounds interesting!
how does the pc communicate with the devices? via the uC?
is there a software on the PC side or you are using the hiper terminal?

 

[Jules_Theone]

Initially I used Hyperterminal to troubleshoot the serial connection before I learnt about Labview.

The PC communicates over the RS232 Serial to the USART on the PIC, there is firmware written for the PIC which just serialises the information from the sensors and I use a Labview software interface to translate the data into something graphically. Then send data back down to switch things on and off. It's quite useful as I can have anything coming into the PIC and the Labview interface has all the intellegence.

 

[student2003]

Initially I used Hyperterminal to troubleshoot the serial connection before I learnt about Labview.

The PC communicates over the RS232 Serial to the USART on the PIC, there is firmware written for the PIC which just serialises the information from the sensors and I use a Labview software interface to translate the data into something graphically. Then send data back down to switch things on and off. It's quite useful as I can have anything coming into the PIC and the Labview interface has all the intellegence.

how about if i mix these ideas? automatic control with manual through a computer? is that possible?

can you provide references and links?

 

[Jules_Theone]

You can do it entirely in firmware on a uC or use the uC to translate depending on where your knowledge is. I can do basic assembly for the PIC but am better with the Labview programming. The system I have is very flexible, it can be set to auto and timed control, but I can also send commands straight from the PC to open the blinds or shut the door etc.

You said earlier that you were into uC programming and robotics, are you better at the programming (computer science) or the hands-on electro-mechanical? Because you can build a project which leans more to your strengths.

Google 'home autonomy' or look at the uC threads on this forum? I don't have any definite links as i just read through everything an pick things up from that.

 

[student2003]

You can do it entirely in firmware on a uC or use the uC to translate depending on where your knowledge is. I can do basic assembly for the PIC but am better with the Labview programming. The system I have is very flexible, it can be set to auto and timed control, but I can also send commands straight from the PC to open the blinds or shut the door etc.

You said earlier that you were into uC programming and robotics, are you better at the programming (computer science) or the hands-on electro-mechanical? Because you can build a project which leans more to your strengths.

Google 'home autonomy' or look at the uC threads on this forum? I don't have any definite links as i just read through everything an pick things up from that.

i like playing around with resistors, caps, transistors, etc on a breadboard... but i can also cope well with computer programming(Computer Science)

 

[Super_voip]

try an IP intercom, I'm soon to start a similar project using IP cameras, IP phones and a little IP sensor board to read the door buzzer.