Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
75 Improving upon ECEB Submetering
Aleksai Herrera
Jonathan Izurieta
Mike Lee
 Sanjana Pingali design_document2.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
other3.pdf
other1.pdf
photo1.jpg
photo2.jpg
presentation1.pptx
proposal2.pdf
video
#ECEB SUBMETERING

Team Members
-Aleksai Herrera (aleksai2)
-Jonathan Izurieta (jji11)
-Mike Lee (dcl3)

Our RFA is based on Prof. Schuh’s proposal for a 3-phase, 208V, 60Hz power meters that can be placed inside individual rooms for detailed power monitoring.

#PROBLEM
The ECEB is notably a net-zero energy facility, which is possible due to utilization of energy efficient methods such as the use of solar panels. We would like to be able to measure and share data collected from the energy generated by the solar panels in order to help track the efficiency and use of energy of the ECEB building. With regard to the ECEB submeter of previous semesters, we would like to improve upon the accuracy of the data recorded to yield more practical and useful results.

#SOLUTION
Our solution is to create power meters that can accurately measure power, voltage, and current of individual rooms within ECEB and be able to accurately get and store these data metrics as well as being able to display them to either an LCD or the TVs within the ECEB. We plan to improve upon many of the shortcomings the previous implementation faced.


#SOLUTION COMPONENTS
##Subsystem 1: Power System
This system is required for powering the IC's, microcontroller, and LCD along with any other components of our project.

Chargeable Battery (5 to 10V)
Linear Regulator (Buck Convertor) MC34063AP

##Subsystem 2: Sensor/Electricity measurements
This system will allow the received AC signals to be changed into DC digital signals that the microcontroller can interact with.

ADC converters for current and voltage MCP3008-I/P
Voltage Transformer
Voltage Divider Circuit
Voltage Pull Up
Current Transformer CTF-5RL-0400
Current Divider Circuit
Current Pull Up

##Subsystem 3: Storing Information
Our design intends to store information offline onto a SD card and onto an online server
Microcontroller to Display and data recording System:
ESP32 Microcontroller used to transmit recorded data offline to SD card and to online server.
SD card module to interface SD card and ESP32
SD card to store data on
A cost effective online server or database to store our data

##Subsystem 4: Visual display of our data
This system allows us to display our data onto a screen to display to the viewer.

Usbc to HDMI to display information on a TV
LCD screen to display data onto

#CRITERION FOR SUCCESS
Be able to store our data offline on to SD card along with the date and time
Be able to upload our data online every 15 minutes via wifi
Be able to display data and waveform on LCD or TV
Be able to measure Voltage, Current, Power, and other key data metrics (Power Factor, etc.)

Active Cell Balancing for Solar Vehicle Battery Pack

Tara D'Souza, John Han, Rohan Kamatar

Featured Project

# Problem

Illini Solar Car (ISC) utilizes lithium ion battery packs with 28 series modules of 15 parallel cells each. In order to ensure safe operation, each battery cell must remain in its safe voltage operating range (2.5 - 4.2 V). Currently, all modules charge and discharge simultaneously. If any single module reaches 4.2V while charging, or 2.5V while discharging, the car must stop charging or discharging, respectively. During normal use, it is natural for the modules to become unbalanced. As the pack grows more unbalanced, the capacity of the entire battery pack decreases as it can only charge and discharge to the range of the lowest capacity module. An actively balanced battery box would ensure that we utilize all possible charge during the race, up to 5% more charge based on previous calculations.

# Solution Overview

We will implement active balancing which will redistribute charge in order to fully utilize the capacity of every module. This system will be verified within a test battery box so that it can be incorporated into future solar vehicles.

Solution Components:

- Test Battery Box (Hardware): The test battery box provides an interface to test new battery management circuitry and active balancing.

- Battery Sensors (Hardware): The current battery sensors for ISC do not include hardware necessary for active balancing. The revised PCB will include the active balancing components proposed below while also including voltage and temperature sensing for each cell.

- Active Balancing Circuit (Hardware): The active balancing circuit includes a switching regulator IC, transformers, and the cell voltage monitors.

- BMS Test firmware (Software): The Battery Management System requires new firmware to control and test active balancing.

# Criterion for Success

- Charge can be redistributed from one module to another during discharge and charge, to be demonstrated by collected data of cell voltages over time.

- BMS can control balancing.

- The battery pack should always be kept within safe operating conditions.

- Test battery box provides a safe and usable platform for future tests.