Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
1 USB 3.0 Wall Outlet Conversion
 Andrew Moruzi
Cindy Fok
Tyler Neyens
 James Kolodziej design_document0.zip
final_paper0.zip
presentation0.pdf
proposal0.pdf
The project is to modify an AC wall outlet to add two DC USB ports including a 5V, 5A standard USB 3.0 port, and a high power 12V 15A modified USB 3.0 port. The low power port could be used to charge small consumer electronics such as smart phones, iPods, etc. The high power port could be used to power larger loads such as cordless drills, portable refridgerators, etc. The USB standard was chosen because many consumer products already use this connector. The motivation of this project is to eliminate the need for a DC converter outside of the wall outlet. External converters are often cheaply made, and thrown away after a new device is purchased. This project would seek to implement a high efficiency, permanent converter.


The currently available product can be viewed here: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/e81a/#tabs. This project would build upon the design in efficiency and power rating. The miniumum acceptable efficiency will be 85% and the power rating on one of the ports will be increased to 180W.

The power conversion will be implemented using an AC/DC converter. The first steps of this design will be researching various topologies and determining the best circuit to meet the requirements of this project. Simulations will be made using MATLAB/SIMULINK to determine part sizes and losses.

Smart Frisbee

Ryan Moser, Blake Yerkes, James Younce

Smart Frisbee

Featured Project

The idea of this project would be to improve upon the 395 project ‘Smart Frisbee’ done by a group that included James Younce. The improvements would be to create a wristband with low power / short range RF capabilities that would be able to transmit a user ID to the frisbee, allowing the frisbee to know what player is holding it. Furthermore, the PCB from the 395 course would be used as a point of reference, but significantly redesigned in order to introduce the transceiver, a high accuracy GPS module, and any other parts that could be modified to decrease power consumption. The frisbee’s current sensors are a GPS module, and an MPU 6050, which houses an accelerometer and gyroscope.

The software of the system on the frisbee would be redesigned and optimized to record various statistics as well as improve gameplay tracking features for teams and individual players. These statistics could be player specific events such as the number of throws, number of catches, longest throw, fastest throw, most goals, etc.

The new hardware would improve the frisbee’s ability to properly moderate gameplay and improve “housekeeping”, such as ensuring that an interception by the other team in the end zone would not be counted as a score. Further improvements would be seen on the software side, as the frisbee in it’s current iteration will score as long as the frisbee was thrown over the endzone, and the only way to eliminate false goals is to press a button within a 10 second window after the goal.