Project :: ECE 445 - Senior Design Laboratory

#	Title	Team Members	TA	Documents	Sponsor
29	Multi-source, high-power converter	Eric Kapinus Viktor Terziysky		design_document0.pdf final_paper0.pdf presentation0.pdf proposal0.pdf
	The idea behind this project as a whole is to design, optimize, and build a high-power converter box that could take inputs of 115Vac/60Hz, 230Vac/50Hz, and 14Vdc and translate any one of those into either 115Vac/60Hz or 230Vac/50Hz at the output. The main reason to incorporate two very common AC signals into this project lies on the hope to make it more internationally compatible. The reason for the inclusion of the 14Vdc input, however, is the primary motivation for this experiment. The goal is to be able to draw current from an energized car battery (running at precisely 14Vdc) and supply it to key household items, such as sump pumps, small refrigerators, small microwave ovens, etc. in the event of a power outage. The idea is to be able to continuously provide up to 1,000W at the output in order to cope with the high power demands of some of the items mentioned previously.

Featured Project

# Automatic Piano Tuner

Team Members:

- Colin Wallace (colinpw2)

- Riley Woodson (rileycw2)

- Joseph Babbo (jbabbo2)

# Problem

Piano tuning is a time-consuming and expensive process. An average piano tuning will cost in the $100 - $200 range and a piano will have to be retuned multiple times to maintain the correct pitch. Due to the strength required to alter the piano pegs it is also something that is difficult for the less physically able to accomplish.

# Solution

We hope to bring piano tuning to the masses by creating an easy to use product which will be able to automatically tune a piano by giving the key as input alongside playing the key to get the pitch differential and automatically turning the piano pegs until they reach the correct note.

# Solution Components

## Subsystem 1 - Motor Assembly

A standard tuning pin requires 8-14 nm of torque to successfully tune. We will thus need to create a motor assembly that is able to produce enough torque to rotate standard tuning pins.

## Subsystem 2 - Frequency Detector/Tuner

The device will use a microphone to gather audio measurements. Then a microprocessor processes the audio data to detect the pitch and determine the difference from the desired frequency. This can then generate instructions for the motor; direction to turn pegs and amount to turn it by.

## Subsystem 3 - User Interface/Display Panel

A small but intuitive display and button configuration can be used for this device. It will be required for the user to set the key being played using buttons on the device and reading the output of the display. As the device will tune by itself after hearing the tone, all that is required to display is the current key and octave. A couple of buttons will suffice to be able to cycle up and down keys and octaves.

## Subsystem 4 - Replaceable Battery/Power Supply

Every commercial product should use standard replaceable batteries, or provide a way for easy charging. As we want to develop a handheld device, so that the device doesn’t have to drag power wires into the piano, we will need a rechargeable battery pack.

# Criterion For Success

The aim of the Automatic Piano Tuner is to allow the user to automatically tune piano strings based on a key input alongside playing a note. We have several goals to help us meet this aim:

- Measure pitch accurately, test against known good pitches

- Motor generates enough torque to turn the pegs on a piano

- Tuner turns correctly depending on pitch

- Easy tuning of a piano by a single untrained person

Project Videos

DemoVideo1