Student Project Showcase - 2020
Richard Akers
Automatic Watering System, Powered by Solar
This automatic watering system used an integrated hardware approach to monitor and display the condition of the soil for a set of potted plants. The controller board was a Blynk Board that used an ESP8266 microcontroller for monitoring and control. The soil moisture sensor used a conductive resistance reading to send a signal to the control where the analog-to-digital converter in the microcontroller was used to sample how dry the soil was in the pots. The information was then transmitted through the Blynk server to an application installed on the cell-phone to provide information about whether the plants needed to be watered. The entire controller system is powered by solar panel and rechargeable LiPo batteries.
Nick McDonald
Automated Vehicle (Jonny 3 Sensors)
This robotic vehicle is made up of an Arduino NANO along with 3-Ultrasonic Sensors (PING) for sight to avoid obstacles. The DC motors that were used for mobility were controlled with L293D H-bridge motor control devices. The power supply system is a rechargeable battery where the output is fed into the voltage regulators that powers all of the components including the microcontroller.
Zach Clark
Automatic Cat Feeder
The cat feeder can be set to run every 2, 4, 6, 8, or 12 hours depending on the appetite of the cat or how many cats are in the house. The system included relays to control the 24 volt geared motors that turned the hopper that holds the food. It has a real time clock (RTC) to track the amount of time between feedings. As well as, a display using I2C communication protocols to show the current time and when the next feeding cycle will start. Zach is in the transfer degree program to Oregon Tech for the Embedded Systems Degree Program.
Daniel West
Dual Sequencer Project
This audio project uses two microcontrollers that each use the analog to digital converter to take readings from potentiometers which create a wide variety of different sequences and tempo patterns. These patterns trigger 20 external variable oscillators tuned to a modal scale. The output of this system uses low pass filters, amplifiers, and a variable band-pass filter controlled by pulse width modulation (PWM). Daniel currently works for MetOne in Grants Pass.