Winter 2010 Projects

The last half of Microcontroller Systems, five weeks, is devoted to an individual project of the student's choosing and design. The only requirements are that it be stand-alone (code in EEPROM), have both an input and output device, and involve hardware beyond that which is on the Dragon12-Plus board used in the class.

Other year's projects for Winter 2014 are here, Winter 2013 are here, Winter 2012 are here, Winter 2011 are here, Spring 2009 are here, Spring 2008 are here, Spring 2007 are here, Spring 2006 are here, Spring 2005 are here, and those for Spring 2004 are here.

Here are the projects in the (arbitrary) order they were presented. Click on any image for an enlarged view.

	Nickel Metal Hydride Battery Charger by Don Smith Don used the microcontroller to monitor the battery charging rate and state of charge, going to a trickle charge when the battery is charged.
	Audio Playback from a Secure Digital Card by Patrick Mohr Patrick investigated how to read a SD memory card directly, and used that as the core of his project. The audio waveform read from the card is then converted to analog and sent to the speakers.
	Solar Data Logging System by Bryant Baker Bryant used the microcontroller to log power output data from a solar panel that is part of his Senior Project. It takes a measurement every two minutes, and the values can be imported into Matlab for analysis.
	Vehicle Lights and Controls by Roger Badillo and Nathanael Pfund Two communication microcontrollers were used in this joint project to control all of the external lights of a car (a toy model was used for the demonstration). There is also a digital speedometer with readout in the car's "dashboard."
	MIDI Controlled Synthesizer by Michael Jones Michael connected a MIDI keyboard to the microcontroller through an interface he had to design, and then synthesized the correct tones in the microcontroller.
	Music, Laser flash light and dancing lights by Brian Nguyen Brian created a laser light show controlled by music input into the microcontroller.
	Automatic Fan Using IR Sensor by Jerlyn Badua Jerlyn used the infrared transmitter and receiver as a presence detector to turn on a fan controllered by a relay on the breadboard.
	PS/2 Keyboard to RS-232 ASCII by Benjamin Oien Benjamin interfaced a standard PS/2 keyboard to the microcontroller, converting the keyboard output to ASCII. This gives the microcontroller a full keyboard interface instead of just being limited to the 10-key pad on the board.
	HVAC Temperature Control by Christian Colvin Christian created a digital thermostat, operating a relay at a user-settable temperature. The temperature is shown on the LED display.
	TTL Voltage Level Detector by Kevin Ngo Kevin's project is useful for production testing. It measures a voltage and determines if it is a valid TTL voltage level. Results are displayed in text on a display.
	RDF Sensing Antenna Control Using a Dragon12 Plus by Timothy Van Den Bos Tim's project is the biggest one I've seen! He uses a stepper motor to rotate an antenna, searching for the maximum signal strength. It can then position the antenna for maximum strength. Tim demonstrated operation with a mobile transmitter.
	Sweet Garage Parking Assistant A sonar distance detector is used to indicate if the "car" is getting two close to an object.
	"RFID Conditional Access Pet Food Dispenser by Kyle Wengenroth Kyle put an electrically controlled lid on a pet food dispenser that is actuated by an RFID tag so access can be controlled for individual pets.
	The Design, Development, and Implementation of a Dopler Velocity Measurement System by Dustin Vifquain Dustin leveraged off of his senior project, in progress, to demonstrate a Dopler radar system.
	Thermometer by Joel Sprunger Joel designed a thermometer with LED readout. A thermistor is sued for temperature measurement, which he has calibrated and uses table lookup to get an accurate reading. He then uses the temperature to control a water valve.