SunSPec 5 - Telemetry System

We managed to get the design working at first, however it comes with a big problem. The data received by the chase vehicle is in chunks of 5-7 rows of data at a time, and once every minute or so. After spending some time of trial & errors and testing, we thought that the 9600 baud rate of the LoRa may be the cause, hence we re-setted the settings to higher baud rate transmission through air.  After further testings, we still found the rate to be similar. When we sent the data manually through the RX software of LoRa at different speeds, we discovered little or no delays, even at a large amount of data (Tested up to 10 columns). However, if we were to send at a faster rate (< 1s), the system starts to get sluggish and may even hang, which is how we found the fault in the system. We were handed Arduino Micro (uses Leonardo bootloader), and we use them instead of Arduino pro mini, as Micro eliminates the use of a FTDI serial adapter module, hence savi...

We have finalized on the plan of integrating the system as shown in Figure 1 , and we will start working on it this week and the following weeks till completion. However, this is only a suggestion of our own design which may not be the actual design used for SunSPec 5, as we have yet to carry out further tests on practicality. Figure 1: Telemetry System Overview The main problem of interfacing wireless communication with Arduino is that due to the way the Arduino receives it, it will receive char by char per loop. So any other parts of code in between the sending and receiving part will be sent along each time a char is sent. For example, the word "test" is being sent, and there is another program to send a voltage value, per say "50". The receiving end will receive in the following order: " t ", "50", " e ", "50", " s ", "50", " t ", "50". There is a way to get around this ...

We have finished up the mount display and also prepared for the presentation. For the actual system, we are still working on the speed-sensing part. Figure 1: Overview of Telemetry System (V1)  Figure 2: Mount display for illustration & demo

Voltage Transducer: Initial Testing We went to the workshop to experiment with the voltage transducer. The Voltage Transducer that is currently being experimented with is the CR5310 of the CR5300 Series. Figure 1: Voltage Transducer Figure 2: Set-up Configuration The voltage transducer receives a High Voltage input and scales it down, converting it to a Low Voltage output. The input range can take up to a range of 0 - 150V to return output from 0 - 5V for CR5310,  It isolates the LV output from the HV input. We proceeded to test it out to determine it's sensitivity. Ideally, the input of 150V would result in a 5V output and that the relationship between the input and output is linear. Thus we can calculate the gradient of the relationship between Vin and Vout to be y=30x. (where y=Vin, x= Vout). However, we weren't given the exact coefficient of the gradient for its' sensitivity, hence we need to test it out. ...

As we have trouble with setting the Arduino such that it will count the number of pulses every second ONLY , we spent the week reading up on timers, attachinterrupt, rising & falling edges, but to no avail, as we could not understand the timer features. We used a simple push switch to generate the pulses whereby each press will be recorded as one pulse. The code we have used is as shown below: *Note:  The code is inaccurate as the previous reading is added to the current and will keep accumulating, as we did not add in the timer feature to make the Arduino count the number of pulses of every second ONLY . Sensor Values                         Actual 1st reading: A                                 1st reading: A 2nd reading: B                         2nd readin...

WEMOS D1 Mini Pro December 8th, we received a WEMOS D1 Mini pro module from Mr. Joe to play around. We were tasked to replicate the simple task of controlling the LED using a web server  created when a program is run by the WEMOS. This is the same program done by STEM Education on their Internet of Things Blog. Figure 1: WEMOS  Unlike the ESP-01 like before, this WEMOS has no need for an FTDI power converter. Where the ESP01 requires different configuration for AT command mode/ serial monitor display/ downloading of program, the WEMOS is able to connect a COM PORT simply and have serial monitor display/ downloading of codes done without much hassle. Figure 2: Serial Monitor indicating connection to SSID The displayed serial monitor is able to indicate the WEMOS being connected to the Local WiFi network as well as showing the IP address of the WEMOS to connect to the web server. The web server is created by the program and a...

Introduction: As week 7 was used in preparation for MST, week 7 had no update on telemetry. After attempts on working with the RedBear Blend had been unsuccessful. Mr Joe assigned us to work with an ESP specifically an ESP01. An ESP functions as an Arduino with a wifi module and cost less than $3. However, it has only 2 IO ports and 1 built-in LED. We were tasked to connect an ESP01 with the DHT22 temperature-humidity sensor. The ESP01 would receive the data from the DHT22 connected to an Arduino and display it on a Serial monitor. The previous attempts had been unsuccessful due to firmware issues which resulted in failure even entering AT command mode. This was solved by Mr Joe uploading a firmware inside it but that ESP could only enter AT command very few often. As such, we focused on various other components such as HC-05/HC-06 as well as the Bluno beetle.  Up until recently, we started back with new ESP01 that Mr Joe had g...

CETI Exhibition We went for CETI Exhibition, displaying the Solar car. Figure 1: Group Picture From Left: Chee Yong, Matthew, Mr.Chua, Mr.Lam Figure 2: Assessors viewing other participants for competition Figure 3: Chee Yong talking to one of the guests Figure 4: Matthew talking to one of the guests Figure 5: Group Picture MST  Preparation The rest of the week was spent practicing for the MST.

Building the mount We thought of making a mount for the dashboard solely for demonstration purposes and it will not be the actual mount used for SunSPec 5. The idea is to have a variable resistor replicating as each of the sensors that will be used for the car. When the knobs are turned, the values increases and decrease accordingly, whereby the changes will then be reflected on the dashboard. We started off with a wooden base but after some drilling and cutting, we found out that the skin of the wood flakes off easily when drilling, damaging the texture. We then proceeded with an acrylic base and bent it. We have also received 2 LoRa modules from Mr.Joe to test them out, whereby it's effective range of transmission is up to 5km within the range of sight. However, we have only tested from T1023 to the solar car workshop @ W12, and it is still working normally. Attending IOT seminar Some relevant things we have found out from the seminar were regarding Bl...

Bluetooth Module We were given out another type of Bluetooth modules, the Bluno Beetle. We were told that multiple slave Blunos can be paired up to a master Bluno simultaneously, however, turns out to be false. After some testing and research, it is found out that one master Bluno only allows up to one slave Bluno as the first slave Bluno paired up will be disconnected. One possible solution to counter the problem was through "switching" of the slaves. It is coded such that the slaves will be programmed to pair up with the master in succession while disconnecting the prior paired one. The Bluno beetle model is faster, smaller, and easier to set up as compared to the HC models, but of course, the cost is relatively higher too (around 7x the price of an HC-05). One major problem encountered when dealing with the Blunos was the disconnecting of Arduino ports. Each time the code is uploaded, the port disappears. Despite changing USB cables and Arduino bo...

Hc-05/06 Bluetooth modules Finding out the problem... Most of the week is spent on troubleshooting on the Bluetooth and Wifi modules. Both faces a similar problem: unable to initiate AT commands while in AT mode. After spending an entire week on troubleshooting, the problem has been fixed. No matter what was done, or any command's issued, none of the commands worked at all, even though the Bluetooth modules were in AT mode. It is most probably due to some settings that were done in the HC-05 that permanently binds the master and slave together, hence disabling ALL activities other than communication purposes (sending and receiving to and fro). It is likely due to either of the following two commands that blocked ALL  the AT commands: AT+BIND= 3014,11,192230           // to bind AT+CMODE=1 // Set the HC-05 to only connect with paired devices The first problem... Figure 1: Pinout of HC-05 & HC-06 During the first few days of t...

Week 3 We have finished testing the optoisolator through a different simpler circuit as of the previous one we did. Instead of trying to read the digital signal being sent through, we decided to test if the signal sent through can power up a LED connected on the HV side and be controlled from the LV side. Figure 1: Optocoupler circuit As seen from above, the LED is on and powered by the signal sent from the LV side, if we were to off the switch at the LV side, the LED at the HV side will turn off. What we are basically doing is using the signal to control our LED. We don't have a bigger load at the moment as the only motor we found isn't working. Once we have a bigger load than a LED, we will most probably test it and try to see if we can control it using a microprocessor instead of a simple switch.  We found out from Mr. Kenny, the main purpose of the optoisolator is to separate the ground of HV e.g. the Battery and the Arduino in the SunSPec, and that we a...

Week 3 & Week 4 We were tasked to work on the transmission of sensor data within the car with the Bluetooth module, HC-06 FC114, hence eliminating the need of using wiring. We are tasked to use the HC-05 FC-114 (master), and HC-06 FC-114(slave) Bluetooth module and pair them up to allow the communication of Arduino through Bluetooth transmission.  http://www.martyncurrey.com/connecting-2-arduinos-by-bluetooth-using-a-hc-05-and-a-hc-06-pair-bind-and-link/ Figure 1: HC-06 FC-114 Bluetooth Modules The HC-05 module can be used to be set as either the master or the slave, while the HC-06 module can only be set as the slave module. In this case, we will be using the HC-05 as the master and the HC-06 as the slave. To do so, pairing and linking of the modules' required. It is so that the modules will connect to each other automatically when powered up. To do so, the modules first have to be powered up and connected correctly. In this case, we are using th...

We spent some time arranging the components found from T1023 and W13 that will be useful for our project and placed them in boxes.  Figure 1: Telemetry components from W13 Figure 2: Boxes of sorted components We accidentally soldered wires onto the optocoupler board instead of headers and had difficulties removing them, where we broke some of the tracks in the process of removing the wires. We met up with our supervisors on Tuesday, we were then briefed and given the HC-06 FC-114 and RedBear Bluetooth modules to test. It is then found out that HC-06 can only be used as a slave module, whereby the HC-05 is required to be used as a master module. We went to Sim Lim Tower's Amicus Engineering to purchase 3 HC-05 FC-114 Bluetooth modules on Wednesday. We faced several problems with the Arduino IDE after trying to set-up for RedBear. >:( We are able to enter the AT mode for HC-06 FC-114 and upload the code onto the board. Whereby the LEDs on the ...

At the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) Exhibition... There were a few booths around us, with all the polytechnics and ITE, NTU, SiT, and SUTD having their own booths. We found two notable groups which may be relevant to the Solar Car, else the course of study, Diploma in Energy Systems & Management (DESM) .  The first one's from Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) group, which was doing an Intelligent Building Energy Management System (IBEMS), which allows automatic switching of certain equipment such as fan or aircon, according to the temperature. It also automatically slows down certain equipment with the use of variable speed drive (VSD) to reduce energy usage, when exceeding a certain percentage (e.g 80%) of the maximum quoted energy usage a building should use, hence avoiding the surpass of maximum limit and additional charges. Figure 1: NYP IBEMS System The second one's from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) group which was doing a 3-D printed Ele...

Start of MDP  Separating High-Voltage ground and Low-Voltage ground We were brief on the ET0923: Multi-Disciplinary Project module regarding its' means of assessments. We are required to log our weekly progress on the project. We have found out some information on the followings: We found out that we would need an optocoupler (ILD213T 751-1312-1-ND) to isolate the two different circuits we will be using(high voltage & low voltage) to avoid shorting of the circuits and burning the low voltage circuit.  Speed Sensing We have also found out three different possible ways to sense the speed: Motion Detector (Infrared Sensor)  -  It is done by using an infrared sensor to determine the revolution per minute (RPM) of the wheel, then converted to speed through calculations. It is the most accurate method out of the three in finding the speed. However, there is no place to mount the sensor. Pulses from motor  - The motor contr...