Week 12 (FYP2) : Troubleshooting

Hi, this week, i will be discuss about troubleshooting. Troubleshooting is a very important step, before you can present your project to your assessors. this is to prevent further humiliating, if the project not working.

For my project, i had found 1 problem, and it was related to PIR sensors. Upon investigation, the problem was because of the range of detection for the both PIR sensor. It was known that PIR sensor has long and wide detection range, so range of detection for both PIR sensors, overlapped with each other. To solve this problem, I used a cardboard, and cover the PIR sensors. This is to limit their range of detection.
 

Figure above shown the range of detection for PIR sensor.

I had used cardboard, to cover the PIR sensors, and limit their range of detection

Week 10 & 11 (FYP2) : Assembling the solar panel with the structure

Hi, this week, i will combine the post for Week 9 and 10 together, since it took quite time to get done the structure. In case you don't know what structure i am talking about, please check it out here.

Solar panel was assembled on the structure of the highway lamp post, and the connection was soldered.

Week 9 (FYP2) : Designing the structure

Hi guys. This week i had played around with SketchUp software, to design the structure of my highway lamp post. SketchUp is a freeware software, and very user-friendly. Even a noob like me, can use it :)

You can download it from here.

Two posts were designed, both for housing the PIR sensors. Both sensors is responsible for ON and OFF the LED bulb respectively. The circles are where PIR sensors will be. 

Update : I had met my project advisor, and she agreed with my design. Yeay ! 

 

Week 8 (FYP2) : Soldering the components

Hi, this week, i have soldered all components on the PCB. My skill a little bit rusty, because the last time i solder was when i was in Semester 3, for subject Electronics 2.

Since the PCB has been designed according to the schematics diagram, so minimal wire jumper was needed.

This is the look of the PCB after the components has been soldered on it.

Week 6 & 7 (FYP2) : Creating the PCB

Hi, sorry for late posting of the Week 6, because i was busy preparing for the Phase Test. So, i combined Week 6 and Week 7 under one post.

This week, i had create the PCB using layouts that i had designed using Altium Designer; and copper board. There were many step involved in creating the PCB.

Figure above shown the process of cutting the copper board. i bought an A4 sized copper board in Jalan Pasar for RM9.

Figure above shown the cutting process of the OHP sheet.After printing the PCB layout on a Overhead Projector (OHP) sheet, i cut it according to the size.

Align the OHP sheet which has the printed layout on the  copper board. Make sure the printed side was facing the copper side of the board.

Iron the OHP sheet onto the copper board. The heat applied by the iron, will cause the ink on the OHP sheet to stick on the copper board. Thus making the copper board look like the OHP sheet.

Dip the PCB into the Etching solution (Ferric Chloride solution, FeCl₃. The solution reacted with the unmasked copper, and removes the unwanted copper from the PCB. This process is called as Etching. The PCB was check every 10 minutes.

Now the PCB was carefully drilled, to make the holes, using drilling machine.

Picture above is the completed PCB.

Week 5 (FYP2) : PCB Design

This week, i have designed the PCB layouts for both solar charger conntroller and; LDR & PIR sensor circuits. I have used Altium Designer software, to design the PCB layout.

Unlike stripe board, Printed Circuit Board (PCB) was exclusively design according to the circuit layout. PCB was meant to minimize the usage of the wire jumper, thus making the circuit look presentable.

Figure above is the PCB layout for the solar charger controller circuit, while figure below is the LDR and PIR sensor circuit.

Week 4 (FYP2) : Constructing the Solar Charging Circuit

On 30 September, i tried to construct the solar charger circuit on the breadboard.

Picture above shown the open circuit voltage for the solar panel. The solar panel was rated at 2W. 

This was the voltage produced by the 12V 7.2AH. The circuit was in dumping mode, which means the battery was not connected to solar panel.  

This was the voltage produced by the solar panel, note that the RED LED was ON, which means the circuit was in dumping mode. 

This picture shown the voltage produced by the solar panel, which was used to charge the battery. The circuit was in charging mode, which was indicated by the GREEN LED. 

The circuit was forced to be in dumping and charging mode by pushing the push buttons.