As part of the Smart Classroom project, we have developed prototypes of a smart access control system using RFID, a smart airconditioning control system and a smart light control system. These prototypes are working in our lab in Nightowl right now. The next step is to turn these products into consumer ready versions and test and implement these in the Foundation Preparatory Academy and dorm facilities.
You will learn how to test the safety of the products and how to implement solutions to any safety concerns. Furthermore you will learn how to build the electronics, do the installation of the product and write the technical documentation for the end-users. The project will be quite hands-on and will lead to a final product that will find direct real-world usage.
More information about the product can be found on the Smart Classroom project page.
Scope
To get to a consumer ready version, we need to address electrical safety. Right now our prototypes have been working for a while already without any issues in our lab. But if we install them somewhere we want to make absolutely sure our devices can't catch fire or cause other hazards to the people and buildings they are used. Firstly, this includes making sure that if our device fails, it can not cause a fire or hazard of electrical shock to the consumer. But important is also to ensure that mis-use by the consumer for instance by overloading the smart light switch, or a user accidentally causing a short circuit when installing the system or changing the wiring of the lights, does not cause any fire or electrical hazards in our devices. If our devices fail due to mistakes either on our side, or on the side of the user, we need to make sure it fails safely. Solutions are to include a fuse, or diode.
Any recommendations you make based on the safety investigation should be added by you to the system, and with those, you should design the final version of the product, which you will then build.
Once the final version has been developed, the next step concerns, easy of use, documentation and support. We want to make sure that installing our devices is as easy as possible, and that good documentation is available to any electricians or other technical users who want to install our devices. The best way to write that documentation is to actually install the devices yourself, and document the process. Then let another user, like a Foundation University electrician read it, and get their feedback on the quality of the documentation and adjust it accordingly. You should also to take care of documenting some common questions or problems that users may encounter, and writing down the solutions. In case we get questions from users, we can then use your documentation to give them the answer.
Tasks
The tasks of the capstone team will consist of:
- Research safety standards for electronics connected to the mains power in a building. Of special interest are:
- Fire risk in case of short circuits
- Risk of electrical shock in case of physical damage to our devices
- Research applicable Filipino or international standards regarding "mains" connected consumer electronics
- Make a list of common mistakes people can make when installing the devices, assess the risks of those mistakes and find possible improvements to solve them
- Reverse polarity
- Mistakes in connecting wires
- Accidental unplugging
- Short circuits
- Test safety limits of the current prototypes
- Current consumption (DC) for the devices
- AC breakdown current for the relays
- Adjust the product based on your findings
- Develop the final circuit board
- Build final version
- Write documentation for the implementation of the product and product troubleshooting
- Implement the product in one or two testing sites within foundation university
- Evaluate the initial test and suggest improvements
- Present your findings