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The Product of Greatness

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The Product of Greatness Through all of the setbacks faced by the group emerges a final prototype. In 10 weeks, we went from research to design to completion. It was a tough challenge with many problems occurring along the way. We successfully overcame these challenges and are set to have a working prototype by the end of this week. The freshly ordered parts have arrived and the project should finally work as planned. There were two crucial parts that needed to be changed. Those two parts are a Step-Down and a USB Type-A socket. The Step-Up that was recently being used to increase voltage decreased the current by a large amount which rendered the solar panels useless. This was unacceptable because the cellphone was actually discharging in experimental tests. Additionally, the USB socket had to be purchased since the new Step-Down did not have one built in whereas the old one did. To ensure the Step-Down works properly, 5 solar panels will be used. This was previously 3 but has n...
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Settling for Greatness

A Proof of Concept There have been several more changes with our design since the last meeting. Due to the lack of fabrication tools, we decided it would be in our best interest to create the phone case system out of wood and attach it to a separate pre-molded phone case. As a result of this method, we have created a phone case system that can house and utilize the solar panels like planed, but is much larger than the design is supposed to be. As a result, this design has been deemed a "proof of concept" and will be used to demonstrate what the actual case would look like when it is compact. Other than the change in the purpose of the prototype, we have also made another electrical change to our system. In the past, we switched from a three solar panel unit to a five solar panel unit, and then back again. This past week the entire system was wired up correctly and we ran a short field test with it and obtained some data. As it turns out there was a slight oversigh...
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A Change in Greatness

An Alteration in Design The design we had modeled final has been printed, after much technical difficulties. However, only half of the design was successfully printed until it was removed from the printer without our knowledge. When lining up the 3D printed case with the actual phone, it was noted that there was a large disparity in size. The Samsung case that was used as a template was too small and the plastic used in the 3D print was too rigid for the phone to actual fit. However, it was also noted that the type of material that was used for the printing was not the best fit for this particular design, due to how weak some of the joints were. As a result of the numerous problems we have encountered with 3D printing, we have decided to manually fabricate the system. The group has decided to simply purchase a low cost Samsung phone case, so we do not have to worry about sizing again, and will will attach a separate system to its back. This separate system's material hasn...
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A Delay on Greatness

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Waiting for Parts For the past week we have been waiting for the last few parts of our project to arrive. We already possess 6 1.0V 500mA solar panels, with one as a spare. We also have a step-up device, a multimeter, and an external battery.  We are waiting on a heat sink so we can solder together the circuit without damaging it. The circuit we are planning on using will look something like so: Where the five 1V 500mA solar panels will be wired in series and connect to an external battery that will output the energy to the phone as a medium.  Other than the delivery wait there have also been many technical errors with the 3D printers at our disposal, where 4 out of the 6 printers are broken. We have had to put a delay on our rapid prototyping. This week we will hopefully be printing out our 3D prototype and will be working out all the mechanics of getting the panels to move in and out. While this is being done the rest of the group will also be collectin...
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The Tests of Greatness

  Acquiring Data This week all of our parts have arrived and testing begins. We will obtain a luxmeter and use it to collect data to see how much light each of our solar panels absorbs. With this data, we can analyze which conditions cause peak efficiency. Using that data we will be able to determine how well our design will be able to charge the phone. The theoretical power at peak efficiency is around 2.5 Watts. This is the equivalent of the output of a computer USB port. Other than the collection of data, we will also be trying to finish our phone case CAD design and will begin printing it. There have been some software issues with Creo Parametric, which is the 3D modeling software we are using, but once those are solved there are just a few more pieces to edit and the model will be ready. Overall this week will be highly analytical and full of testing. We are looking forward to seeing how well everything works and what can be improved! ...
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In the Name of Greatness

Our Product Emerges This week there was a lot of housework done in regards to the product design and components. First, the parts that were ordered(the 1V 500mA and 3V 200mA solar panels), then they arrived and were found to be in working condition. However, after further discussion regarding the electrical aspects of our design, we decided that it would not be the best idea to attempt to create a combination circuit to result in a 3V 700mA circuit. If this circuit was created it would give an amount of power equal to 2.1 Watts at peak efficiency, and would use 4 solar panels. This is simply not enough to charge a phone which requires around 4-5V with 1.0-1.2A. We decided it would be more efficient and less difficult to simply created a 5 solar panel series circuit using only 1V 500mA solar panels. This would result in a 2.5 Watt power output, at peak efficiency, which is equivalent to the specifications of a computers USB charger. Due to this change more 1V 500mA solar panels...
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The Price of Greatness

Acquiring Materials 4/17/2017 This week we finally purchased our parts! We have done a significant amount of research into the parts and materials we may need for this project. These materials have varied in price and spec, and we have narrowed down the list to just a few items. The first item we purchased is a Step-Up Converter. This device is used to regulate the voltage output. This allows a steady output of voltage which is great for charging a cell phone. The device also prevents the input from producing too many amps. It has an indicator that warns against over-current. Additionally, this device will not work with a voltage less than 3V. The threshold for the device is 3-5V which is what we will achieve with our combination of solar panels. Here is the link for the product that was purchased:  https://www.amazon.com/DROK-Module-Battery-Converter-Samsung/dp/B00C93Z8JY/ref=pd_bxgy_328_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00C93Z8JY&pd_rd_r=YGVT6H6Z25CACQ304ZJA...
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