As the demonstration deadline neared, the team worked hard to complete the final components of the project. The majority of this week was spent integrating the hardware and software components of our machine.

Accomplishments:

• Finalized the bash script which sorts emails and replies with tasks for the orbcomm
• Improved the excel file which displays processed data from the orbcomm and presents statistics about wind and weather conditions
• Prepared demonstration files to present the functionality of the system
• Calibrated the temperature, wind-speed, and wind direction sensors
• Soldered, connected, and tested the LED display actuator
• Soldered, connected, and tested the alarm speaker actuator
• Built the housing to hold all circuitry and connected buses for power and digital logic transmitting

Calibration Methods:

Wind Speed

     The team split off into a sub team of 4 to test and calibrate the wind speed sensor. Our method was to mount the sensor to the top of a vehicle and drive down the road on a windless day measuring vehicle speed and sensor voltage. Land speed was measured using the vehicles digital speedometer and voltage was measured using a portable voltmeter. Our sensor was powered using 12volts from a laptop battery and using a logic voltage of 3.5 volts from a pack of AAA batteries. Our Wind speed sensor works by creating a pulse as wind rotates a shaft that is fed into the frequency to voltage converter, which ultimately the Q4000 microprocessor reads using an analog voltage pin. We carried out 6 tests in all from 10km/h to 60 Km/h at 10km/h intervals. The test was a success and a linear frequency to voltage relationship was produced.

     Temperature

     The temperature sensor was calibrated by taking a series of voltage output measurements at various temperatures (measured with a digital thermometer). Using this collection of information, we created a voltage to temperature relation and applied it to the output code to send real temperature data to the satellite.

 Challenges:

•  Calibrating the wind-speed required some creative engineering to make our anemometer mobile, however in the end it was successful.
• The alarm actuation hardware worked in initial testing, however once integrated with the Q4000 modem it ceased being functional. Thus far our team has determined the problem to be a lack of current output from the modem, but we have not been able to find a solution to this issue yet. We’re continuing to test and debug the issue, and are otherwise on schedule to present the project on Tuesday.