Senior design project ideas

[NiHaoMike]

I'm taking a senior design class this semester and I'm trying to get more ideas for possible projects. (Only one will be chosen and worked on.)

My current (incomplete) list includes:
Desktop LCD tablet
   Add tablet functionality to low cost LCD monitor.
   Inductive stylus using wire loops behind LCD.
Waterproof tablet computer
   All wireless interfaces for no connection seals.
   Presentation idea: have Sarah jump into a pool with the tablet and show that it still works.
Single/split phase induction motor drive
   Add variable speed functionality to split phase induction motors.
Parabolic antenna for 802.11
   PA/LNA in antenna feedhorn.
   Connect to AP using low cost coax TV cable.
   PA/LNA powered by 12V bias on coax.
Low cost networked oscilloscope
   10-25MHz bandwidth.
Low cost grid tie inverter
   250-1000W continuous rating.
Weather balloon using walkie-talkie radio
Home network center
   Integrate network hardware into one unit.
   Gigabit switch with Jumbo Frame support.
   NFS file server with optional RAID support.
   High speed WAN router.
   MythTV server/DVR.
   Optional integrated DSL/Cable modem.
   Optional integrated 802.11n AP.

Any feedback/suggestions? My friend Sarah wants something that has to do with power electronics, and so do I.

[EEVblog]

Depends on what you want to achieve and how much time you have.
The oscilloscope or grid tie inverter are meaty electronics design projects where heaps of stuff can go wrong, but you'll learn a lot.
If you want an easy pass, go the home network centre and plug boxes together :->

Dave.

[Chasm]

Depends on what you want to achieve and how much time you have.
The oscilloscope or grid tie inverter are meaty electronics design projects where heaps of stuff can go wrong, but you'll learn a lot.

Adding on what Dave said.
Does the project have to work at the end of the Semester, or is a well documented failure of least some aspects an option?

If not it may be time to remember the KISS principle.

[Mechatrommer]

Desktop LCD tablet
Waterproof tablet computer
presentation idea: have Sarah jump into a pool with the tablet and show that it still works.

good idea project. but be careful to make sure Sarah is wearing bikini only as to not wetting the clothing. and take the picture for us to see and "analyze" what happen to the "waterproof design", and.... the "Sarah" ... when they got out of the water. and remember again, dont take picture while they are "in" the water as to screw the non waterproof camera up.

[NiHaoMike]

good idea project. but be careful to make sure Sarah is wearing bikini only as to not wetting the clothing. and take the picture for us to see and "analyze" what happen to the "waterproof design", and.... the "Sarah" ... when they got out of the water. and remember again, dont take picture while they are "in" the water as to screw the non waterproof camera up.

I'm thinking of doing a video just like part of the EEVBlog episode about the Fluke 28.

Depends on what you want to achieve and how much time you have.
The oscilloscope or grid tie inverter are meaty electronics design projects where heaps of stuff can go wrong, but you'll learn a lot.
If you want an easy pass, go the home network centre and plug boxes together :->

I have 2 semesters to get it done and I'm looking for something that's practical and fun.

[RayJones]

I have 2 semesters to get it done and I'm looking for something that's practical and fun.

And to keep interest up, something that you will have a need for in the foreseeable future always helps....

[tyblu]

I suggest saving the most difficult and interesting projects for yourself, and doing something that appears to be achievable within less time than is available, as these projects tend to hit snags to eat up any extra schedule. Senior design projects in Canadian universities are more about managing a group, your schedule, and going through all the proper steps and paperwork, than it is about achieving a highly technical or innovative result. The whole thing should be geared towards the final paper, which means a large chunk of time needs to be scheduled for the paper.

my 2c

[Psi]

Electric Car 

Is that enough power electronics for you? 

[Chasm]

Electric Car 

Is that enough power electronics for you? 

That is probably a bit too much.

But what about an electric bicycle? (PEDELEC, electric bike, e-bike, etc.)
There are some conversion kits: brush-less wheel hub motor, controller, battery, accelerator throttle. Not that outrageously expensive, if we ignore the battery for a moment. (say $400 for the kit with motor, another $400 or more for the battery)

More importantly not that complex at the beginning either, the Chinese kit has it all. Design your own controller, add some recuperation, torque control and things are getting complex fast.
And then you can always go off the deep end of things, say the LOWRACER HYBRID SPEEDBIKE. I won't link it because youtube gets embedded, let's just say that it is a bit much for a senior project.

[Mechatrommer]

when i was... my U got electric car project done by a team of lecturers and students, and its not only for 1 year, its long term project. i agree with tyblu. dont get too excited trying to do something fabulous. u may end up screwing yourself.

[Zad]

At uni I kept making the mistake of going for the most difficult project. The inevitable result was that either I wouldn't finish it, or it was only just finished, and thus got a mark that was below my true ability. My advice would be to choose something that is simple. This makes sure you finish and and give it "polish". Depending on how much spare time that leaves you with, you can look at expanding the project.

[Time]

A highly repetitive (~MHz), 1 ns or less, 1 kV pulse generator capable of driving 50 Ohms.

[KTP]

For my senior project I am toying with the idea of making a USB based programmable multi channel voltage and current limited power supply along with a multi channel voltmeter (done as virtual instruments on a pc).  If I could build it cheap enough (<$50) I could provide them to the sophmore class so they could have an easier time in our labs.  It sounds simple, but done properly is quite an ambitious project.

[SG-1]

I had a friend who built a 800 watt stereo amp using vacumm tubes.  He uses it to drive a huge set of electro-static speakers. 

[tyblu]

Here's a list of the past few years of projects and my university: http://www.ece.ualberta.ca/~ee401/proj_archives.html . Many have full schematics, code, drawings, poster, and white paper.

[johnwa]

Greetings,

I would offer the following suggestions for choosing a design project:

1/ Make sure it is something that interests you, and gives you sufficient scope to demonstrate your abilities. As part of my engineering course, I was offered a number of ideas for a final project topic. However, I did not feel that any of these were particularly ambitious, and ended up choosing my own topic.

2/ Try to ensure that the success or failure of your project will not depend on circumstances beyond your control. The topic I finally selected was designing an electronic gear shifting system for a racing car (another group project I was involved in). While the design was reasonably successful - the servo systems worked as expected, and I achieved a good academic result, other problems with the vehicle meant that I did not really get an opportunity to do much in the way of 'real life' testing of the system.

Regarding power electronics projects, how about an induction heater? I built a simple unit a while ago, about 100W output, but scaling it up would require significantly more complex control and protection circuits.

Hope this helps,

John

[saturation]

My vote too, but adjustable to 1kV. 

If not to 10V, I'll be happy.  But more important are adjustable rise times and pulse width down to picoseconds or less, and hobbyist prices  !

These folks sell such for ~$10000  .

http://www.avtechpulse.com/speed/

A highly repetitive (~MHz), 1 ns or less, 1 kV pulse generator capable of driving 50 Ohms.

[Time]

My vote too, but adjustable to 1kV. 

If not to 10V, I'll be happy.  But more important are adjustable rise times and pulse width down to picoseconds or less, and hobbyist prices  !

These folks sell such for ~$10000  .

http://www.avtechpulse.com/speed/

A highly repetitive (~MHz), 1 ns or less, 1 kV pulse generator capable of driving 50 Ohms.

Those tricksters characterize their rise times by 20% to 80%.  I've never understood this.

[saturation]

As speeds have gotten higher, the ringing and settling has worsened, so its been recommended by academics to measure rise time at 20/80 instead, as generally its more stable than 10/90. 

http://books.google.com/books?id=xHASd9YksRgC&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=rise+times+20/80+versus+10/90&source=bl&ots=CjD5kaAmoa&sig=5T1eH1l5ndAXxrOTn7BWVMbUcH8&hl=en&ei=-RNETZKpC8Gblgfk9tHwDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFQQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q&f=false

From Maichen,2006 :

"There are several different possibilities to define the rise time (or the fall time) of a signal transition. The intuitive way would be to use the time it takes for the signal to rise from the start level to the final level, but in practice this definition meets serious problems: First, what is the final level for the common case that the signal settles rather slowly? Is it the level attained after 1 ns, or after 100 ns, or after one hour? Second, every signal has at least sonic small noise, which again makes it impossible to define an exact low or high level. So we need a more practical definition.
A very common definition is the time it takes the signal to go from some intermediate level, e.g. 10% along the full swing, to some other such level, e.g. 90%. This is indicated in Figure 7(a). At those levels the signal is rising nicely, so a small uncertainty in the actual threshold levels causes only negligible uncertainty in the corresponding timing instants. We call the rise time thus defined the 10/90 rise time T10.90. If the signal settles very slowly, is very noisy, or the swing is small, we may want to use the 20% and the 80% level instead. yielding the 20/80 rise time Lo.so, respectively. Those are the rise time definitions we will use throughout the book.
Further possibilities to indicate rise times would be the center rise time (rise time of the tangent to the steepest part of the edge) or the maximum slew rate (level change per unit of time. e.g. in V/ns)."

My vote too, but adjustable to 1kV. 

If not to 10V, I'll be happy.  But more important are adjustable rise times and pulse width down to picoseconds or less, and hobbyist prices  !

These folks sell such for ~$10000  .

http://www.avtechpulse.com/speed/

A highly repetitive (~MHz), 1 ns or less, 1 kV pulse generator capable of driving 50 Ohms.

Those tricksters characterize their rise times by 20% to 80%.  I've never understood this.

[Time]

Oh, interesting.  Thanks for the info.