ELEX 4560 - Telecom and Networks Capstone Projects Primary tabs | BCIT Institutional Repository

ELEX 4560 - Telecom and Networks Capstone Projects Primary tabs

Aquaponic data collection system
The purpose of this project was to demonstrate the team’s knowledge and skills, acquired from BCIT’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology: Telecommunications and Networking Diploma program. The project also serves as a prerequisite for graduation from BCIT. The data collection system is a part of a much larger project for an SFU mechatronic systems capstone project. The SFU project is a fully automated aquaponic system. A colleague of Jeffrey Batac granted him permission to develop a preliminary system that will be further developed later. Jeffrey acted as proxy the for the SFU student, relaying information from the student to the team about design changes and project direction. An aquaponic system is a type of garden that utilizes the inhabitants of a natural ecosystem to grow and harvest crops and fish. Fish are present in the system to produce waste. The waste they excrete is then converted into fertilizer by micro-organisms in the water. The byproduct they produce will provide the plants with the nutrient that they are missing from the soil. The plants filter the water that return to the fish. This final report is prepared for Susan Woo – the instructor for COMM 2443, Bob Gill – the project mentor, and Ed Casas – Program head and instructor for Telecom & Networks Projects (ELEX 4560). Our final report will show our findings over the last few weeks. The final report contains the project overview, the cost of supplies, the original and revised schedule, the team’s conclusions, recommendations, and an appendix containing extra information about the project., Data collection system, Wi-Fi
Automated composter final report
The purpose of this report is to discuss the development of the Smart Bin prototype, its specifications, achievements and results, and future considerations that will continue to improve the prototype. The goal of our project was to design a smart composter that would address three measurable quantities and provide a user-friendly LCD screen that would accurately monitor and clearly display the quantities. The quantities are temperature, moisture, and bin capacity level. The compost bin would also be able to send this data over Wi-Fi to an MQTT test server and on a LCD screen attached to the bin where the data would be displayed for the owner/user of the compost bin. Details of the specifications are provided below and a full description of the Python Code is seen at Appendix A. The report further outlines specific challenges that needed to be overcome throughout the development process. Coding on the Raspberry Pi, troubleshooting the code, adapting the size of the bin enclosure, and the inability to add some of the additional features that would have enhanced the bin’s capabilities were challenges that were addressed throughout the process. Delays in choosing the project topic, waiting for the arrival of parts, and significant coding issues put the project behind schedule, and forced the team to rush to put all the final components in place.
Portable power wall formal report
The Power Wall Project is a custom-piece of power equipment designed to provide an electrical source, on-demand when the equipment is away from standard electrical outlet. The team of Islay Clare-Kellet (Power) and Katharyn Taylor (Telecom) worked closely together to design, procure materials and components, create detailed design, build, test, commission, and document the project. The overall cost for the project materials went over budget of $800 by $200 due to replacement of equipment during the commissioning phase. During the seven phases of the project plan, the team experienced accomplishments, like completing the working version of the Power Wall. The first prototype the current Power Wall performs well and provides three voltage levels and can be started and stopped simply with the two push buttons and latching relays. The physical unit is can easily be used a camping power supply and it isn’t the typical and polluting generator one can find at their local Canadian Tire story. The finished unit is rugged and can be rolled over rough terrain. It will prove to be an excellent camping companion when needing to power phones, coffee makers or lights. The team also experienced a number of challenges on the technical and human resource sides. On the technical side, the team learned the timing and requirements to carry out in-depth research on limits, capabilities and common issues related to the equipment and processes associated with the design and production of the equipment. Should we have conducted more research, we would have discovered that there was a common issue with turning the analog signal from AM712 to a digital sensor. We also discovered, the hard way, that giving too much voltage to the input pins would kill the pi. In the end, though we were able to construct a working prototype of the Power Wall, with power monitoring capabilities, we learned important lessons on being accountable to the Project Plan deadlines, on team communication and on personal commitment to the project objectives. While these human resource challenges almost seemed insurmountable during the project implementation, it was our perseverance and our team commitment that kept us motivated and focused on the end goal. We are proud of our work and thankful for the experience.
Remote-controlled camera robot
This report is the outcome of our capstone project named “Remote-Controlled Camera Robot”. This project was completed by students from BCIT’s Telecommunications option in the ECET department. As a completed project, we successfully built a robot car which can be controlled from a web interface through WiFi or a data cellular system. Using a webpage, the user can access commands that allow the robot to move forward, back, and turn. The video feed from the robot is also visible here, and the user can send simple commands to the camera. For example, we can record video, turn on/ off the camera, get picture capture, etc. This project is not only successful according to the technical point, but has also been completed within the limited budget and timeline. We broke down the project into two parts, which are hardware and software. The hardware part includes a 4-wheel chassis, Raspberry Pi, camera module, WiFi dongle, etc. In the software part, we have used Apache 2, HTML, Java, PHP, PiTunnel, etc. After building the hardware and software part separately, we can now control the robot car with Raspberry Pi, and communicate with it through a webpage. We have created a very basic robot car which can controlled by a webpage but there are lots of other possibilities to make it more efficient. Such as stronger motors / wheels, a better camera, improvement of the power supply or batteries. These future improvements will be explained at the end of the document in the FUTURE RECOMENDATIONS section.
Sun station monitor
In this technical report, we’re going to cover the Sun Station Monitor system in details from project introduction to prototype overview. The whole project is quite straightforward but it takes us a while to figure out a suitable solution. In here I would like to appreciate our telecommunication program head Ed Casas for continuously supporting us with his outstanding programming skills and Linux knowledge, and also Curt Shelton who has provided this excellent opportunity for us to utilize what we have learned from school on building an actual electronic device. In the introduction, we will briefly talk about the idea behind Sun Station and the reason for building a project for it. Secondly, we will move onto the project description which presents the appearance of our Sun Station Monitor prototype, along with its specification and challenges. Next, moving onto conclusion and recommendation, we will talk about our experience for building the whole project and developed a plan for it.