Welcome
Welcome to May 13-06 Senior Design website! All the news, weekly reports
and documents of the senior design project will be posted here.
Introduction
Project Title
Logging DC Coulomb Counter / Wattmeter
Project Abstract
Make a device capable of accurately measuring the power consumed by other devices running
on DC. This is similar to the "Kill A Watt" but will measure DC power and is intended to be used as test equipment. The device will be
connected in series between a DC supply and load where it can accurately measure and log the data needed to compute power usage.
This device will be useful for measuring the power usage of any electronic device in a
vehicle or boat, the output of solar arrays over time, or charging devices like cell phones, pads, or laptops. The design will require
analog and digital circuit design as well as the programing of a microcontroller for this embedded system.
Project Goals
1. Accept as close to a 1-24VDC input source and have the same 1-24VDC out the other side with a minimal voltage drop
through the device. The wider the functional range the more versatile the system will be.
2. Needs to measure currents from 0.5mA to 3A.
3. Logs voltage, current, time, and temperature.
4. Have a programmable logging time ideally from 100ms to 10min.
5. Log the saved data to a removable SD card in a format easy to import with MS Excel.
6. The device needs the ability to run on battery power so that it doesn't distort the measurement being made. Better yet the power
source could be selectable so it can run on battery power when measuring small powers and run on the DC input power if it is much
larger than the devices power requirements.
7. An easy to use user interface, such as buttons and a display.
Team Members
Ailing Mei (EE)
Andrew Kom (EE)
Chongli Cai (EE)
David Hoffman (SE)
Qiaoya Cui (EE)