ECE 411 Practicum Project
Dung Vo
Duc Phan
Rami Alshafi
Talal Alshammari
Outline
 Introduction
 Design
 Needs
 Schematic & layout
 Motivation
 Hardware
 Project objective
 Programming
 Alternatives
 Testing
 Requirements
 Results
 Approach
 Lesson learned
Introduction
Programmer
Layout Designer
Programmer
Circuit Designer
Editor
Mechanical designer
Tester, Editor
•Decision making
•Design specification
•Design modeling
•Test plan
Problem
 This is the term project for 411 class to practice for
capstone project (PCB layout, solder…)
Electrical
candle
Motivation
• To design a “toy”.
• Team work.
• Programming.
• Fun to do
Objective
• Skill practice (PCB layout, soldering…)
• Apply knowledge
• Complete the requirements.
• The design of the electrical candle and it’s
prototype.
Alternatives
 Alternative products
 A light that changes
colors continuously
regardless of motion or
any other inputs. Like
the Halloween light toy
candy.
 Light changes due to
sound or music
 A light that changes
with motion like the
Play Station 3 wireless
controller.
 Alternative features
 Airflow sensor vs.
acceleration sensor
 Powering up the device
(solar panels vs.
batteries)
 Color change
dependence (music vs.
remote control and
acceleration )
Requirements
 Functionality and performance:
 The final device should operate in normal
environment: ( 25 ° C dry room)
 Mode 1: Light colors and intensity is depending on
acceleration
 Mode 2: light colors and intensity respond to a remote
control
 Powering the toy: batteries and wall adaptor
Approach
R3T3SD: Research X 3, Think X 3, Specifications, Design
 Fast is slow
 Workload
 Building from scratch
vs. purchase
 Design for extensibility
(3 axis accelerometers
vs. 2 axis)
 Design for test (test
points)
 Design for
environment (lead
free)
Design
Schematic
Layout
• Board dimension:
2.7 x 2.7 inch (7 x 7 cm)
• Fit with the battery holder
• Spare space on the board
is filled with headers (Port
B, C, D) with intention of
later extensibility
• Thru hold components
Layout - 3D view
Image created with Eagle 3D and POV-Ray
Hardware
 Microcontroller: ATmega 328P
 Accelerometer: Fairchild MMA7260Q
 IR receiver: TSOP34338 – 38 KHz IR receiver
 RGB LEDs
ATmega328
(Sparkfun)
Accelerometer
breakout(Sparkfun)
IR receiver
(Digikey)
RGB LED
(Digikey)
Programming
 AVR studio 4 is used for programming
 Language: C
 What need to be programmed?
 ADC for accelerometer
 Decode IR signal
 PWM for RGB LEDs
 Source code and explanation are available on Wiki
 http://ece411.wikispaces.com/Sourcecode
Test Strategy
 Unit tests
 Microprocessor
 Accelerometer
 IR receiver and remote control
 Functional test
 In Motion mode
 In Remote control mode
 Power supply test
 Operation with batteries
 Operation with wall adapter
Methodologies
Start by testing beard board
•Unit tests
•Functional tests
•Power tests
Finish by testing PCB
•Functional tests
•Power tests
Results
 LEDS color patterns control by:
 Motion of the device
 Remote control
 Power supply:
 Operate with 5V wall adapter supply
 Operate with 3 AA battery packs
4 PCBs all works,
We have 4 electrical
candles
Lesson Learned




Multi-cultural team work
Project management
Documentations
Skill: Eagle CAD, programming, soldering…
 What need to improve:
 Effective meeting
 Time management
 What would we do differently?
 Design more fancy housing
 Use surface mount devices
 Extend functionalities, e.g. sync LEDs color with music
References
 http://ece411.wikispaces.com
 http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~faustm/ece411/
Thank you for attention!