i need a project idea\concept for a 10 month project.....

[mackoy]

hello!!!!! i'am a 4'th yr. electronics student and i need badly a project concept.... i need a concept that is challenging which includes programming and not jst circuit making..... it should be a "system" kind of a project.... module by module ...... plsss do help....... thank You in advance!!!!!!!

 

[twofeet3]

Some things that I am interested in...

I don't know if you are interested in these, but they are ideas that have always interested me...

Buy a cheap wirless keyboard (rf type) to control a robot of some sort. I have always wanted to sit on my porch and control my lawn mower, but havent had time to build it up. If I were doing this, I would use a PIC chip to decode the keyboard inputs...


You could build a networked timecard system so for when all of your future employees enter or leave the building. Maybe using an rfid key type system, with a postgres or mysql backend. Then you could expand this to do reporting and payroll...

You could build an ethernet enabled board that with the assistance of a uc, syncs with a network time server and sets all clocks to the same time.

Those are just a few things that interest me. I hope you do well.
Twofeet

 

[tansis]

Welcome Mackoy,

How much is your budget?

Is it to be purely electronic or can you manage some engineering?

Are you limited to what voltages you are allowed to deal with?


here's a few ideas that might tempt you...

Non Invasive Blood Oxygen Meter
Non Invasive Blood Pressure Sensor (without a pressure cuff)
Myo-electric controlled computer mouse or whatever you can think of

Electronic Rubiks Cube

Crystal Radio (scratch built) - no ready made resistors / capacitors /coils or diode allowed. Bonus if you can make a mechanical amplifier and loudspeaker.

Theramin Intruder Alarm (zone based not perimeter wire) - The intruder has come over the fence but where are they? hiding in the bushes or by the door I'm about to stick my head out of?

Autonomous Camera Tracking Mount - better known as the Remote Sentry Gun from Aliens II

Robotic mowers are good , and are being given a new twist with the new bio-bot concept, a lawn-mower powered by grass cuttings!

Those little wall climbing "robots" with the suction feet would make a good starting point for a window washing application, better get them to work in pairs in case one falls off. If they could wash and wax a car that might be worth something.

Robot Wars or Battle Bots are always a good challenge with the shows tight design criteria.

 

[Dean Huster]

You know those "measuring wheels" that the police use to determine the length of skid marks and such things at accidents? I built a digital one of those, accurate to 1/4 inch. It uses a 10" scooter wheel onto which a circular disk is mounted that works between a custom dual optical interrupter to create a quadrature signal. As the wheel rotates, a counter accumulates counts, each count equaling 1/4 inch. The wheel is in quadrature because my counter can recognize forward or backward movement and "back up" the count if necessary. In addition, the measuring wheel has a flip-over lever/pad that rides horizontally at the axle to create a starting point. The lever is exactly a foot long so that you can have it on the back side of the wheel, butt it against an inside wall, zero the readout, walk the wheel across the room for a few feet and then flip the lever over to the front position -- which cause the readout to advance exactly one foot. Then continue on to the opposite wall. Flipping the lever back, by the way, will subtract exactly a foot from the readout.

Oh. Did I mention that my readout is in feet, inches and fractions of an inch to the nearest quarter inch? The fraction readout is one of those old LED calculator readouts as were used in the original TI-35 back in the late 70s, early 80s.

So, you could do the same thing, enough electronics to create the quadrature signal and use the PIC or whatever to do the rest. Mine was all TTL and creating the fraction display was interesting design work!

Dean

 

[antona]

Senior Project - I remember my instuctor telling the class "don't pick a project so complicated that you won't be able to finish it". His point was to cover and write up a complete project rather then end up with a half-covered non-working project. 10 months will go by way quicker then you think, so get a jump on starting if you can and pick something YOU are interested in. Help your motivation by picking something you could use once the project is finished. Here's a few that I've thought of while reading over this posting:

1. heart beat meter - read heart beat via an IR opto interruptor, process the pulse period into beats/min and display on an LCD with a uprocessor.
2. USB (or ethernet) to discrete relay adapter - lots of programming, but USB and ethernet are going to be around for many more years and used in all sorts of applications. Relay output could run watering system, turn lights on/off, etc.
3. home security system - magnetic reed switch sensors on doors and windows, uprocessor scans and sets off an alarm or dials your cell phone when the right (or in this case wrong) sensors detect open/close cycle.

All these have hardware and software involved in their design. None of them would be real expensive to do or require 5,000 man hours to complete! Good luck to you with whatever project you pick.

 

[mneary]

10 months will go by way quicker then you think,

Even five years seems like it was only five years ago.

If the original poster is still working on this project he would be a 9th year student by now.

 

[antknee]

He's had time to get married, divorced, swindle an electronics company, go to jail, get out... and do it all over again!

 

[stephen87]

Electronics projects => **broken link removed**

 

[gary350]

Do a web search for science fair projects. Go to MIT they have lots of projects listed. This will give you ideas.