Avalon Microsystems – Project Management Blog

These images belong to the final prototype of our WireTech Power Management system as demonstrated in the Electronic Machines Lab at room S-104. The black box with the screen you see below you is the main controller unit in its final encasing, connected to a standard wall outlet.

Main controller unit

All proposed functionality is present; however, due to some difficulties involving two RF modules failing as well as the power supply when mounting to PCB, we had to make do with only one outlet controller and a backup dual 5V/3.3V power supply we had set up previously during the proof-of-concept phase. The outlet controller is shown here running directly off a 120V source connected to the primary on our power supply’s transformer, with the relay hooked up to an extension cord with a lightbulb connected for demonstration purposes.

Outlet controller unit

Following is a picture of the initial prototype implementation of our WireTech Power Management System consisting of the main controller unit on the right and an outlet controller with its relay to the left. The main controller and outlet controller are already communicating with each other for the purposes of turning the relay on or off, and schedule functionality is already implemented; all that remains is sending power consumption measurements and graphing in the main controller, and of course the final circuit assembly.

We are pleased to announce that the goals for the past week’s integration sprint have been successfully met and exceeded. The Main Controller unit, the Electric Imp wireless module and the Android App have been very nearly fully integrated; the app can send device and schedule data via JSON to the Imp, which then converts the data into their binary representations before sending it via UART to the Main Controller, which finally saves the received data to SD. Likewise, the app can also send a command to the Main Controller through the Imp to pull device and schedule data from the SD card via the same UART interface. Remaining tasks to ensure full integration of the aforementioned models include:

– Reading the entire list of devices and schedules currently saved to SD and pushing them both as a binary dump through UART upon receiving a request from the Android app to update its internal list of managed devices in order to ensure operational consistency.

– Reading the power consumption cyclical buffers saved to SD and pushing them through UART upon receiving a request from the Android app’s graphing module.

These two tasks are expected to conclude by the end of the weekend, when we will then focus our efforts on integrating the main controller with the individual outlet/multiplug controllers before commencing final integration testing.

Attendees: Jose, Jaudiel (Erick was granted leave due to taking the FE exam.)

Topic: Task Structures for Integration Phase

Here are our task distributions for the sprint of 4/13-4/19. The goal of this current sprint is to get full communication between the Android application and the Electric Imp wireless module and between the Electric Imp and the main system controller, and to verify the main system controller’s capability of managing devices associated with it.

José – Finish implementation of touchscreen GUI for main controller functionality. Read/write device and schedule data from SD card; transmission of device and schedule data via UART to the Electric Imp. Test main controller functionality by toggling devices on/off from touchscreen interface and verifying that the updated data is saved to SD and sent to the affected devices.

Jaudiel – Implement serialization protocol for transmitting device/schedule objects from Android app to the Electric Imp via JSON, then converting it to binary format before transmitting it to the main controller via UART; implement HTTP requests for device/schedule transfer in rest of application; test transfer of individual device/schedule data.

Erick – Test circuit integration with main controller and outlet controllers; assemble multiplug; design and assemble PCB for system circuit.

Here is a video of our Electric Imp-driven wireless module connecting to the university’s open Wi-Fi network and sending out a Hello World message.

Video link: #

Attendees: Jose, Jaudiel, Erick

Topic: Holy Week Schedule

Tasks were divided among the members for the duration of holy week. Tasks  are as follows:

Jaudiel – Continue Android development

Jose – Touchscreen and Electric Imp programming

Erick – RMS from current sensor in MSP430

Here is a proof-of-concept video of what is to be the main system controller communicating with our outlet controller via RF data transmission. In this case, by pressing the button in the main controller module, the RF module sends a signal to the outlet controller to toggle the relay.

Video link: #

Welcome to the Avalon Microsystems developers’ blog! Here you’ll find summaries of our design meeting discussions, progress reports, and project milestones related to our flagship product, the Wiretech Automated Power Management System. We’re only just getting started, so this page is still pretty empty, but stay tuned for more updates!