Final Post

This is the final post for the group's blog. The group has completed the project to what we originally designed. Our product was brought to the Engineering Prototyping Competition and was a big hit with everyone that saw it. Everyone liked the idea and simplicity of it. Unfortunately the group did not have a way to give a live demonstration at the competition but we did have a video to show the testing process which everyone enjoyed. Below are is the finished product the group created and also we have attached the video of us testing the product. Overall this has been a very informative project and a great lesson about the designing process.

Meet The Team

Here is a photo of the team with Kenny Rogers to the left and Tim Buonodono to the right.

Burger Time! (Testing)

Today the group tested the product to make sure it was working. The group preset the code to read 71.1 *C. This is equivalent to 160*F which is the minimum temperature red meat should be cooked to to make sure no bacteria that can cause food borne illness will survive. When cooked to this temperature all of the meat has turned brown and looks the same as a piece of meat ordered in a restaurant labeled "well done". The first picture is the set up. It is not ideal but the best the group could make due to lack of time and a compatible pan. The stove top used is an induction stove top so only magnetic pots and pans will work.

The Set Up

Testing: 

There were a few videos the group took showing the physical testing but there was a problem in uploading so here are some pictures of the burgers after the light came on. 

All of the burgers were brown throughout and were safe to eat. They were delicious as well.

Building The Housing

Last Weekend the group decided to take a break from coding and build a simple housing unit for the Arduino board and its necessary components. Below are a few pictures of the process and the result product.

                                    

Here is the final product. The reason there is some tape is because when nailing the sides down with tack nails a few pieces split off. The tape was to help hold the wood in place and protect against the nail. The team plans to either paint or cover up the housing to make it look nicer before presenting.

The Coding

This code was downloaded from the Sparkfun website on the buldr.com extension showing how to code for a one wire temperature sensor. The second part of the code was taken from an arduino forum that uses and input and output function to relate the temperature sensor to the LED. The group was stuck on combining these two codes for the longest time due to some small errors and bugs but we finally worked it out to give the final product. Here is a copy of the code below:

int tempIn = 3;       // temperature sensor on Analogue Pin 3

int ledOut = 7;        // LED on Digital Pin 7

int aiValue = 0;       // input value (0-1023 = 0 to 5v)

float setPoint = 71;    // Trigger value in 'C

float deadband = 0.5;   // Differential for reset value in 'C

/*

18.

NOTE: the deadband action can be disabled by setting the deadband to 0

19.

*/

float degC;            // The temperature in Degrees Centigrade

void setup()

{

pinMode(ledOut, OUTPUT);    // Configure the Digital Pin Direction for the LED 

Serial.begin(9600);

}

void loop()

{

degC = getTemperature(getVolts());      //Get the Volts and the Temperature using Helper functions.

if (degC > setPoint)

{

digitalWrite(ledOut, HIGH);      // Temperature Limit Reached, turn the LED on.

Serial.println(" | Output: ON.");

}

else

{

if (degC < (setPoint - deadband))

{

digitalWrite(ledOut, LOW);       // Temperature dropped below SP and deadband, turn the LED off.

Serial.println(" | Output: OFF.");

}

}   

delay(1000);

}

float getVolts()

{

int inputValue;

inputValue = analogRead(tempIn);

float volts;

volts = (((float)inputValue / 1024) * 5);

Serial.print("Input Value: ") ; Serial.print(inputValue);

Serial.print(" | Voltage: ") ; Serial.print(volts);

return volts;

}

float getTemperature(float volts)

{

float temp = (volts - 0.5) / 0.01 ;

Serial.print(" | Temperature: "); Serial.print(temp); Serial.print(" 'C");

return temp;

}

Team Meeting

This past weekend the team met up and started working on putting final touches on the design for the project and concluded what materials will be used. A list of materials needed to be ordered was created and the parts were ordered later in the day on Saturday.
Here are the parts that were ordered:
- 9V battery adapter for the arduino
- two types of thermoucouples
- Arduino Uno board

Interesting Videos

Below are a few videos of projects that involve some type of Arduino process that the team found interesting.

Here is a video that is related to the project that we found interesting and useful.

This video was a really cool way to see the arduino processor utilized.

Here is a third video showing a different way the arduino can be used as a temperature sensor.