The Just Encase component kit arrived with a wide variety of interesting components so I will kick this project off with a little unboxing video that includes some teasers about what my project will include. Just in case the Just Encase title is not an adequate pun-ish attempt, it is only fair to point out my attempts at humor will be no better.
There will be at least five blogs during this project - briefly described below:
- The first blog is this unboxing teaser that also discusses my reasons for participation.
- The second blog will outline the project and its objectives.
- The third blog will explain the detailed hardware design and predicted performance.
- The fourth blog will describe the software - both the embedded firmware and the Bluetooth app.
- The fifth blog will showcase system operation, performance and project conclusions.
Of course I reserve the right to change this plan and include more blogs depending on how the project plays out, because my experimental projects seldom go strictly according to plan.
This design challenge is really different from most other design challenges in that it showcases enclosures for our systems instead of the electronic guts. I wanted to get involved in this challenge because I wanted to make the point that the enclosure is truly an integral and important part of many systems. It is often the only thing anyone sees or touches and the aesthetics of the package can make or break the entire success of a system. The enclosure is called upon to protect the electronics from the environment and to protect people and the environment from the electronics. Hammond makes a wide variety of enclosures with proven durability that vastly simplify the task of making an enclosure that meets all the myriad requirements that it may need to fulfil. I have used their enclosures in hundreds of successful projects, which is a strong endorsement of their quality and flexibility.
The Just Encase kit supplied by Hammond and element14 happens to include a box that is ideal for a project I have been thinking about for a long time. Over the years I have worked out designs and actually purchased parts to build an environmentally sealed box with a clear lid several times. The project never moved to a front burner build project primarily because I was not entirely happy with the enclosures I was designing. This type of box is not something that a 3D printed box can tackle - such boxes would be unacceptably deficient in several critical features, such as durability, environmental sealing, transparency and even aesthetics. This project may not be ideal for this design challenge, after all the project doesn't use many of the components supplied in the kit, but this particular Hammond box was still a compelling reason to apply for the challenge. I don't think a box could be designed that had a better feature set for this project. I need a box that is transparent to radio signals (non-metallic), is environmentally sealed from outdoor weather, has a transparent lid and has the dimensions that this box has.
The project objective is to build a complete outdoor system in a box that will run without maintenance for a very long time.
System Features
- The system will have a Bluetooth radio to communicate with a remote host.
- The system will be powered only by capacitors which are charged from a solar cell. (no batteries)
- The system will be outdoors - exposed to the extremes of Canadian weather.
- The system will have a low power MCU to monitor outdoor weather, starting with temperature.
- The system will have host software (android app) to display sensor data coming from the outdoor system.
The system has a simple objective to monitor outdoor temperatures, but the environmental conditions and the power system design, to perform a useful function in perpetuity, strictly powered by sunlight, make it a fairly hard core challenge. Despite the Just Encase implication of the title, this will be a multidisciplinary project involving electronic design, PCB design, mechanical design, firmware design, software design, and of course blogging and presentation work. I have not done anything quite like this before so I am bound to learn a lot and that will make it a very interesting project.
Relevant Links
Just Encase Solar Super Capacitor Experiment - Blog 1
Just Encase Solar Super Capacitor - Project Outline - Blog 2
Just Encase Super Capacitor Solar Weather Station - Design - Blog 3
Just Encase Super Capacitor Solar Weather Station - Assembly - Blog 4
Just Encase Super Capacitor Solar Weather Station - Bluetooth - Blog 5
Just Encase Super Capacitor Solar Weather Station - Indoor Operation - Blog 6
Just Encase Solar Super Capacitor Weather Station - Outdoor Tests - Blog 7
Just Encase Design Challenge
Tube Amp using Hammond transformers
GPS location and distance tracking using LoRa on a MKR WAN 1300