Introduction

Browsing the competition page, I saw that under the ideas for the Exploration Station Kit it mentioned:

• Add sensing to an existing device
• Fix a broken system with SensorXplorer

My mind went to the rundown and slow charging EZ-Go Workhorse I have in my garage that is in prime need of an upgrade.

There are two problems that I intend to fix with the Exploration Station kit's sensors:

Problem One: Power

Patience is a virtue, but when you leave a battery charging all night only to have your batteries at a partial charge after one drive, the ride ends in frustration. You start to consider outside-the-box solutions, such as trickle charging with a solar panel.

The idea behind trickle charging is using a low current to charge the battery over a long period of time, or so that the voltage doesn't drop so much when out driving. It is important to note that the amperage doesn't matter much when trickle charging a battery. Only the voltage must be the same as the battery voltage. My regular battery charger supplies 36v DC at 5A, so 36v is the voltage at which I will have to be charging.

I was unable to find a solar panel that provided 36v, and even if the panel is rated at 36v, it will fluctuate depending on the level of light.

To convert 12v to 36v, you need a certain amount of amperage, due to the first law of thermodynamics and the equation Power = Voltage x Amperage. The device that does this conversion is called a boost converter. (No, this isn't from Back to the Future )

The boost converter I bought requires at least 12v DC & 13mA to provide the constant 36v needed to charge the batteries. So, using the ambient light sensor with the SensorXploror, I can make sure the battery charging system turns off at lower light levels.

Problem Two: Proximity Sensing

The second part of my plan is to add a backup sensor to my golfcart. As you can imagine, it is difficult to back up when you can't see what's behind you. The bed, which sticks out behind it, makes backing up even more difficult. Thinking of the helpful (and definitely not annoying) backup sensors on cars these days, I thought Vishay's VCNL4035X01-GES-SB Fully Integrated Proximity sensor would fit that need nicely. According to technical documents, it has a detection range of 500mm, or roughly 19.69 inches. Being under just 2ft, that should give me good accuracy when backing up into my garage. I plan to indicate the distance in not only an attention-grabbing beeper, but an analog voltage meter that I have had lying around. 

Final Thoughts

In conclusion I believe The Exploration Station kit should greatly improve the functionality of my golfcart. My only thoughts about a possible change to my original plan are in the use of the Ambient light sensor, as I could instead set up a constant voltage circuit to do the same thing. If you have any thoughts of how I could use the Ambient Light Sensor in a different way, please feel free to comment below! (I will continue to think of applications for it as well, so stay tuned!) 

Thanks for reading, hope you stick around to see the development of this project in the next blog!