SonneTester
This project was my sophomore design project. In a group of 4, we were tasked with creating a product from the idea through working prototype. Our idea was to create a device that could tell the user the time (hrs:mins) left in a cochlear implant battery. I was especially passionate about this project because my mother has two cochlear implants. My focus for the project was the battery aspect. I collected the relevant battery data for this project and created the voltage comparison algorithm. I also worked on the Arduino code and circuit design with another team member.
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Battery Data
This portion of the project involved life cycle testing of several cochlear implant batteries. Combining the data into a graph allowed me to make a function to match the fit, which we used to determine the predicted time left in a battery.
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CAD Design
A team member of mine designed the CAD for this project, which held our circuitry inside and a LED screen, on/off switch, and battery holder on the outside.
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Circuit Design
The circuit design of this project was the most complicated part, which is why we had two people working on it. We designed a circuit that measured the open circuit voltage and load voltage of the inserted batteries.
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Arduino Code
Our code activated the various areas of the circuit, compared the resulting data to our mathematical value, and displayed the estimated time left on the LED screen. I was mainly responsible for the testing phase of the code development when we incorporated the calculations.
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Prototype
My group had a fully functional prototype on presentation day, which meant we were able to incorporate a demonstration into our presentation!
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Results and Feasibility
After testing, batteries were discharged to find the true time remaining. We were able to achieve an 18% error, which would have been more accurate around lower time estimates.