19.6.09 Nanowork installation

The big day! Installation was afoot at Cranfield University, our little electronic babies would be put in their proper homes.

This is the place where the 'energy harvester' goes. The one where as you step on a pressure pad, the lights go up and drop down when you step off.

The guys from the MDes course, Andy, Donnagh, Veronica and Andy did a great job setting up the stand.

Andy proves that the energy harvester works beautifully while Nicolas observes nervously.

the placement of the proximity lights. Beautifully fitted.

This is the back of the energy harvester, the LED strips sat perfectly on the frame.

Testing the energy harvester. Even with my meager weight they seemed to function fine.

The proximity sensors and lights.

And from the back.

The stand.

Proximity sensors.

Perhaps the best thing about Cranfield University is they have their own airstrip, apparently the third busiest airport in the country.

19.6.09 Nanowork 2

With a heavy deadline looming, the Nanotech team (myself and Nicolas Marechal) held an all night soldering/programming session. Chinese food and bottles of Becks made me feel like it was Wall Street in 1988.

The second part of our project (after the proximity sensors) was finished up and proven to be fully working. This functions much the same way as the proximity part but instead of proximity sensors, pressure pads are used. As someone moves on the pressure pad, more lights turn on and if no-one steps on it they drop down. There's only two of these though.

19.6.09 Nanowork

This is a brief breakdown of the proximity sensor stuff for the nano project for the Royal Academy of Engineering.

The proto-board (of which I hand soldered 4) which is used to control 3 1 watt LED's at a time.

The Arduino with it's beautiful wiring.

All 4 sets of 3 lights strung out and finished and working. Well not actually working, they're not plugged in.

The finished bits at the bottom, proto-board, Arduino and the little black guys on stalks are the proximity sensors.

The idea behind this is that the poximity sensors will trigger the three lights when someone gets close, there's four sets of these. Not only this but for super enviro-efficiency, the lighting systems are paired up for power. 6 lights, and 2 Arduinos run off one 12V 3.5A supply.

11.6.09 Nano tests

Our model for the RAE project works. Reproduce this x 4.