The project.
My group, Derek Alex and I, were assigned two projects. The first project was to design a microgrid to power San Marin and supply it with enough energy for the year. The second project was to use an Arduino board and breadboard to make an art show using programming and circuitry. This was our process.
Power Novato.
The first project was to design a micro-grid that can meets San Marin's energy consumption, but before we did a few experiments.
Wind turbine.
Our first experiment was with wind turbines. The goal was to find the most efficient blade for the wind turbine. We measured this by having a generator, that we attached our blades, that we measured the voltage to gauge it's efficient. Our group decided to experiment with number of blades we tested 4 blades vs 6 blades. We discovered that in higher speed winds 4 blades out preformed 6 blades and in lower speeds 6 blades did better than 4 blades. This is because you need to find a balance between the amount of wind that is caught by the blades and the drag of the blades. In lower winds more blades work better because you need to maximize the amount of wind you catch. In higher speed winds less blades are better because there's less drag slowing the generation down.
Electrical fields
After working with turbines we started electricity itself. Our first experiments was a static electricity experiment. During this experiment we learnt how charges interacted and how we can use this knowledge in circuits. We learned that opposite charges attract and similar charges repel.
Electromagnetic Lab
Continuing our study of electricity we moved to working with electromagnets. My Write up explains this.
Design a micro-grid.
For the last part of our project we Designed a micro-grid for San Marin. We needed to design it so it can be fully self sustaining so if the electrical grid ever went out San Marin could keep power for as long as it needs to. To learn more about micro-grids we visited a farm in Sonoma that had a micro-grid. People there talked about what was needed for their farm.
Robot art show.
The second project was to use an Arduino board and a breadboard to design and program to make a "robot" art show. To do this we first learned about circuits and terminology of circuits.
Circuits.
We started off the unit by learning about circuits and the terminology that goes along with it. This would be very important seeing as these words would appear regularly throughout the rest of the unit.
Circuit - A complete loop of conductive material from one side of a power source to the other.
Voltage - The potential difference from one end to the other end of a component. It can be thought as the "push" of a circuit. Unit is Volts.
Current - The "flow" of electrons in a circuit. The current remains the same in a series circuit. Unit is Amps.
Resistance - The amount the current is slowed or resisted through an obstacle. In a circuit, an example of this is a resistor. Unit for resistance is ohms.
Series Circuit - A circuit where all components are in one loop. The current must go through all components.
Parallel Circuit - The components are on separate paths and the current can flow either or any path.
Ohm's Law - An equation that can be used to find voltage, current, and resistance. It is V = IR.
Power - The rate at which electrical energy is transferred in a circuit. Unit is Watts.
Circuit - A complete loop of conductive material from one side of a power source to the other.
Voltage - The potential difference from one end to the other end of a component. It can be thought as the "push" of a circuit. Unit is Volts.
Current - The "flow" of electrons in a circuit. The current remains the same in a series circuit. Unit is Amps.
Resistance - The amount the current is slowed or resisted through an obstacle. In a circuit, an example of this is a resistor. Unit for resistance is ohms.
Series Circuit - A circuit where all components are in one loop. The current must go through all components.
Parallel Circuit - The components are on separate paths and the current can flow either or any path.
Ohm's Law - An equation that can be used to find voltage, current, and resistance. It is V = IR.
Power - The rate at which electrical energy is transferred in a circuit. Unit is Watts.