Hello everyone,
I am a senior studying Electrical Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and I am a member of a senior design group that was sponsored by AMSAT to produce an engineering prototype *Maximum Power Point Tracker* (MPPT) for the Fox-2 satellite. Most members of our team are licensed radio amateurs and active members of the RIT Amateur Radio Club K2GXT and have had quite the experience with this project! We've worked extremely hard over the past 20 weeks to design and build a working MPPT. We'd enjoy sharing this experience with anyone interested.
* Everyone who is in the Rochester, NY area or are willing to drive to the area is invited to come to the RIT campus this Saturday May 4th for the Imagine RIT Innovation & Creativity Festival http://www.rit.edu/imagine/. This is a completely free event on the RIT campus*.The previous link will have all the information to get here and find exhibits of interest. Also, here's a pretty concise video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsQoh-_xOmY on what the event is about. The AMSAT Maximum Power Point Project is exhibit #491https://www.rit.edu/imagine/planyourday13/exhibit.php?id=491and will be located in what is known as the "infinity quad" outside the engineering building (There's a big Mobius strip in the middle). We're pretty much in the center of outside activity which is very nice for showing people our project.
- Google StreetView of the Infinity quad/loophttps://maps.google.com/maps?q=Rochester+Institute+of+Technology,+One+Lomb+Memorial+Drive,+Rochester,+NY+infinity+quad&hl=en&ll=43.084181,-77.676269&spn=0.002496,0.003954&sll=42.746632,-75.770041&sspn=5.138664,8.096924&t=h&hq=Rochester+Institute+of+Technology,+One+Lomb+Memorial+Drive,+Rochester,+NY+infinity+quad&radius=15000&z=18&layer=c&cbll=43.084254,-77.676732&panoid=LJOF2KxqFiMfpXqFOXhuBQ&cbp=12,277.89,,0,18.32 - 2013 Imagine RIT Festival Maphttp://www.rit.edu/imagine/planyourday13/images/2013_map.jpg(We will be between the orange GLE and red LBR, you'll see a star, mobius strip, and question mark on the map where I am referring too, sorry if it's not clear)
Our project is part of the Kate Gleason College of Engineering senior design program and we proposed this project as a group last Summer. Tony Monteiro has been our "customer" for the project and has been great to work with. You can find out more information on our P13271 RIT EDGE wikihttp://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/Homewhich is pretty up-to-date pending a few updates (since PCB bring-up) but largely a great resource for those interested for a more in-depth look into our project. We have not completed our project but will be displaying the working prototype MPPT during the festival and be more than happy to explain/show it to anyone interested. There are some final tests and reports that are left to finish before our project is complete.
Some links to high-interest items on our EDGE Server:
- 1 Page Project Summaryhttp://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/FinalDocuments/Planning_Execution/1_Page_Project_Summary.pdf - Project Posterhttp://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/MSD_Poster/MSD_Poster_r1.pdf - MPPT Block Diagramhttp://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/FinalDocuments/Systems_Design/High-Level_MPPT_Diagram-P13271.pdf - MPPT Schematicshttp://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/KiCad/MPPT/trunk/AMSAT_7W_MPPT_Schematic.pdf(slightly out of date, some final values will be updated soon, largely up-to-date) - MSP430 firmware informationhttp://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/Health%20%26%20Status%20Firmware
Well, I think I've thoroughly linked to areas people might have interest in. Feel free to poke around the project documentation and learn more or ask questions. If you have any questions about Imagine RIT or anything related to the festival please ask as well. I look forward to potentially seeing some of you at the festival!
Sincerely,
Bryce Salmi KB1LQC Project Manager P13271