Week 4

Goal: Begin Construction of Window and Generate Majority of Code

The group set forth two main goals for this week, the first of which was to start the construction of the frame and base for the window. In lab, basic measurements were laid out for the window; These measurements can be seen below in Table 1. The window will move through various angles depending on where the sun is located in order to maximize the amount of energy it can make. The motor, which will power the movement of the solar cell covered window overly, will be connected to an Arduino chip. Code written by the group will make the overlay rotate a certain number of degrees in a specific amount of time. The general path the solar cells will travel through is pictured below in Figure 1 and a CAD drawing of what the outermost frame will look like is down in Figure 2. The green colored boxes in Figure 2 represent the solar cells and the yellow lines represent the visible part of the wooden frame.

Table 1: Basic Measurements for Window


Window Diagram.JPG
Figure 1: Diagram of Window Motion



Cad Solar Cell Diagram.JPG

Figure 2: CAD Drawing of Outermost Layer Containing Solar Cells

The second goal for this week was to generate the majority of the code needed for the project. The information included in the code will serve as an intermediate communicator for the window and the motor. Due to the team's lack of knowledge of Arduino software, we allotted an extra week to further develop the basic code that will be used. This week in lab as well as out of lab, various testing was done to make sure the Arduino was functioning properly and to allow the group to become more familiar with the software. The picture below, displays two of the team members (Manon and Daria) working to develop this code. 



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