• 9:30-10:00 Paul pw11pt
  Sonar by Paul Walker

  The use of ultrasonic acoustic waves to perform near instantaneous, non-contact measurements holds great perspective for a variety of applications. The ultrasonic wave packets can be used in object presence/absence sensing systems in an industrial environment, relative object velocity measurements through doppler shift analysis, and for precise range finding measurements. The focus of this project is to produce a self contained ultrasonic range finding device that can detect and measure the distance of an object relative to the device, and then display the distance measured to the user.

  The hardware that will be used in the design of this device are:

  • PICLab printed circuit board
  • 40 pin PIC 16F887 controller chip
  • Polaroid 6500 Series Sonar Ranging Module
  • 4x 7-segment LEDs used for display
  • Assorted electrical components (capacitors, resistors, etc.)

  The peripheral range finding unit that is necessary for data acquisition will be controlled via the PIC micro-controller chip running the program language PICL. The PIC chip will dictate when the ultrasonic wave packet is emitted from the transducer and will make use of the CCP module in capture mode. This mode allows for timing the duration of an event and will be used to measure the time elapsed between the emission of a wave packet, to its reception following reflection off some distant object. The count of the clock cycles will then be divided by a constant value to obtain the distance between the transducer and the object.

  The program that will run this process will make use of several key macros and sub-routines. The division mentioned above will be implemented by the Div16x8 macro providing the division of a 16-bit number by an 8-bit number. Then decoding of the result and display of the distance measured will be implemented by two macros; Bin2BCD followed by the BCD2LED. Design considerations will accommodate the relatively high, although transient, current draw from the power supply when a ping is emitted. This will be compensated by a capacitor in line with the voltage supply to the transducer.

• 10:00-10:30 Christian cb15fq
  Crosswind speed indicator for rifle targeting by Christian Bennett

  For the final project I propose building a crosswind measurement tool for determining 90* vector winds for the purpose of determining the ballistic trajectory of a rifle projectile. This project has use to myself as an avid hunter and competition shooter since wind change will affect a projectiles path and can become quite a nuisance to estimate the vector speed of wind.

  The design will incorporate the use of the PIC board built in Digital Physics 2P23 and a spinning fan within a tube to measure the x-vector wind speed. The frequency of the spinning turbine will then be converted into a mil dot measurement for ease of use without needing to calibrate sights. The spin rate or frequency of the turbine is measured with a IR-LED reflecting sensor, which will be able to determine how fast the fan is rotationally spinning by measuring a reflective strip on the outside of the fan. This strip consists of a black and white series following a pattern of long, medium and short white spaces and black spaces following in an intermediate pattern. This allows allowing the sensor to count the number of white spaces or pulses to determine rotational velocity and by extension the directionality or the spin by the order of the pulses.

  All wind speed to mil dot conversion data will be stored in the EEPROM. The device will regularly update to ensure the latest data is displayed on a standard 7-segment display. Calibration of the turbine fan will be done by comparing data from 2 other anemometers and steady airflow. This design will also incorporate information for on the fly changes to both calibre (.308 and 45-70 govt) and common ranges (100, 200 and 500).

  A user manual for the device will be available on brocku/physics/~cb15fq.

  For Further reading visit:

  • http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Distances-With-a-Mil-Dot-Rifle-Scope
  • http://www.sinclairintl.com/GunTech/Finding-Scope-Center-Height-to-Center-Line-of-the-Bore-for-Ballistic-Programs-/detail.htm?lid=16090
  • www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=ADA317305

• 10:30-11:00 Martin mk14kv
  CAPATTACK™ - High Precision Metering by Martin Kellertas

  CAPATTACK™ has developed a user-friendly, high speed capacitance meter using the PIC microcontroller. The device provides rapid and accurate capacitance measurements, ranging 10 pF – 50 μF with up to 4 decimal places of resolution.

  The device utilizes onboard comparator of a PIC to oscillate an unknown capacitor across a network of known components. The oscillations are observed and counted using onboard clock. The resulting measurement provides an average period of oscillation for the capacitor, which is used to calculate the capacitance. Measurements achieve a high degree of accuracy due to a large number of observed oscillations and well-tuned external circuitry.

• 11:00-11:30 Domenic dp15bh
  Data acquisition interface for Nicolet Explorer (tentative) by Domenic Perricioli

  Abstract not provided.

• 11:30-12:00 Chris cb12wl
  Detection of and synchronization to external light intensity fluctuations (tentative) by Chris Brown

  Abstract not provided.

• 12:00-12:30 Clean-up
• 12:30-13:30 Refreshments

Some memorable moments from this year's final project presentations.