20. Project Development (June 13)

This was the final assignment. This week we were suggested to complete our final project tracking our progress.

What tasks have been completed

1. PCB for ATtiny44 digital board
2. PCB for the power board for motor controller and the LED strip
3. PCB for battery monitor
4. Smart phone bike mount
5. Composite sun shade
6. The integrated circuit works on Arduino
7. I have integrated the Solar panel with the charge controller and the battery. I have also got the welded stand made.
8. PWM circuit works on the LED strip and motor installed on the bike.
9. Weatherproof casing for packaging the PCBs.
10. Integrating the circuit using my own made PCBs with the bike components such as brakes, throttle and ignition switch and demo with 24 V LED strip

What tasks remain?

I am satisfied with the progress and no tasks remain. I can suggest future work directions for making DC motor work with the bike components, optimize the circuit for compactness, make a battery monitor and integrate the solar panel with my PCB.

What has worked?

From where I started with little help available to use power boards which take current of upto 10 Amps or more, I have to be extremely cautious while handling such circuits. So, I am very happy that PCB for power boards are working in an integrated fashion with the ATtiny44 board and the bike components and 24 V DC motor and LED strip loads.

What hasn’t?

I am satisfied with the work done for the projects. Future task directions are:

1. Adding current sensor to PWM circuit hasn’t worked.
2. I am using ATtiny44 circuits for PWM but I would have been happier to use the more powerful atmega328p chip based boards.
3. The solar panel stand made using iron is somewhat bulky so I had wished to have a light weight stand but that is for the next iteration.

What questions need to be resolved?

I have everything figured out for the scope of the project that I had.

I would be happy if I can figure out if I can use a current sensor with PWM based circuit. The current sensor was working with DC motor and LED strip loads when tested individually but its not working with PWM circuit.

What will happen when?

I have finished the tasks that I hoped to finish.

What have you learned?

1. It was a phenomenal experience to learn how to make almost anything. I already knew half of the skills but getting started on the remainder of them such as PCB milling and making our own boards, composite making, making something big, networking and communications, etc was very helpful.

2. I know that I have only got started in this journey but now I know where to find what resources to learn on my own.

3. It is also inspiring to get associated with a community of makers who are working towards making the world a better place.

Solar powered electric bike con kit by Jay Dhariwal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License