My Final Project Phases :
Project
Conception Project
Planning 2D & 3D Design,
3D Print & Laser Cut Electronics Design
and Fabrication Programming &
Testing of
Electronics Project
Presentation

Project Planning :

In week 1, I thought of making something useful and decided to make a dust particle sensor for my Project Lab (a carpentry workshop), but as I am new to electronics, I only started planning in week 12 (7th April 2019), 'Output Device' week.

Project Proposal (What will it do?) :

Reason for choosing this project :
In my Project Lab (Carpentry Workshop), air pollutants are inevitably produced.

There has not been any form of measurement of dust particulate carried out before in my Project Lab or other labs in our school of ABE.

1) Being a Registered Workplace Safety and Health Officer (WSHO) with the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore, I am curious to find out the out the amount of dust particulate generated from the students' activities in my Project Lab (as well as our FabSTUDIO which is next door) to see whether they are within healthy and acceptable range. If not, control measures, like purchase of air purifier, might be implemented to mitigate the risk.
2) Singapore sometimes exprience haze which are generated from the neigbouring countries when the local farmers use the 'slash and burn' method to clear the forested area for argiculture purpose.
3) Being totally new to electronics, I would like to start on something of a smaller scale which could be easily accompished in the next 5 months.
4) Keeping the project cost low. Like not exceeding USD $200.

Application and scope of project :
1) To take PM10 and PM2.5 reading / measurement of inhalable airborne dust particulate matter in the Project Lab and fabSTUDIO
2) Dust Sensor device can output an audible sound (by buzzer) if dust particle amount exceed the healthy range

Future Application (Spiral development) :
3) To provide logging for study

PM10 and PM2.5 definition :
PM10 is particulate matter 10 micrometers or less in diameter. PM10 is generally described inhalable coarse particles.

PM2.5 is particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter. PM2.5 is generally described as fine particles.

Picture from Particulate matter, how small is it? by VFA Solutions


PM10 and PM2.5 unheathy range :
For a start, it will be useful to include a buzzer to be sounded off if the PM2.5 or PM10 reading reaches the 'Poor' range or above.

Extracted from Wikipedia : Air quality index



Proposed placement of fabricated dust sensor :
1) The fabricated dust sensor will be place indoor and on a table top.
2) It shall be placed in the middle of the workshop/fab lab.
(Eg. placed in the middle of the Project Lab and fabSTUDIO, whereby most human traffic is expected to be present or moving though)
3) It shall not be placed near the machinery that is expected to generate dust.
(Eg. saw which obviously generates lots of dust. The students/Staff are supposed to be wearing N95 dust mask while operating these machinery as stipulated in the Safe Work Proceduce (SWP))

Dust Sensor (input device) working principle :
My fabricated dust sensor uses the principle of Laser Scattering Detection to detect suspended particulate matter in the air. namely laser irradiation in the suspended particulate matter in the air and generate scattering. Scattered light will be collected in a specified angle at the same time. According to the scattering intensity, time-varying curves can be obtained through the sensor. Being processed by the microcomputer processor, equivalent particle diameters and the number of suspended particulate matter with different sizes in per unit volume can be obtained.
Reference : A sample product from AliExpress website

Who's done what beforehand?

1) PM 2.5 Sensor running from an Arduino Uno Rev 3 board :
http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/863.16/section.EECS/people/Jain/articles/2016-12/final-project-planning.html

2) Arduino Tutorial : A dust sensor running from an Arduino Fio board :
http://arduinodev.woofex.net/2012/12/01/standalone-sharp-dust-sensor/

3) A 2.5 Sensor running connected to a Particle Photon :
https://www.hackster.io/edwios/air-quality-monitor-3f422f

4) A commerical product for home/office :
I had came across this "PM 2.5 dust detector with 2.8" TFT LCD display" which costs US $39.23.

What will you design?

I will design :
1) The PCB or electronic board to take in reading form the dust sensor module and output to a LCD display module and a buzzer (if unhealthy limit is reach).
2) A 3D-print support frame to hold the electronics comonenets together. 3D Print is a form of additive manufacturing.
3) Wooden/acrylic plastic enclosure box. using laser cutting, a form of subtractive manufacturing.


First impression of a 3D model of final project without the 3D print support frame (not design yet yet)

Proposed Input Device : PM2.5 Air Quality Sensor

Proposed Output Device : LCD display, Buzzer

What parts and systems will be made?

Electronic board - made
Enclosure box - made
Support frame to hole the Dust Sensor and LCD display module - made

How much will they cost?

The Bill of Material (BOM) show how much it would take to fabricated the dust particle sensor.

Most of the electronic components were sourced from Fab Lab, based on the Fab Lab Inventory list. Except for the speciliased module like the dust sensor, which have to be purchased from external source.

Pricing are estimation, does not include shipping charges and unused portion of stock material, or wastage resulted from fabrication error/re-work.

Note :

Physical tools for digital fabrication require :

Proposed Project Schedule

I had downloaded a simple gantt chart template for Excel called'Agile Gantt Chart' from from Microsoft Office Templates website. The gantt chart helps me to plan, visualize and track my project progress through the timeline. From the chart, it will be around 8 more weeks to Project Presentation. The gantt chart will serve as a guide for the upcoming activities expected and milestones/goal to meet.


Updated on 8 Arp 2019.

Actual Project Progress

As weekly lesson and assignment are still on-going, the draft project schedule is for guidance and setting milestones. Following are the actual activities performed vs the planned project timetime.

Project Planning : 6 to 7 Apr
- Consulted with instructor on project 4 Apr
- Created Project Planning website and based on the Project requirements/scope listed in upcoming Application week
- Searched for and downloaded datasheet of input and output devices on 6 Apr
- Created Project Gannt Chart on 7 Apr
- Created Bill of Materials (BOMs) on 11 Apr

2D & 3D Design
- After finished my first cut of the electronic board, I started to work on the 3D design on 18 Apr 2019.

Electronics Design
- Started designing my board on 11 Apr and completed my first draft of the PCB board on 18 Apr 2019. Took 1 week to do the first draft.

Electronics Fabrication
- Started PCB fabrication from 22 to 24th April, ran into some delay resulted from gcode generation for the pads of the ATMEgaa386 and through-hole drilling.
- Received the dust sensor module on 23rd Apr, after three weeks of order online.
- Connect pin header connectors (2.54mm) to JST wire (1.25mm) on 15 May 2019. This for the connection wiring of the dust sensor.

Testing of Electronics and initial programming
- Testing of sample PMS5003 code from Adafruit ® website on 15 May 2019 using Arduino Uno board and the PMS5003 sensor. Working ok!

3D Print
- Started to 3d print the support frame on 29 May 2019 to make sure the componenets able to fit in

Electronics Fabrication
- Continue to mill my PCB board from 29 May 2019. Facing a couple of problems with my PCB board design as well as from the etching process, so took longer than expected to complete.

Presentaiton slide and video
- Started with the presentation slide and video on 1 June 2019

3D Laser Cut
- Laser cut my enclosure on 11 June 2019

Programming of board and testing
- Programming of my board and testing from 12 June onward

Last update on 13 June 2019.