College Project

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello All,

I am currently studying electrical and electronic engineering and have to do a project throughout the year. I've decided to make a control circuit which i will explain in a moment, I have researched into all different methods of control like PLC's etc however this arduino idea has really caught my eye as its cheap and makes lots of things possible, After a lot of research today my mind feels like its going to explode so I've resorted to you guys/girls :smiley:

So my idea is to control a system that fills and vessel to a particular volume and temperature. I have a basic idea of what it will look like and how it will be done that's not a problem. the system will use ultrasonic range finders, temperature sensors and solenoid valves. I see that the arduino is more than capable with the inputs and outputs.

I am not asking you to do my project for me but to guide me before i spend a lot of time with this when it wont work. I am just wondering if it is possible to:

A) Control the above.
B) Will I be able to display a GUI to grab different variables i.e. volumes and temperatures on a display panel and still use all inputs and outputs.

Also i ask one last thing :smiley: As this is a higher education project I have to reference everything I do so would you all be kind enough to let me use you as a reference in my project If not just tell me and I will respect your privacy.

Thanks in advance,
Elliott.

2

Answer to a) will be a yes in principal, subject to choosing components that suit and designing it all properly. Ultrasonic ranging, temperature measurement and switching solenoids are all well described all over the 'net, not least on this site in the Playground.

I personally have no experience of GUIs and Arduino in part (b), but again the Playground may help, specifically here.

Good luck- you'll get loads of advice here, especially since you've been "upfront" about this being a college project and you're using the site as a research source and not expecting a turnkey solution!

3

Thanks for the reply, I understand that (a) won't be a walk in the park but I have previous experience with electronics and with java programming and PLC programming however PLC programming is not really relevant :slight_smile: but i suppose that it has taught me about sequences and making things logical.

Part (b) seems to throw me though I have seen many videos, guides on the display modules but maybe just needs more research but thanks for the link for this, however for me its a Sunday so I think my research will end for today. I will carry on with the research Monday while at college.

Also thank you for your support :slight_smile:

4

For a GUI you could use a dynamic web page to display values and control the equipment.