Engineering Portfolio

I believe a good engineer possesses not only strong theoretical

and analytical skills gained through further study, but can also

demonstrate a vast array of talents that can inspire creativity,

and maximize productivity in any situation.

My strongest traits are that I am a hard working individual and

team member. I can provide ideas based on engineering

principles but also on common sense and practicality.

The year’s industrial experience as part of my Degree soon gave

a clear indication that applying my University study in practical

situations was a must. Since then I have taken every

opportunity to practically apply my skills and knowledge.

This document is a showcase of my experience so far. This

includes my University study, but also stretches beyond this to

include 3 years industrial experience as an Electronic

Development Engineer and additional work carried out in my

spare time.

Please Take a Look...

Swipe Card Reader for Monitoring Student Attendance UoM School of E&E

Design Challenges

Compact & Robust Design -

To be carried by lecturers to

their rooms around campus

and passed between

students in lectures.

Battery Operated - To

operate on two standard AA

batteries and have 2-3 month

service life.

Simple Operation - Give clear

indication to students that

the card swipe has been

successful.

Low Cost - Achieve product

at a cost considerably less

than existing product on the

market.

Developed outside of academia for The School of Electrical and Electronic

Engineering, University of Manchester. Built to replace an existing market product

that did not fit the School’s requirements.

The project required me to work through the full product design cycle; from agree-

ing a specification, arranging and completing the hand soldering and assembly of an

initial 20 units, and more recently organising the assembly of an additional 20 units.

In addition, an accompanying Windows

Application has been developed for

extracting the card numbers that have

been swiped.

Since January 2011 the devices have

been distributed amongst the School’s

lecturers to monitor student’s

attendance in lectures.

Embedded System DesignI2C

RS232

SPI

Embedded CSourcing Parts

Assembly Drawings and BOM

Swipe Card Reader for Monitoring Student Attendance UoM School of E&E

PCB Layout Design

C#

Currently used in lectures...

The student ID numbers are read using the Magnetic Swipe Card

Reader and then processed and stored with a timestamp in flash

memory.

The ID numbers can then be uploaded onto a computer via a RS232

connection using the windows application.

The application then allows the user to export the ID

numbers to a Spreadsheet.

Post Graduate Research Degree Master of Philosophy.

Masters Research Project Title

Measurement and analysis of alkaline battery performance for low power wireless

applications

The main focus of my research has been in the

area of battery technology and the use of stan-

dard Alkaline batteries in Low Power Wireless

applications.

Here are some of the questions that have been

asked...

Focus of Research

What variables

affect the

battery service life?

How much can new low-power

Microcontrollers be used to

improve performance?

Can the life of a standard

pair of Alkaline Batteries be

prolonged?

My research has resulted in three sub projects and custom

designs that have been part of my research;

- Battery Monitoring System

- Peltier Controlled Temperature Block

- Low Power Wireless Sensor Node

The research has now been completed and is scheduled

for oral examination before the award of the degree.

The full text of the Thesis can be provided upon

request.

The Battery Monitoring System was designed in order

to tackle the problem of analysing the cell voltage and

service life performance of the Alkaline cells under

varying conditions.

The Board provides a method to perform a controlled

discharge of a pair of cells whilst being able to apply

various different current loads.

Battery Monitoring System Master of Philosophy.

All measured information is stored on

an SD card as Binary files. The raw

data stored in the Binary files can be

imported onto a PC, through use of a

Windows application written in C#.

This data can then be converted into

CSV files which allows for the data to

be imported into applications such as

MatLab for graphical analysis.

A total of three boards have been in operation,

discharging in excess of 100 batteries and

resulting in more than 350 days worth of

experimental results.

C# Programming

System Design

PCB Design

Schematic Capture

Component Identification

SPI Bus

Battery Monitoring System Master of Philosophy..

Since the discharge currents have

ranged between the nA and mA

range, different types of current source

have been used. Each current source is

therefore contained on a single mod-

ule. The discharge current can be

switched between two different

sources to produce a pulsed current

load on the batteries

Measurements of Voltage

and Temperature are

stored along with a

timestamp on the SD Card.

This data is stored within a Bi-

nary File, utilising FAT16

formatting and can therefore

be opened and read on a PC.

The board allows for up to

three pairs of AA cells to

be discharged simultaneously.

Each pair has a thermistor lo-

cated on flying leads between

the cells. Relays provide me-

chanical isolation to remove

any load from the cells.

SD Card

Current Source

Pair of AA Cells

Peltier Temperature Block Master of Philosophy.

Design Concept

Temperature has a significant effect on

battery service life, so this brought

about the requirement to discharge

the AA Batteries in a temperature

controlled environment.

This has been achieved by using a

custom designed aluminium

encasement for two AA batteries and a

Peltier Module to either cool or heat

the encasement.

Mechanical Design

The mechanical design was carried out

using Solidworks 3D CAD software,

which allowed for several design

iterations before manufacture.

Since this is a one-off design, certain

aspects have been simplified to allow

for quick manufacture and future

modifications if required, whilst still

proving the concept.

Tests Complete...

Fan and Heatsink, to draw heat

away from the Peltier Device

Peltier Module, can either heat

or cool the ALU encasement

Insulation, ensures that the

temperature difference is

achievable

Low Power Design Master of Philosophy.

Versatile Power

management

For use with standard

Alkaline Batteries

Sub MicroAmp

Deep Sleep Currents

Minimise Leakage Currents

Bypass DC DC

Boost Convertor

Reduce Battery

Cut-Off Voltage

Measure Temperature

Measure Cell Voltage

Monitor Network

Performance

2.4GHz Freq Band

Design Concept

The aim has been to design and deploy a low

power wireless sensor network.

The node design takes into consideration the

data gathered from the controlled battery

discharges and provides versatile power

management.

The power management and power supply

design will hopefully be able to increase the

amount of stored energy that can be used

from the standard Alkaline Batteries.

A prototype was built and tested but

unfortunately delays meant that the aim of

deploying a wireless sensor network was not

fulfilled.

Low Power Design Master of Philosophy.

Physical Deployment

Tubular pods have been designed to be

situated just below the surface

with only the antenna [Not shown]

above ground level

Transceiver, 2.4GHz radio

band balanced output.Flash, storage for logging

network activity and

performance.

Load Switch, ensures versatile

load management.

Boost Convertor, provides rail

from input as low as 0.9V and is

enabled via the PIC.

Adapter, provides programming

header and a RS232 transceiver.

PIC24, extremly low power

16-bit microcontroller.

Low Power Sensor Node

Prototype built...

Electronics Team UoM Formula Student Team

Formula Student is a student led project to design, build, develop, and

compete as a team with a single seated racing car.

I have been a member of the team for over 4 years and in 2008-2009 my

role was as Electronics Team Leader. The role involved various

responsibilities including, collaborating with mechanical members of the

team, and co-ordinating work among the Electronics team.

Two major design contributions during my time on the team included...

Controller Area Network

Final year project of BEng Degree but continued the project to implement

it on the car. It was applied to Formula Student car which entered the UK

2009 Formula Student Event and has been implemented since.

Network consisted of:

- ECU (Engine Control Unit)

- Dashboard VFD display

- Cooling Control Unit

- Power Distribution Unit

Cooling Control- Small enclosed solution for control of water pump and fan

- Eradicate the need for two separate controllers

- Variable speed control of water pump and fan

The team’s best performance in the UK event

came in 2008 where we achieved 23rd overall

and 6th within the UK entrants.

In 2009 the cars performance was hampered by

suspension problems, but the team finsihed a

respectable 34th out of 82 entrants.

Appliance Configuration

The application modifies the released Freescale S19 Binary files so that

the same hardware can be customised to the customer’s required

appliance setup. The modified files can then be programmed to the

device during production or for samples.

USB Diagnostics

The application provides a user interface between

the companies USB Diagnostics adapter and the

Appliance hardware.

Development Engineer Pactrol Controls Ltd

My responsibilities as a development engineer at Pactrol

are mainly focused on .Net windows application

development. This has been in Visual C++ and more

recently moved to C#.

The applications in general provide a form of

configuration or diagnostics presented in a clear graphical

user interface.

Other work has included the development of a Graphic

LCD control to accompany the main appliance control,

written in embedded C.

VC++

C#