Build Your Own EnerJar

Several folks have asked me recently about energy measurement projects for various Environmental Science classes. Here's one that's a step above the most common ones I have seen. Matt Meshulam and Zach Dwiel, two EE students at Washington University in St. Louis, have put the hardware and software designs for their award-winning EnerJar.

It's a great combined software/hardware project with a green focus for those students who get through mastering the basic circuit board design and software development skills stages. With somewhere around $10 of parts, you can build this simple voltage, current, power, power factor, energy consumption...(really anything you want to program the PIC controller to measure) meter. Just pluc something into a power receptacle through the EnerJar and it will measure and display whatever data you want on its nice red LEDs.

Matt and Zach are planning to have preprogrammed PIC micro-controllers for sale so that hobbyists can go directly to building the jars if the computer interface and download steps seem daunting. Given the eager response on their web site, I imagine some intrepid soul will soon have pre-fabricated PC Boards that the less-intrepid can simply stuff, solder, and plug in.

Do check it out, complete with step-by-step instructions.

The Wired Cats

Hi all,

Here's a quick update on the Wired Cats (the 2008 Westminster Robotics club) and their recent exploits in the First Robotics competition. For their first year in action, they look to be putting in an incredibly strong effort. The team had the robot up and running more than two weeks before the final deadline, and the design is proving itself to be quite robust.

They now have a couple of nice sites up, at Westminster Robotics blog, and the Wired Cats web site that really tell great stories of teamwork and innovation. Here are some of my favorite highlights.

Pre-season start: building the team computers from scratch in the WISE Lab.


Week 2: A Working chassis by the end of week 2






Week 3: An excellent concept on the drawing board, but will it work?




Week 4: Yes, high school students CAN use power tools safely once OSHA qualified!

Week 4: Lot's of holes to drill and tap. That's teamwork!



Week 4: "Don't worry, I'll MAKE it fit!"



Week 4: The pieces coming together



Week 4: It has an arm!










Week 5: A Working Robot

Check out this video of the Robot in action!


Go Wired Cats!

Make a Hi-Fi Speaker With a Paper Plate

Here's a fun little project that can lead to all sorts of interesting experiments and design ideas.
Jose Pino has managed to design a simple speaker that you can build from a couple of bucks worth of components that you likely already have lying around the house. The whole thing can be done in about an hour (not including time for the glue to dry), perfect for a lab or study hall period.

You follow his step-by-step instructions online here, but the fun part would be to see if you couldn't really begin to up the fidelity by working on some acoustics and cavity resonance, perhaps trying some other materials.....


Start here, and see what you can imagine!

Robotic Insect Starter Projects

Hi all, welcome to the lab. Here are a few projects designed to get you started using the WISE Exploratorium tools while you build up a small robot army from raw electronics parts.

Project #1: Blinky-Bugs
The first project is a quick one to build a Blinky-bug using a small battery and a couple of Light Emitting Diodes. This one will get you started in using a few small hand tools and a soldering iron, and give you some ideas on how to use material properties like flexibility in conducting wires to build motion or touch sensors.

Here is one step-by-step online tutorial that shows you how to build one species of electronic bug. But once you understand how a Blinky-bug works, don't feel in any way constrained by this particular design. Here are a few nice images of some other creative designs from Ken Murphy, but even then, don't just imitate. Create. Browse the web for some real insect images to model. Create entirely alien ones! Innovate!

Project #2: Nocturnal Solar-Charged Insects (Pummers)

This project introduces the transistor electronic switch with solar energy storage and discharge to drive various circuits starting with flashing LEDs, all in order to make robotic insects that collect and store energy when lit, and either flash or move when it is dark.

Here is a link to a wide variety of different nocturnal solar engine circuits to experiment with.

Project #3: Solar Vibrobots

This project introduces a variation of the solar engine from the last project that stores energy until it is full, and then turns on either a motor or some other load like a flashing LED until it is depleted, to then switch back into it's charging mode. The notions around the automatic solar charging and storage circuits are very powerful, and form the foundation of many hybrid and other green technologies.

Here is a link to electronic designs for a wide variety of solar engines, and here is a link to a very nice online step-by-step tutorial by Zach DeBord with some nice inspirational designs.

If you run out of things to do..come find me and let's brainstorm some project ideas.

Also, please feel strongly encouraged to post questions, ideas, useful links and so on in the comments!