top of page
For The Trees
DSC00083.JPG
OVERVIEW

OVERVIEW

Discover how producing renewable energy and driving an electric vehicle can help combat climate change.

SOLAR POWER

Hold a magnetic Sun against a solar-paneled roof to activate a Hall Effect Sensor and fill the Solar Power Meter.

WIND POWER

Blow on the wind turbine to create a voltage across the motor; a tune plays and increases in pitch as the wind speeds up. Ten seconds of spinning makes the turbine self-sustaining.

EV CHARGING

Is climate change mythical? Answer the question correctly by plugging into the corresponding outlet, and your Tesla starts rolling.

A 1-minute hourglass keeps you on task and restarts the machine if time runs out. 

A 3-column array of LEDs indicates your progress for each activity.

A charging battery light indicates your overall progress.

DRAWINGS

DRAWING

SCHEMATICS

SCHEMATICS

SOLAR PANEL

Screen Shot 2018-12-07 at 12.44.17 PM.pn

BATTERY DISPLAY

A pair of shift registers stores the information regarding which battery panels should be illuminated, and in what colors.

WIND TURBINE

Screen Shot 2018-12-03 at 3.38.27 PM.png

LEAF DETECTOR

An IR LED aimed at a phototranistor within a trans-resistive circuit causes changes in the circuit's output when a LEAF interrupts the LED beam. Completion of all tasks causes a Tiva signal to the servo that drives a marker into the LEAF.

EV OUTLET

Closing the "true fact" switch lights a green LED and causes a Tiva output to the DC motor that drives the Tesla. Closing the "falsehood" switch lights a red LED.

HOURGLASS

A PWM signal from the Tiva causes the servo to rotate 180 degress when a LEAF is first detected.

SPEAKER SYSTEM

A PWM signal from the Tiva cause the speaker to play different tones and tunes for each event.

LED PROGRESS ARRAY

In a setup similar to the Battery Display, two shift registers output signals to the progress-indicating LED array.
PSEUDOCODE/CODE LISTING

CODE

Pseudocode for the TREE can be found here.

Header files:

Source files:

Screen Shot 2018-12-02 at 10.50.35 PM.pn

BILL OF MATERIALS

BOM_Update.PNG
BILL OF MATERIALS

GEMS OF WISDOM

  • Define specific goals thoroughly and early to avoid problems later on.

  • Label wires to indicate what Tiva pin they belong to, so when things get unplugged, you remember where they are supposed to go.

  • Keep the work station clean and organized to minimize chances of important parts disappearing.

  • Search for stuff in the classroom before buying everything.

  • Breadboards are very unreliable, hot glue is your friend.

  • If you are not familiar with soldering, having a helping hand would make life much easier.

  • Don’t mess up with version control, SourceTree is not always bug-free.

GEMS OF WISDOM

Team 4TheTrees

bottom of page