Request for Approval

Description

The request for approval (RFA) is the very first step in successfully completing a senior design project. Before submitting your RFA, you must post your project idea to the Web Board using the "Idea" post type. Once your idea has been fleshed out through the Web Board, you can move on request for approval through PACE under the My Project page. Once submitted, your project will be cloned to the Web Board as "Project Request" post. You can edit the project on the My Project page, add your teammates and see comments from the instructors. The course staff may provide feedback on your idea (which will appear at the bottom of your project's page), or suggest changes in the scope of the project and ask you to re-submit an RFA. Based on your incorporation of feedback your project will be approved or rejected. If it is rejected, the My Project page will revert back to it's original format and your project will disappear.

Once the course staff has approved the project idea, you will receive instructions on how to submit your project through PACE, at which time you will be assigned a project number in the Projects list, a TA, and a locker in the lab. Once your project is approved, please go to the Projects page, log into the PACE system, and make sure all of the information is correct.

Video Lecture

Video, Slides

Requirements and Grading

The RFA is graded credit/no credit based on whether your project is approved before the deadline. Note that submitting an RFA before the deadline does not guarantee approval before the deadline. The RFA is submitted through PACE under the My Project page, and should be Markdown-formatted with the following information:

# Title

Team Members:
- Student 1 (netid)
- Student 2 (netid)
- Student 3 (netid)

# Problem

Describe the problem you want to solve and motivate the need.

# Solution

Describe your design at a high-level, how it solves the problem, and introduce the subsystems of your project.

# Solution Components

## Subsystem 1

Explain what the subsystem does.  Explicitly list what sensors/components you will use in this subsystem.  Include part numbers.

## Subsystem 2

## ...

# Criterion For Success

Describe high-level goals that your project needs to achieve to be effective.  These goals need to be clearly testable and not subjective.

Projects must be legal and ethical. They must have significant scope and complexity commensurate with the size of the team. This is, of course, a subjective assessment of the course staff. To gain some insight into this judgment, please browse projects from previous semesters. The project must involve the design of a significant hardware component at the circuit level. In exceptional cases, projects not meeting this criteria may be acceptable when augmented by a Special Circuit assignment (however this is typically a last resort).

Beyond these basic requirements, you have total discretion in proposing a project. This is a great opportunity for you to pursue your own interests. Since you choose your own projects, we expect a high level of enthusiasm from you and your team.

Submission and Deadlines

The RFA submission deadline may be found on the Course Calendar. Typically, approval of the RFA is due during the afternoon of the third Thursday of the semester.

Quick Tips and Helpful Hints

Posting: Choosing a project: Choosing partners: Some general project ideas that are fraught with pitfalls:

Tesla Coil Guitar Amp

David Mengel, Griffin Rzonca

Featured Project

# Tesla Coil Guitar Amp

Team Members:

* Griffin Rzonca (grzonca2)

* David Mengel (dmengel3)

# Problem:

Musicians are known for their affinity for flashy and creative displays and playing styles, especially during their live performances. One of the best ways to foster this creativity and allow artists to express themselves is a new type of amp that is both visually stunning and sonically interesting.

# Solution:

We propose a guitar amp that uses a Tesla coil to create a unique tone and dazzling visuals to go along with it. The amp will take the input from an electric guitar and use this to change the frequency of a tesla coil's sparks onto a grounding rod, creating a tone that matches that of the guitar.

# Solution Components:

## Audio Input and Frequency Processing -

This will convert the output of the guitar into a square wave to be fed as a driver for the tesla coil. This can be done using a network of op-amps. We will also use an LED and phototransistor to separate the user from the rest of the circuit, so that they have no direct connection to any high voltage circuitry. In order to operate our tesla coil, we need to drive it at its resonant frequency. Initial calculations and research have this value somewhere around 100kHz. The ESP32 microcontroller can create up to 40MHz, so we will use this to drive our circuit. In order to output different notes, we will use pulses of the resonant frequency, with the pulses at the frequency of the desired note.

## Solid-state switching -

We will use semiconductor switching rather than the comparably popular air-gap switching, as this poses less of a safety issue and is more reliable and modifiable. We will use a microcontroller, an ESP 32, to control an IR2110 gate driver IC and two to four IGBTs held high or low in order to complete the circuit as the coil triggers, acting in place of the air gap switch. These can all be included on our PCB.

## Power Supply -

We will use a 120V AC input to power the tesla coil and most likely a neon sign transformer if needed to step up the voltage to power our coil.

## Tesla Coil -

Consists of a few wire loops on the primary side and a 100-turn coil of copper wire in order to step up voltage for spark generation. Will also require a toroidal loop of PVC wrapped in aluminum foil in order to properly shape the electric field for optimal arcing. These pieces can be modular for easy storage and transport.

## Grounding rod -

All sparks will be directed onto a grounded metal rod 3-5cm from the coil. The rest of the circuit will use a separate neutral to further protect against damage. If underground cable concerns exist, we can call an Ameren inspector when we test the coil to mark any buried cables to ensure our grounding rod is placed in a safe location.

## Safety -

Tesla coils have been built for senior design in the past, and as noted by TAs, there are several safety precautions needed for this project to work. We reviewed guidelines from dozens of recorded tesla coil builds and determined the following precautions:

* The tesla coil will never be turned on indoors, it will be tested outside with multiple group members present using an outdoor wall outlet, with cones to create a circle of safety to keep bystanders away.

* We will keep everyone at least 10ft away while the coil is active.

* The voltage can reach up to 100kV (albeit low current) so all sparks will be directed onto a grounding rod 3-5cm away, as a general rule of thumb is each 30kV can bridge a 1cm gap.

* The power supply (120-240V) components will be built and tested in the power electronics lab.

* The coil will have an emergency stop button and a fuse at the power supply.

* The cable from the guitar will use a phototransistor so that the user is not connected to a circuit with any power electronics.

# Criterion for Success:

To consider this project successful, we would like to see:

* No safety violations or injuries.

* A tesla coil that produces small visible and audible 3-5cm sparks to our ground rod.

* The coil can play several different notes and tones.

* The coil can take input from the guitar and will play the corresponding notes.

Project Videos