Project :: ECE 445 - Senior Design Laboratory

Project

#	Title	Team Members	TA	Documents	Sponsor
33	Bicycle Tire Pressure Sensors	Bryan Rafferty Michael McDowall	Thomas Galvin	design_document0.pdf final_paper0.pdf proposal0.pdf
	Riding a bicycle with under-inflated or leaky tires can reduce traction and cause faster tire deterioration, but tire pressure monitoring systems are currently unavailable for bicyclists. We will design and build wireless, wheel mounted, battery powered sensors that will monitor bicycle tire pressure as well as the rate of change of pressure. The sensors will transmit their measurements to a central, battery powered unit mounted on the handlebars, which will compare the measurements with defined ranges of pressures and rates of change. If the measured values lie outside of the "safe" ranges, then various colored LEDs will be illuminated to alert the rider which tire is at fault and the severity of the pressure deviation.

Title

Team Members

Documents

Sponsor

Bicycle Tire Pressure Sensors

Bryan Rafferty
Michael McDowall

Thomas Galvin

design_document0.pdf
final_paper0.pdf
proposal0.pdf

Riding a bicycle with under-inflated or leaky tires can reduce traction and cause faster tire deterioration, but tire pressure monitoring systems are currently unavailable for bicyclists. We will design and build wireless, wheel mounted, battery powered sensors that will monitor bicycle tire pressure as well as the rate of change of pressure. The sensors will transmit their measurements to a central, battery powered unit mounted on the handlebars, which will compare the measurements with defined ranges of pressures and rates of change. If the measured values lie outside of the "safe" ranges, then various colored LEDs will be illuminated to alert the rider which tire is at fault and the severity of the pressure deviation.

Featured Project

Hyun Yi, Lauren White, and Andri Teneqexhi earned the Instructor's Award in the Fall of 2013 for their work on the Environmental Sensing for Firefighters.

"Engineering is all about solving real life problems and using the solutions to improve the lives of others. ECE 445 allows you to actually delve deeper into what this really means by providing students the chance to undergo the engineering design process. This requires taking all of the theoretical knowledge, lab experiences, and ultimately, everything that you have ever learned in life, and applying it to your project. Though, there is structure to the course and deadlines in place to measure your team's progress, the actual design, implementation, and success of your project is all determined by you. Unlike any other course that I have taken, I've gained an appreciation for the utilization and benefits of external resources, unforeseen scheduling delays, delegating tasks, and most importantly, teamwork. I consider ECE 445 to be a crash course into real life engineering and a guide to become a successful engineer." -- Lauren White