Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
31 NeuroGuard
 Aidan Moran
Alexander Krejca
Stephen Simberg
 Shiyuan Duan design_document1.pdf
other1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
**Problem**

Modern cauterization tools are blunt instruments, that cannot distinguish the tissue that must be cauterized from nerves that could potentially be damaged in the process.


**Solution**

Nuerogaurd aims to use low frequency nerve stimulation for nerve identification with high frequency cautery to create a safer surgical tool.

**Sub Systems**

High voltage step down
PWM Input
Remote Sensing and Digital Signal Processing

**High Voltage System**
The Aim of this project is to integrate into current Hospital electronics. The input for the Power System will be 2000V DC, which must be stepped down to 5V DC on the output. The output then must feed a large capacitor that feeds into a power mosfet, which will drive the current pulses for nerve stimulation.

**PWM**

The PWM driver circuitry must take inputs from the remote sensing and drives the power mosfet correctly.

This project will receive support from medical students as well as ECE faculty. I have attached the abstract to this post that better outlines the aims of the electronics for this project.

**Team Members (Seeking More)**
- afmoran2@illinois.edu


**Nuergaurd Abstract**

[Expanding the Scope of Intraoperative Neuromonitoring with
Nerve-Specific Stimulatory Waveform Design](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GFjlQcn7_o1pGsj8yHZlhmiguU0Gc3VG/view?usp=sharing)

Automatic Piano Tuner

Joseph Babbo, Colin Wallace, Riley Woodson

Automatic Piano Tuner

Featured Project

# Automatic Piano Tuner

Team Members:

- Colin Wallace (colinpw2)

- Riley Woodson (rileycw2)

- Joseph Babbo (jbabbo2)

# Problem

Piano tuning is a time-consuming and expensive process. An average piano tuning will cost in the $100 - $200 range and a piano will have to be retuned multiple times to maintain the correct pitch. Due to the strength required to alter the piano pegs it is also something that is difficult for the less physically able to accomplish.

# Solution

We hope to bring piano tuning to the masses by creating an easy to use product which will be able to automatically tune a piano by giving the key as input alongside playing the key to get the pitch differential and automatically turning the piano pegs until they reach the correct note.

# Solution Components

## Subsystem 1 - Motor Assembly

A standard tuning pin requires 8-14 nm of torque to successfully tune. We will thus need to create a motor assembly that is able to produce enough torque to rotate standard tuning pins.

## Subsystem 2 - Frequency Detector/Tuner

The device will use a microphone to gather audio measurements. Then a microprocessor processes the audio data to detect the pitch and determine the difference from the desired frequency. This can then generate instructions for the motor; direction to turn pegs and amount to turn it by.

## Subsystem 3 - User Interface/Display Panel

A small but intuitive display and button configuration can be used for this device. It will be required for the user to set the key being played using buttons on the device and reading the output of the display. As the device will tune by itself after hearing the tone, all that is required to display is the current key and octave. A couple of buttons will suffice to be able to cycle up and down keys and octaves.

## Subsystem 4 - Replaceable Battery/Power Supply

Every commercial product should use standard replaceable batteries, or provide a way for easy charging. As we want to develop a handheld device, so that the device doesn’t have to drag power wires into the piano, we will need a rechargeable battery pack.

# Criterion For Success

The aim of the Automatic Piano Tuner is to allow the user to automatically tune piano strings based on a key input alongside playing a note. We have several goals to help us meet this aim:

- Measure pitch accurately, test against known good pitches

- Motor generates enough torque to turn the pegs on a piano

- Tuner turns correctly depending on pitch

- Easy tuning of a piano by a single untrained person

Project Videos