Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
96 Motion Sensing Guitar Pedal System
Luke Hilgart
Nicholas Oberts
Spencer Siegellak
Po-Jen Ko design_document1.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
video
Problem:
One issue that can come up with playing guitar on stage is wanting to switch guitar pedals on and off while playing. If a guitarist wants to change the effects on their guitar as they are playing, they would either have to have their pedalboard on stage, or would need someone else controlling which pedals are turned on and off.


Solution

Our solution to this problem is a motion sensing attachment that can clip on to the bottom of the guitar. The attachment will project a lighting display on the ground, indicating which pedals’ effects are currently active, as well as using motion sensors to detect when the guitarist kicks near each light. The attachment is connected wirelessly to a custom routing box, which routes the signal through the connected pedals, allowing the guitarist on stage to control which pedals’ effects are active at any given time.

Solution Components

Subsystem 1: Lighting

This subsystem will have to display different colored lights on the ground from the guitar. The entirety of the device will have to be angled from the guitar so that it can shine directly to the ground. One color of light will indicate the effect is active, and another will indicate that it is inactive.

Subsystem 2: Motion Sensor

This subsystem will be responsible for delivering user inputs. When someone steps on a light, that light will turn off and the pedal effect associated with that light will activate. When another light is stepped on, the pedals’ effects will combine, as they ordinarily would while using a standard pedal setup. In order to remove a special effect, you need to step in that area again.

Subsystem 3: Pedal Connection Box
In order to use multiple effects, we need to use foot pedals that are turned on and connected to the box. In a normal guitar pedal arrangement the pedals are connected in series, so the box will route the audio signal in series through whichever pedals are designated by the sensing system. The box will have a wireless receiver that takes in data on which pedals should be activated, and use it to route the signal in and out of the connected pedals.

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.

In order for our project to be considered a success, the guitarist should be able to switch between their pedals as they like despite being away from the pedal board. The criterion for this to occur would be:
1) The kick/step motion effectively toggles on/off desired pedals
2) The lights correspond with pedals correctly
3) Pedal connection box correctly routes the signal to go through the desired pedals

Electricity-Generating Device Retrofitted for Spin Bikes with Wall Outlet Plug Connected to Gym's Grid

Raihana Hossain, Elisa Krause, Tiffany Wang

Electricity-Generating Device Retrofitted for Spin Bikes with Wall Outlet Plug Connected to Gym's Grid

Featured Project

**Elisa Krause (elisak2), Raihana Hossain (rhossa2), Tiffany Wang (tw22)**

**Problem:** Something we take for granted everyday is energy. Constantly, there is energy consumption in malls, offices, schools, and gyms. However, the special thing about gyms is that there is always someone using either the elliptical, bike or etc. Now what if, along with losing those extra pounds, you can also generate some electricity using these machines? Our device is a straightforward and cheap alternative for gyms to have retrofitted spin bikes that generate electricity, and for the gym to save money by using the electricity generated by the bikes that can be connected to the gym’s grid by simply plugging the device into the wall outlet.

**Solution Overview:** We are retrofitting a spin bike with an electricity-generating device that can be plugged into the wall outlet, which will be the path to send the generated electricity back to the gym’s grid to be used. The amount of electricity generated can also be monitored and displayed with the device.

**Solution Components:**

* **[Retrofit for Electricity Generation]** Component that attaches to any spin bike on the outside (straightforward and simple retrofit) and generates electricity when the bike is being used.

* **[Send Power to Gym Grid]** Component that reverses the typical direction of the wall outlet and sends the energy generated by the bike riders back to the gym’s power grid.

* **[Metering]** Component that records and displays how much energy was generated between the times when someone presses a button on the device. The first button press will reset the display. The second button press will show how much energy was generated from the time when the button was first pressed.

**Criterion for success:**

* Retrofits any (or the majority of) spin bike types

* Energy generated from people working out on the spin bikes is sent from a wall outlet to the gym’s power grid

* Device displays the power generated by a bike during the time of two button presses.

* Show that our power output being generated matches and syncs up with a sinusoidal input using a mock setup to simulate the grid

Project Videos