Finally a big relief~

D.O.N.E.
FYP thesis and technical report

Officially released from the incessant torture of sleepless nights, backaching crams and tight knots on my shoulders for hunching over my laptop on my desk. Smiled in a small content of satisfaction the moment when i handed up my thesis and technical report to my examiner Associate Professor Ramesh Oruganti. Massive collosal boulders were finally unladen from my aching shoulders throughout the past month....all that was left was pure RELIEF. Casting this aside, there are several people i would like to express my special thanks to for helping me pull through this tough period.

First of all, I would like to thank my mami and daddy for always being there for me. Thanks to my dear mami for making bird nest for me on nights that i stayed up late. Also special mention to my daddy for buying breakfast and lunch for me when i was so busy in typing my thesis on weekends. I would also like to thank my project supervisor Associate Professor S.K. Panda, Dr K. Viswananthan, Ms Wu Xinhui, Ms Crystal Lee and all my fellow peers and friends in Electric Machines and Drives Laboratory as well as Power Electronics Laboratory for their help and support for the past 30 weeks. Lastly I would like to thank my sweetheart, Trini for being always there for me and never failing to encourage me during times which i felt so tired that i wanted to give up.

Thank you all, I've made it finally~:)

FYP coming to an end

Yay~Finally the much dreaded FYP has come to an end. Well have to submit my draft thesis to the department and my examiner at the end of this month, yes 30th March!! Had already spent countless nights working through my thesis to such an extent that at times i slept at 7-8 ish in the morning oh well....but at least today I had got it done finally~~!! 135 pages including content page, list of tables, graphs, references and appedices. Feeling quite satisfied from my personal achievement :)

Below is the photograph of my assembled self powered wireless RF transmitter ^^ looks cool eh XD Hehe well it could be yours for 50 bux hehehehe just kidding XD

T- 22 Lab Day

By the way, Wai Yeung stayed overnight in my hostel the night before when me, Jianwen and Winston were staying up to watch the soccer match. I believe he had quite a fun time in my room, watching me doing webcam with Trini. It is smart of him to have brought along his toiletries and fresh set of clothes which he kept in his locker. So no worries of not being able to wash up if he worked overtime in the lab at night. Anyway borrowed a "sleeping mattress" from Jianwen for Wai Yeung to sleep on over the night. Hope he would not mind sleeping on it in my humble room XD

Morning woke up at 10.30am although i slept like 6am in the morning after watching the champion league match between Barcelona and Chelsea. Hehee again super impressed by the magical skills of Ronaldinho. Went for lecture at 11am lunched at 1pm then after that proceeded to my lab to do more testing. I was supposed to meet my Professor at 2.30pm in the lab.

1400h: Went to the PCB fabrication lab to look for Mr Jalil to pick up my PCB. Drilled the holes and filed the edges of my PCB board.

1420h: Went to the ECE mechnanical workshop to look for help to cut a rectangular hole in my PCB was "kindly" asked to solve the problem by myself. Therefore I went back to the PCB fabrication lab to drill a big hole and used a small needle file borrowed from Mr Jalil to file the edges.

1500h: Finally filing my first PCB board with the rectangular hole to fit my piezoignitor. My professor came and I showed him the waveforms of what I had obtained from the previous day.
Both of us were quite disappointed that the energy harvesting circuit is not able to power up the RF circuitry.

1530h: My professor asked me to try using a solar cell to develop a hybrid system to power the electronics. Did open circuit voltage testing of the photovoltaic cell with various light intensity.

1600h: Construct a test circuit linking the ouput DC voltage of the photovoltaic cell to a storage capacitor and regulate it at 5V using a linear regulator. Transmitter is able to function. Did a series of test to determine the minimum threshold light intensity for the DC regulator to operate and hence the RF electronics.

1645h: Got a 3phase system light bulb from Mr. Woo to determine the increase in open circuit voltage of the photovoltaic cell. Recorded the values and pack up.

End of a very gloomy day can really see no where my project is heading to...head sunken..

---------------- End of Daily Lab Log ----------------

Went back to PGP at about 8 plus heard there's a fire drill exercise but luckily not involving resisdents from my block. Went to Gerodies mart to stock up on some food and drink --- getting psyched-up again for the late soccer match tonight, this time Arsenal against Real Madrid. True enough it was a exciting performance played between the two sides although the nil-nil scoreline would have suggest otherwise. Hehehe had a fantastic time uhhhh-ing and ahhh-ing at the gasping misses throughout the match together with Jianwen and Winston. After the match ended i could hear the birds stirring in the nest as dawn is approaching. Maybe time for me to turn in to get some rest ahead of a new challenging day tomorrow.

T-23 Lab Day

1400h: Finished lunch proceeded to my lab. Set up the MAX666 linear voltage regulator circuit on breadboard tested the connections and the output voltage. Passed.

1420h: Hooked up the MAX666 regulator to mainboard to test for waveform. Obtained voltage waveforms of storage capacitor and linear voltage regulator. Tried loading with various resistances ranging from 10 ohm to 1.5k-ohm. Failed to get any output voltage across regulator.
Suspect low energy.

1530h: Stopped lab testing wrote email to my supervisor. Arrange an appointment with him the next day at 2.30PM in the lab.

------------- End of lab day ----------------

Met Wai Yeung, Jianwen, Winston and Qinmin for dinner at Arts canteen. Went back to lab to finish up my GEM2501 assignment. Finished my assignment in 1h. Looking foward to tonight's champion league match between Barcelona and Chelsea. Hehe will be watching with Jianwen, Zhangjun and Winston together in the TV lounge later tonight at 3.35 AM.

Yawn~~what a tiring day...I need a good shower ahead of the match XD

T-24 Lab Day

From today onwards, I shall keep a small log on my FYP progress for my personal reference and reflection of what I had done and what should be done.

1700h: Went to PCB lab at to look for Mr. Jalil to get my PCB board.
Cut the board, file the edges and drilled four 3mm holes on the four
corners of my board. 1720h: Went to the MacDonald's at engin with Weiyang, ate a strawberry sundae and a cheeseburger as teabreak.

1800h: Went back to my lab to solder my components on my PCB.
Did short circuit testing. All working fine.
Connect to my main PCB board (mainboard). Stopped work.

1910h: Went for dinner with Jonathan and Weiyang at Engin canteen

1930h: Did testing of piezoignitor voltage, secondary voltage of transformer, voltage of storage capacitor (o/c), voltage of storage capacitor (c/c), voltage waveform of dc-dc converter.

2145h: DC-DC converter unable to operate due to low input voltage from storage capacitor. Storage capacitor output waveform is correct when it is o/c. Tried removing decoupling capacitors from DC-DC converters but to no avail. Suspect DC-DC converter drawing too much current. Suggest to test with a linear voltage regulator MAX666 chip tomorrow. (Although very inefficient)

Time is running out~~yet still procastinating to press the "panic-button". Well someone said that in engineering no matter how worse the situation gets, things will always get done evenutally at the last minute. Somehow no one has ever refuked this claim.

----------- End of Daily Lab Log -----------

Small note: This coming Sunday is my cousin's 21st birthday still haven't thought of what to get for him yet. He's a Spurs fan...anyone have any ideas ?