Design Project 2 Weekly Progress Report Reporting Week: 18 Jun - 24 Jun 2017

TechnologicalInstituteofthePhilippines
Quezon City

ElectronicsEngineering
DesignProject2GroupWeeklyProgressReport

ProjectName Design of a Signal Conditioning Matrix for a Compost Maturity Analyzer

BINOS, Kristel Camille C.
DE PAZ, Mark Timothy O.
TeamMembers DELA CRUZ, Cedric G.
MENDOZA, Dianne L.
ORTILLA, Ray Louie M.
SubmissionDate June 29, 2017
ActivityPeriod June 18 - June 24, 2017
ProjectManagerof BINOS, Kristel Camille C.
ReportingWeek
FacultyAdviser Engr. Francis B. Malit
To acquire all needed sensors for the project
Objectives
To model the sensors at hand

1.ProjectDescription

One of the main obstacles to the successful utilization of compost in agriculture is the lack of
technology to determine its quality and understand the transition of maturity, which take place throughout
the whole process. Proper evaluation of compost maturity is essential for the establishment of its quality.
For so long, organic farmers based the quality of their compost in its colour, consistency, temperature, and
smell. Even so, miscalculation of compost maturity exists and it often leads to either stunt growth or death
(among others) to plants. Due to their encountered problem, there is a need to develop a device that
determines the maturity of given compost, lessening the error incurred from the miscalculation of the quality
composts. This project is a low-cost maturity analyser interpreting data signals from sensors to indicate
whether the sample compost is mature or not. The project will make use of the baseline indicator of
ammonia (NH3) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) sensors, and pH, Moisture and Temperature sensors and
provide graphical user-interface which displays real-time results acquired from the system. The results
obtained were validated by using various statistical techniques and standards. Moreover, comparison

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Design Project 2 Weekly Progress Report Reporting Week: 18 Jun - 24 Jun 2017

between the results of this project and the existing devices is performed to validate its accuracy.

2.TasksOutlinedinPreviousWeeklyProgressReport

To complete the purchase of all the needed sensors.

To be able to model the sensors.

3.ProgressSummary

In this section, the progress of last weeks assigned tasks will be stated in detail. The group worked
on planning, meetings, and series of interviews, consultations, and research on the related studies and
technologies that can be connected to the project. Some of the notable points from the summary are as
follows:

To complete the purchase of all the needed sensors

For the past week, we were able to purchase all the needed sensors except for the Ammonia
Sensors. The needed sensor which meets the requirements of the project, can only be outsourced outside
the country. Currently, we have three sensors at-hand and for this week the task is to be able to solve the
needed parameters to design the circuit.

To be able to model the sensors

The team consulted Engr. Delgado on our concern about the mathematical modelling of each
sensors. The datasheet for carbon dioxide was used to distinguish the mathematical model of the sensor,
which will be used to design the circuit for the Signal Conditioning Matrix. The data gathered in the
datasheet used linear regression to remodel the sensitivity curve of the carbon dioxide (MG811) sensor
rather than following the equation given in the datasheet. Since, it is not perfectly linear but the trend is
almost linear, the team used MiniTab to curve fit the value given on the datasheet in order to estimate the
output carbon dioxide given a specific voltage.

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Design Project 2 Weekly Progress Report Reporting Week: 18 Jun - 24 Jun 2017

for every unit of PPM which increases, there is a 1.4% decrease on the value of Vout.

The team was able to solve the transfer function for the temperature sensor (MLX 90614) which shows that
this specific sensor parameters requires a Band Pass Filter, compared to the original plan to use
Sallen-Key Low Pass Filter for all the sensors. The maximum frequency of the sensor, base on its
datasheet, is 100kHz and the minimum, which is 10kHz. The Sallen-Key Low Pass Filter operates only for
a signal lower than the cut-off frequency. Band Pass Filter, on the other hand operates within the range of
specified maximum and minimum frequencies.

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Design Project 2 Weekly Progress Report Reporting Week: 18 Jun - 24 Jun 2017

Transfer Function:
Temperature Vout
6.25C 625mV
31.25C 3125mV
y = mx + b y y 1 = (x x1 )
y 2 y 1 31.256.25
y y1 = x2 x1
(x x1 ) y 6.25 = 3125625
(x 625)
25 C
y 6.25 = 2500
(x 625) y 6.25 = 0.01 mV (x 625)
y 6.25 = 0.01x 6.25 y = 0.01x 6.25 + 6.25
y
y = 0.01x x
= 0.01
T eq = 0.01 V o Transfer Function

4.ProblemsEncounteredinReportingWeek

The group encountered problems in both the technical part of the project and with the project
deliverables. Problems encountered in the reporting week are summarized as follows:

Modelling for the Soil Moisture wont push through as the data sheet for the needed sensor is not
available online. Team is in contact with the vendor of the sensor to get the data sheet.
Circuit designing as a whole is in halt, since parameters of each sensor (specifically for Soil
Moisture) is not yet final. As a recourse, team would push through with individual circuit design for
each sensor, and will integrate it moving forward for the Signal Conditioning Matrix.
Ammonia sensor is not available on any stores listed on our database, and can only be outsourced
outside the country. Team is looking into checking for second-hand sensors. Team will also be
updating the database check for other stores.

5.ChangesinRequirements

No changes in requirements, as of now.

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Design Project 2 Weekly Progress Report Reporting Week: 18 Jun - 24 Jun 2017

6.OverallAssessment

As far as the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is concern, team is still in synchronized with the
set deadlines and action items for the week. We are know approaching Week 4, and by that time we
should start designing the circuit for each sensor. Week 3 is closing, by the end of the reporting week we
must be able to model all the needed sensors, in preparation for the design for the Signal Conditioning
Matrix.

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