Tag Archives: design challenge

Electrostatic Cleaning Robot Project

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How do you clean a clean-energy generating system? With a microcontroller (and a few other parts, of course). An excellent example is US designer Scott Potter’s award-winning, Renesas RL78 microcontroller-based Electrostatic Cleaning Robot system that cleans heliostats (i.e., solar-tracking mirrors) used in solar energy-harvesting systems. Renesas and Circuit Cellar magazine announced this week at DevCon 2012 in Garden Grove, CA, that Potter’s design won First Prize in the RL78 Green Energy Challenge.

This image depicts two Electrostatic Cleaning Robots set up on two heliostats. (Source: S. Potter)

The nearby image depicts two Electrostatic Cleaning Robots set up vertically in order to clean the two heliostats in a horizontal left-to-right (and vice versa) fashion.

The Electrostatic Cleaning Robot in place to clean

Potter’s design can quickly clean heliostats in Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants. The heliostats must be clean in order to maximize steam production, which generates power.

The robot cleaner prototype

Built around an RL78 microcontroller, the Electrostatic Cleaning Robot provides a reliable cleaning solution that’s powered entirely by photovoltaic cells. The robot traverses the surface of the mirror and uses a high-voltage AC electric field to sweep away dust and debris.

Parts and circuitry inside the robot cleaner

Object oriented C++ software, developed with the IAR Embedded Workbench and the RL78 Demonstration Kit, controls the device.

IAR Embedded Workbench IDE

The RL78 microcontroller uses the following for system control:

• 20 Digital I/Os used as system control lines

• 1 ADC monitors solar cell voltage

• 1 Interval timer provides controller time tick

• Timer array unit: 4 timers capture the width of sensor pulses

• Watchdog timer for system reliability

• Low voltage detection for reliable operation in intermittent solar conditions

• RTC used in diagnostic logs

• 1 UART used for diagnostics

• Flash memory for storing diagnostic logs

The complete project (description, schematics, diagrams, and code) is now available on the Challenge website.

 

Renesas RL78-Based Design Project Opportunities

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Did you miss the 1:00 PM EST deadline for the Renesas RL78 Green Energy Challenge? Do you have an unfinished project? No worries! You can still make something of your RL78-related project and the work you’ve put into it! Circuit Cellar and Elektor have several exciting non-contest-related opportunities you’ll find interesting and advantageous!

The Circuit Cellar/Elektor staff wants to know about your work. Even if your project is unfinished, let the staff know what you’re working on and the project’s status. Upload your project or email us your information.

If the staff is interested in your work, an editor will consider approaching you about one or all of the following non-contest-related opportunities:

  • Distinctive Excellence: If the editorial team thinks your project has merit, you might be eligible for “Distinctive Excellence” designation. After past design challenges, Distinctive Excellence recipients added the honor to their resumes, wrote articles about their projects, and gained notoriety in the design community.
  • Print Magazine Opportunities: The editorial team might think your project is worthy of being published in Circuit Cellar or Elektor magazine. Design Challenges and the print magazine are completely separate. If you are offered an opportunity to write an article and it is published, you will paid a standard author honorarium.
  • CircuitCellar.com Opportunities: The Circuit Cellar editorial team will review your submission and consider posting it on CircuitCellar.com to show the world the effort and progress you’ve made. You can post your project info on the site in the spirit of sharing and the furtherance of engineering innovation! Who knows? Readers might provide you with valuable feedback about your unfinished project. Or perhaps you’ll inspire another person to build something of their own! Perhaps your project will catch the eye company looking to learn more about you work!
  • Interview Possibilities: The editorial team might find your approach to design interesting and consider interviewing you for an upcoming issue.
  • Future Design Collaboration: The Elektor Lab builds and tests innovative electronics projects. If your project—whether finished or in progress—interests an Elektor Lab engineer or editor, someone might contact you to discuss development, testing, or even production opportunities.

As you can see, you have some excellent reasons to contact the Circuit Cellar/Elektor staff.

To submit a finished project, an abstract, or simply info about our work, you can still use the Challenge Entry Form. Or, you can simply ZIP your files and email them to the Circuit Cellar Editorial Department. (Write “RL78 Project” and your project’s name or registration number in the email’s subject line.)

RL78 Green Energy Design Challenge Deadline Approaches

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Attention engineers, programmers, and electronics enthusiasts! The entry deadline of August 31 for the Renesas RL78 Green Energy Challenge is fast approaching. Here are some tips to keep you on schedule.

COMPLETE YOUR DESIGN

The challenge is to design an innovative, energy-efficient application that features the Renesas RL78 MCU, RL78/G13 Renesas Demonstration Kit (RDK), and IAR Toolchain. For information, visit the Eligible Parts page on the design challenge site.

Renesas RDK RL78 board

GATHER YOUR ENTRY FILES

Once you’re done designing your RL78-based project, you need to gather and order your entry materials: project abstract, complete documentation, and code.

Make sure you register for the challenge to obtain a registration number. Label all of your files and documents with your registration number. Don’t put your name on the files and documents.

Consider organizing all of your entry in a ZIP (or RAR) file. Compressing all of your files into one ZIP will keep your entry organized and easier to submit.

FINAL ENTRY CHECKLIST

Before you submit your entry, go through the following checklist one last time to ensure you have everything:

• Abstract (a short project description)
• Complete documentation (a detailed project description)
• Block diagram(s)
• Schematic(s)
• Project photograph(s)
• Source code
• Files are properly labeled (your name doesn’t appear in the entry files)

More details are posted on the challenge’s FAQ webpage.

ENTRY SUBMISSION

Ready to submit your entry? The preferred submission method is to upload your project files via the RL78 Design Challenge Dropbox.

Or send project files to:

RL78 Green Energy Challenge, Circuit Cellar, 4 Park Street, Vernon, CT 06066, USA

Good luck!

EAGLE Design Challenge: Design the Next Innovation for Microchip in EAGLE V6

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CadSoft and Premier Farnell announced recently the start of the EAGLE Design Challenge, which will run until August 31, 2012. Design engineers can submit design projects for a shot at winning prizes with an overall value of around $7,000.

The competition is powered by Microchip and hosted on element14. Elektor and Circuit Cellar are acting as media partners.

Participation

To participate, applicants must ensure that all designs use EAGLE Version 6 and that a Microchip MCU or DSC will be integrated in the design.

After registering at element14, you can submit a screenshot of your layout and add a project description on the competition page.

If you don’t have an EAGLE license and want to participate in the contest, you can download a free 30-days trial version at www.element14.com/eagle-freemium.

Judging

The competition will feature peer voting from the element14 community. Community members “like” entries and submit comments.

A panel of judges—consisting of CadSoft, Premier Farnell and Microchip representatives along with independent EAGLE expert Prof. Dr. Francesco Volpe from the University of Applied Sciences in Aschaffenburg—will pick the winners based on the “likes” and comments from community members. According to the rules, “judging criteria include clarity in description of the submission, its electronic concept, design complexity, design quality, and functionality.”

Prizes

1. DELL Alienware M17x r3 + EAGLE version 6 Professional incl. all three modules.

2. MICROCHIP DV164037 Kit, Eval, ICD3 w/ Explorer-16 & DM163022-1 8-Bit development board + EAGLE Version 6 Professional incl. all three modules.

3. EAGLE Version 6 Standard incl. all three modules.

Visit www.element14.com/eagle-competition for more details as well as the terms and conditions.