Progress Report: One Month, Two Updates!
Over the past month, our RECMS group has been making steady progress in the project’s developments, culminating in two primary updates summarized below!
Update #1: Conference Call with Community Partner IBEKA
Today we had a conference call with Dygdha from IBEKA and discussed various aspects of the metering system ranging from the environment in which it will be implemented to the benefits of using a communal metering system instead of a discrete, individualized one. Some of the insights we obtained during the call were that the system will need to be robust (as it will be installed outside and subject to inclement weather), that there will be two lines going through each house, and that the wire thickness should be around 35 mm. The conference call clarified many of the questions we had about the project and has given us a better understanding of what is necessary to effectively construct the system.
Update #2: RECMS Design and Prototype
As we move through the quarter, we have been working on developing our initial design prototype, and we have made some progress on deciding the overall structure of our device. The next step we will take in the creation of our prototype is to work in Professor John Fox’s lab to experiment with various designs and test which circuit elements might be best suited to the needs of our project.
We are approaching the design process on a platform of a non-invasive structure — no wire cutting or other complex design procedures. One of our goals is to make our device simple to understand, create, implement, and maintain. Our next step is to refine the flow path of measurement data and finalize the initial prototype parts list for an estimated budget.
