Design Skills Project (Variable Light Intensity)

About

This project is meant to train our design skills by working out an entire design process to make a variable LED. By the end of the Fall 2018 semester, we will have made a variable LED light with the following specifications and constraints. This project will have us work individually to come up with our own design and planning process which will be maintained via this repository.

Functional Specifications

• LED light that is button-activated to switch between the following operating modes:
  1. Off
  2. Brightest
  3. Intermediate Brightness
  4. Least Bright
  5. Flashing @ 2 Hz
• Self-contained device with LED and button exposed.
• Extra credit possibilities:
  • Battery life indicator
  • Waterproof enclosure
  • You tell us!

Constraints

• Run on single battery up to 9 V
• Electronics connected to a single PCB (can be single- or double-sided)
• Cannot weight more than 1 lb
• Cannot have a single dimension > 6 in
• Cannot cost more than $50 to duplicate unit
• Battery must be easily replaceable

Evaluation

• Minimize weight

• Minimize size

• Maximize Brightest mode

• Minimize power draw / maximize battery life

• Survive 3 foot drop with battery installed

• Create-and-maintain a GitHub project repository to maintain version history of:

  • Mechanical CAD (PDFs + more)
  • Electronic CAD (PDFs + more)
  • Software
  • Testing data
  • Design history / notes
  • Specification sheets
  • Usage notes (README.md)
  • Kanban board / Issues / Milestones