Temperature Data Collection System
This project was part of my research with the UT Engine Group and Applied Research Laboratories (ARL). As part of our goal to harness power from a temperature difference to eventually increase the battery life on drones, I needed to assemble a system to actively collect temperature data.
Hardware
Given the restriction of keeping the entire system light and compact, we chose to use an Adafruit Feather as a microprocessor and the MAX31865 as an amplifier for the thermocouples.
Software and Automation
Reading out temperatures from the microprocessor required coding through the Arduino software. This was my first time coding in C++, but I was able to get the CJ and real temperature readings on the serial monitor.
I was then able to make this data more visual through a MATLAB script that took an input of the serial monitor and output the different temperatures as a graph over time.
Trial and Error
Using a breadboard I was able to use jumper wires to connect the amplifier to the microprocessor and allow it to read the the voltages from the thermocouple. I then expanded this to have multiple thermocouples in series. This process took a little trial and error to make sure all the components and I/O signals were wired correctly
Future Implications
In the future I hope to be able to make the circuitry more permanent, as the breadboard was a temporary fix to ensure the system would work. Although the realtime data logging was great for our needs, we want to be able to integrate a wireless system which may require routing our microprocessor an onboard CPU on a drone.
Furthermore, this system and data is currently included in part of a research paper through the UT Engine Research Group and Applied Research Laboratories