ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Design Project Rev 8/09
Homework 4: Packaging Specifications and Design
Team Code Name: ______Home Enhancement Suite______Group No. __10__
Team Member Completing This Homework: ______Daniel Sabo______
E-mail Address of Team Member: ___dsabo______@ purdue.edu
Evaluation:
SCORE
/DESCRIPTION
10 /Excellent – among the best papers submitted for this assignment. Very few corrections needed for version submitted in Final Report.
9 /Very good – all requirements aptly met. Minor additions/corrections needed for version submitted in Final Report.
8 /Good – all requirements considered and addressed. Several noteworthy additions/corrections needed for version submitted in Final Report.
7 /Average – all requirements basically met, but some revisions in content should be made for the version submitted in the Final Report.
6 /Marginal – all requirements met at a nominal level. Significant revisions in content should be made for the version submitted in the Final Report.
* /Below the passing threshold – major revisions required to meet report requirements at a nominal level. Revise and resubmit.
* Resubmissions are due within one week of the date of return, and will be awarded a score of “6” provided all report requirements have been met at a nominal level.
Comments:
Introduction
The Home Enhancement Suite is a device capable of automatically controlling various aspects of a room to create a convenient and pleasant living experience. The device is capable of connecting with an HDMI product, such as a television, adjusting lighting levels, as well as an electronic door lock. The Suite is also capable of recognizing different users through RFID readers to adjust the settings of the room to fit the desires of the user. To make the settings customizable, the user can access the device through their local network, connecting to a web browser interface to adjust all the products associated with the Suite. All user profiles can be saved and will automatically load when the associated RFID is recognized.
To create this environment, there are two modules of the Suite that will be placed within the user’s home. A central controller will house the PCB containing all the components manipulating the appliances associated with the Suite. Throughout a room, up to three RFID readers will be placed for easy access and a swipe across the reader allowing the user to manipulate the room’s settings. These discreet packages will offer the user a more pleasant lifestyle without the need to completely change the layout of their home.
2.0 Commercial Product Packaging
2.1 Product #1 - Control4 HC-250 Controller
Control4’s HC-250 Controller [1] has a very efficient and sleek design perfect for a commercial product. The controller itself is very compact and easy to interface with, as all connecting ports are stationed on the back of the controller itself. The clever design also makes the controller visually appealing, and its unobtrusive shape allow it to be placed almost anywhere in the house.
To interface with the controller, touch screens are placed on the walls of the room and contain a menu of options available to the user. Each touch screen contains the list of actions available to the type of controller available, which can vary greatly depending on the controller bought. The touch screen design is very modern, allowing it to be easily visible without it becoming an eyesore.
However, these design choices leave the product very limited in its number of features. This particular controller can only interface with a single HDMI TV and a single sound system. Such limitation is the opposite of what we want with our project, which will hopefully be able to control a multitude of devices, and its compact packaging does not allow for much creativity of expansion.
2.2 Product #2 - Home Automation Inc. Home Automation Studio
The Home Automation Studio [2] has a very simple and modularized design, with each module controlling a separate aspect of the home. The packaging is a simple aluminum box with direct access to the board, with only a few holes in the back for all the cords.
Having direct access to the board is a double-edged sword, as this allows easy access to manipulate and possibly repair or replace the board itself; however as a commercial product it may cause more harm than good allowing the user direct access to the board. Because our project is a prototype showing the proof of concept for a home automation controller, this design is perfect for our needs. The larger packaging allows an allowance incase our design grows expectantly, and simple holes rather than ports permits easy adjustments to the design without needing to worry about the packaging.
To access the settings available to the Studio, a large variety of connections are available. There are a few types of touch screens available, but unlike the Control4 design these touch screens are much larger and clunky looking, making them actually the least desirable for an unobtrusive interface. However they make up for their lack of aesthetic appeal by also allowing access to the controller through a computer or smartphone. A web interface is even available, allowing the user to adjust their settings from anywhere in the world. This design is extremely appealing as the less external devices needed to create the future home experience the better.
3.0 Project Packaging Specifications
The packaging for our design will visually look similar to the HAI [2] design, since for prototyping purposes the design does not need to be as compact or sleek as the Control4 [1] design. The controller will be contained within a black 9” by 6” by 1” package. The package will be made of a type of plastic with EMI shielding to prevent any noisy environments from affecting the project. On the back side of the box there will be port holes for the power cord, HDMI, Ethernet, and RJ11 connections. Although the original design was to follow the simple idea from HAI, ports were chosen instead for their added safety and visually pleasing design. The top of the package will contain a small LCD screen which will display the current active user and possibly debugging information, a small light sensor for gauging the brightness of the room, and a push button for manually resetting the device.
The PCB will actually be drilled to the top of the packaging, directly underneath the sensor and LCD screen. The light sensor is a surface mount device, so by having the PCB placed on the underside top, hopefully the sensor will be close enough to the outside to read the lighting levels. One of the RFID readers has also been placed within the controller itself to safe space, so having the ID-12 reader directly underneath the cover will make the card swiping much more manageable.
Outside of the main controller, there will be two RFID readers for the user to interface with that will be in a separate area from the controller. To package these readers, two 5” by 4” by 1” packages will be used to store the reader PCBs. Made from a white plastic, the package already has a PCB standoff inside, allowing easy assembly. The package will be almost completely unmodified except for a single cut square in the back for accessing the batteries. Because the readers are wireless, there will be no cords associated with the packaged.
4.0 PCB Footprint Layout
The footprint choices available for the parts chosen are somewhat limited as the majority of the devices must interface with an outside I/0. Therefore most of the footprint will display devices around the edge of the PCB itself, trying to make the design as convenient as possible to interface with the multitude of outside devices. The PCB itself must be large enough to make this interfacing possible, but besides that there are no major constraints in the design that will play a major role in the layout. The estimated PCB layout will roughly be around 8“by 3“.
5.0 Summary
The Home Enhancement Suite will bring a user one step-closer to automated, seamless living throughout the home. The user will be able to easily enter and walk throughout the home as it configures to their pre-configured settings. The simple and discreet designs of the packaging allow the controller and readers to be placed anywhere in the room where the user may swipe their card. With the wireless readers available, only a few cords are necessary to set up an entire room with the Suite, making it an easy install process.
List of References
[1] Control4 HC-250 Controller [Online]. Available: http://www.control4.com/residential/products/controllers/HC-250 [Accessed: Feb. 7, 2012]
[2] HAI Home Automation Studio [Online]. Available: http://www.homeauto.com/products/software/automationstudio.asp [Accessed: Feb. 7, 2012]
Appendix A: Project Packaging Illustrations
Controller
Reader
Appendix B: Project Packaging Specifications
All Electronics / All Electronics / CAT# MBD-738 / RFID Reader Package / 7.39 / 2 / 7.15
Digi-Key / Serpac / SR191E-B-ND / Controller Package / 2.69 / 1 / 20.95
TechnologyLK
/TechnologyLK
/GHD-ADB1
/ Plastic Drill Bit / 9.00 / 1 / 1.50Amazon
/Kadee
/ B000W9EZQO / Plastic Screws (12) / 1.00 / 2 / 2.00TOTAL / 40.75
Tooling Requirements: Drill and Screwdriver
Estimated weight: 3 lbs for the controller
.5lbs for each reader
Appendix C: PCB Footprint Layout
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