Project Report On Regulator
Project Report On Regulator
Project Report On Regulator
Writer’s Comment: This piece was a project report in memo format for an
audience of varying degrees of knowledge. I focused this project report on a
circuit I had designed and tested in a high school robotics class. By dividing
the memo into sections, I allow the members of the audience to quickly find
what information they need. Expert audience members can read through
every detail of the report, while executive and technical audience members
can skim right to the conclusion and ignore the complicated, unnecessary
details. There is also an explicit section on finances for those who have to
review the cost of the project’s implementation. Writing this report was a great
experience in technical writing using what project management experience
I’ve already obtained. I’d like to express my gratitude for the support and
comments provided by my writing teacher, Mr. Squitieri. Without his help,
this report would not be the same.
Instructor’s Comment: Steven Sigley wrote this strong Vanden Robotics
memo for my section of UWP 102E Writing in the Professions: Engineering.
In this course, students confront the challenge of learning to write effectively
for multiple audiences in the workplace. This task requires that student
writers make two basic conceptual adjustments. First, they must move beyond
the model of conventional academic essay writing that they have learned to
accept as normative throughout their high school and college careers; for most
engineering students, this genre becomes obsolescent even before they leave the
university. Secondly, these students must also transcend the conventions of the
undergraduate lab write-up that they have practiced in their lower division
courses, for although such write-ups usefully serve the needs of teaching
assistants charged with evaluating immense quantities of undergraduate
work, they fail to address the legitimate expectations of divergent professional
audiences in the workplace.
In his Vanden Robotics memo, Steven demonstrates that he has successfully
made both these adjustments. Appropriately deploying an array of format cues
(compartmentalization, white space, hierarchical headings, etc.), Steven has
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Voltage Regulator Circuit Project Report
designed his document in such a way that the different members (executive,
expert, technician and lay) of his audience can each easily recognize and
locate the sections he or she needs to review and just as easily ignore the others.
In this way, the memo writer’s document-design skill allows his colleagues to
use their own time and talents more efficiently in the pursuit of a common
organizational goal.
—Victor Squitieri, University Writing Program
VANDEN ROBOTICS
Memorandum
November 2, 2012
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Prized Writing 2012–2013
This schematic proved useful in the layout of the circuit, but did not
explain how the output voltage was related to the input voltage. However,
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Voltage Regulator Circuit Project Report
(1)
The reference voltage for this particular component was given in the
document as 1.25 volts. Accordingly, the ratio of R2 to R1 should be
4.76:1 or roughly 5:1 (given the circuit’s inherent resistance) to obtain
an output of 7.2 volts. Using this information along with the knowledge
that the circuit used 12 volts and around 50 milliamps, the Electrical
Team implemented two resistors in each circuit: a 5000-ohm, 1-watt
resistor, and a 1000-ohm, 1-watt resistor. The wattage of the resistors
was more than sufficient because even if all 50 milliamps ran through a
single resistor at 12 volts, only 0.6 watts of power would be produced,
not enough to damage the resistor.
With the resistors decided upon, the Electrical Team’s attention
turned to the final phase of circuit design for this project, heat dissipation.
If the voltage regulator circuit overheated, it could fail. The LM317 had a
simple built-in thermal protection circuit, but we were unsure if it would
hold up to our needs. To avoid any failures due to heat, the Electrical
Team made three circuits: one with no additional protections, one with
a passive heat-dissipating heat sink, and one with the heat sink and a fan
blowing heat away from the heat sink. These circuits were tested against
each other to find the circuit with the simplest design that was effective
for Vanden Robotics’ needs.
Testing the Circuits’ Ability to Dissipate Heat
To test the circuits, the Electrical team installed each circuit
individually in a robot with a VEX computer, a pair of Fisher-Price motors
capable of drawing 30 amps each, and 4 CIM motors capable of drawing
40 amps each. This robot was then run for a five minute interval with
five separate ten second intervals, one in each minute, where all motors
would draw maximum amperage. A voltmeter with thermocouple would
be used at one minute intervals in each test to measure the increase in the
temperature of the voltage regulator circuit. The thermocouple was placed
on the LM317 component to find the increase in temperature. If the
temperature exceeded 100 degrees Celsius, the team would immediately
stop the test because the technical document for the LM317 indicated
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Prized Writing 2012–2013
0 26 26 24
1 42 39 29
2 53 48 33
3 61 54 36
4 65 58 39
5 67 61 40
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Voltage Regulator Circuit Project Report
SS/pe
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