TemperatureCo
trolUsi
gaMicroco
trollerA
I
terdiscipli
aryU
dergraduateE
gi
eeri
gDesig
ProjectJamesSMcDo
aldDepartme
tofE
gi
eeri
gScie
ceTri
ityU
iversitySa
A
to
ioTX78212AbstractThispaperdescribesa
i
terdiscipli
arydesig
projectwhichwasdo
eu
dertheauthor’ssupervisio
byagroupoffourse
iorstude
tsi
theDepartme
tofE
gi
eeri
gScie
ceatTri
ityU
iversityTheobjectiveoftheprojectwastodevelopatemperatureco
trolsystemfora
airfilledchamberThesystemwastoallowe
tryofadesiredchambertemperaturei
aprescribedra
gea
dtoexhibitovershoota
dsteadystatetemperatureerroroflesstha
1degreeKelvi
i
theactualchambertemperaturesteprespo
seThedetailsofthedesig
developedbythisgroupofstude
tsbasedo
aMotorolaMC68HC05familymicroco
trolleraredescribedThepedagogicalvalueoftheproblemisalsodiscussedthroughadescriptio
ofsomeofthekeystepsi
thedesig
processItisshow
thatthesolutio
requiresbroadk
owledgedraw
fromseverale
gi
eeri
gdiscipli
esi
cludi
gelectricalmecha
icala
dco
trolsystemse
gi
eeri
g1I
troductio
Thedesig
projectwhichisthesubjectofthispaperorigi
atedfromarealworldapplicatio
Aprototypeofamicroscopeslidedryerhadbee
developedarou
da
OmegaTMmodelCN390temperatureco
trollera
dtheobjectivewastodevelopacustomtemperatureco
trolsystemtoreplacetheOmegasystemThemotivatio
wasthatacustomco
trollertargetedspecificallyfortheapplicatio
shouldbeabletoachievethesamefu
ctio
alityatamuchlowercostastheOmegasystemisu
ecessarilyversatilea
dequippedtoha
dleawidevarietyofapplicatio
sThemecha
icallayoutoftheslidedryerprototypeisshow
i
Figure1Themai
eleme
tofthedryerisalargei
sulatedairfilledchamberi
whichmicroscopeslideseachwithatissuesamplee
casedi
paraffi
ca
beseto
caddiesI
orderthattheparaffi
mai
tai
stheproperco
siste
cythetemperaturei
theslidechambermustbemai
tai
edatadesiredco
sta
ttemperatureAseco
dchambertheelectro
icse
closurehousesaresistiveheatera
dthetemperatureco
trollera
dafa
mou
tedo
thee
dofthedryerblowsairacrosstheheatercarryi
gheati
totheslidechamberThisdesig
projectwascarriedoutduri
gacademicyear199697byfourstude
tsu
dertheauthor’ssupervisio
asaSe
iorDesig
projecti
theDepartme
tofE
gi
eeri
gScie
ceatTri
ityU
iversityThepurposeofthispaperis
1
ftodescribetheproblema
dthestude
ts’solutio
i
somedetaila
dtodiscusssomeofthepedagogicalopportu
itiesofferedbya
i
terdiscipli
arydesig
projectofthistypeThestude
ts’ow
reportwasprese
tedatthe1997Natio
alCo
fere
ceo
U
dergraduateResearch1Sectio
2givesamoredetailedstateme
toftheproblemi
cludi
gperforma
cespecificatio
sa
dSectio
3describesther