March Update

Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High InvenTeam

On the News!

On March 9th, 2015, CBS 8 News contacted Scott Swaaley in response to the Current Invents press release; written by the Communications team.

Here is a link to the news broadcast:

http://www.cbs8.com/story/28326154/high-tech-high-students-receive-invention-grant

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Eureka Moment

By: Scott Swaaley

"The Eureka moment came as a result of lunch with a friend. As an electrical engineer, he had attended out MYGR and had a great deal of questions and ideas about our approach. The one that stuck with me the most was this fundamental paradigm shift. Instead of struggling to measure an extremely high voltage short duration pulse and compare it to an inconsistent and unknowable reference, we can use the time in between pulses to introduce our own known low-voltage signal that can power our new modular approach and serve as a way to characterize the fence."

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Technical

By: Francesca Bragg

We have now switched to a modular approach to the system. There will be an off-the-shelf fence energizer (E1). We will introduce our own voltage source (V1) alongside the energizer. We will then distribute a number of modules along the length of a fence. Instead of trying to measure and characterize the inconsistent pulses of the energizer (which has been a struggle), we will use V1 to introduce a small voltage in-between pulses. This small voltage will be used to (a) power the modules and (b) to characterize the fence by comparing the relative measurements of the modules.

In order to start experimenting with the knitty details in our code and subjecting our fence to different environmental conditions, we need to understand how it behaves untouched at its "baseline." So, with this new idea in route, we have kicked off March with even more testing to understand our generator/electric fence system. Currently, we have split into small groups, each guided by professionals in the field, and are focusing in on fine points that will help to achieve this goal. Some of us are continuing work on our Shock Box and Arduino program, while others are working on our new model idea, and trying to collect data from our standard fence set up. We are working to induce our own small voltage on the fence wire and observe how it behaves to see if we can make a general guideline of what to expect the signal strength to be at the end of the line after each pulse.
 
Other groups have worked on measuring different resistors to see how fast a capacitor can discharge. They are doing this because they are trying to use the voltage from the fence to charge the devices that will be placed along the fence, which will read voltage and help the user know the location of a break and/or failure.