Proposal and Design Concept Phase
Summary of Activities
The second phase of the project was centered around finalization of our proposed solution. Additional research was conducted on potential hardware components. Several concept-level designs were then created and evaluated so that our specifications and requirements could be finalized. After selecting the design concept, we then established a project plan for the remaining two phases. In addition, we created our design constraints to establish a Bill of Materials. Finally, we submitted a formal proposal to our client for acceptance and presented the proposal to our peers.
Milestones
Tools
Computer-aided drafting tools were used in high-level concept drafting. The resutling diagrams sereved as talking points during our team meetings.
Design Decisions
Based on our research, we decided to design two systems. The first system will serve as a prototype to a second system which will meet all specifications and requirements. For the initial proof-of-concept prototype, we decided to use an Arduino Uno microcontroller because of its versitile platform and chose to use a standard RFID card reader to prove system functionaliy. The second design will use smaller components and actually read NAU ID cards.
The decision to proceed with two designs was driven by the costs associated with components that are small enough to fit in a standard electrical box. Such components are more expensive and more complex, and are therefore more difficult to work with. In addition, the initial, larger, open system will be easier to test and modify as we encounter problems.
Problems Encountered
While researching RFID card readers, we discovered that the generic RFID readers were incapable of recognizing the presence of NAU IDs. We learned that this is due to a security feature of the chip in the card. We realized that more specialized hardware will be required in our final design.
Continue to next page: Detailed Design Phase