Using the Website

Project Page

The Project Pages were created in an effort to help promote student projects. The Project Pages provide a showcase where employers, other students, and friends can see what UIUC students are capable of. Many employers, in particular, consider a good Senior Design Project to be just as valuable as internship experience. The Project Pages will develop over time into a valuable library of practical engineering knowledge. Some of the best projects will be identified each semester and placed in the Senior Design "Hall of Fame," while the rest will be accessible by semester and search engine.

Updating Project Information

Once your project has been approved on the discussion board by the Instructor, you should promptly update your project information. In order to do so, find your project on the Project page, and click its title. When a frame expands, click on "Edit." Next, enter your UIUC netid and password. The system will lookup your project and prompt you for information such as your project's title. Please fill in the information that you wish to have appear for your project, and then click on the submit button. The required fields are marked so. You can update this information at any time. We strongly urge you to keep a backup of all of the information, and we would like to caution you of one scenario in particular. If multiple people attempt to edit this information at the same time, the second person to submit the changes will overwrite the first person's changes. Also, be sure to logout when you are done by closing the web browser. It is important that you provide a project desciption. It should be a brief overview of your project and explanation of why it is worth doing. Please provide this information as soon as possible and try to limit the length to about 250 words.

Submit Schedule

After updating your project information, you should proceed to the Submit Schedule page. Here each student should submit his/her schedule so that your TA can schedule a weekly meeting time. We know that there are a lot of boxes to check, but we need this detailed information because of how difficult it is to match schedules. The information is displayed in a convenient way for TAs when it is time for them to schedule meeting times. The system is very intuitive so instructions are not needed. NOTE: Please be sure that the schedule you submit is as accurate as possible, since you won't be able to edit it later!

After submitting your schedule, you should familiarize yourself with the "Upload Files" page.

Uploading Files

This area is used to upload files such as the Proposal, the Final Paper, Images, and additional files. When a file is uploaded, it is renamed and limited to a specified size. Special documents such as Proposals and Final Papers should be uploaded into the appropriate slot and will automatically be added to your Project Page. Images and other files can be uploaded into any other slot such as "file1." To upload a file, simply select which slot to place it in, and then select the file from your computer using the "Browse" button.

Monitor for Dough and Sourdough Starter

Jake Hayes, Abhitya Krishnaraj, Alec Thompson

Monitor for Dough and Sourdough Starter

Featured Project

Team Members:

- Jake Hayes (jhayes)

- Abhitya Krishnaraj (abhitya2)

- Alec Thompson (alect3)

# Problem

Making bread at home, especially sourdough, has become very popular because it is an affordable way to get fresh-baked bread that's free of preservatives and other ingredients that many people are not comfortable with. Sourdough also has other health benefits such as a lower glycemic index and greater bioavailability of nutrients.

However, the bulk fermentation process (letting the dough rise) can be tricky and requires a lot of attention, which leads to many people giving up on making sourdough. Ideally, the dough should be kept at around 80 degrees F, which is warmer than most people keep their homes, so many people try to find a warm place in their home such as in an oven with a light on; but it's hard to know if the dough is kept at a good temperature. Other steps need to be taken when the dough has risen enough, but rise time varies greatly, so you can't just set a timer; and if you wait too long the dough can start to shrink again. In the case of activating dehydrated sourdough starter, this rise and fall is normal and must happen several times; and its peak volume is what tells you when it's ready to use.

# Solution

Our solution is to design a device with a distance sensor (probably ultrasonic) and a temperature sensor that can be attached to the underside of most types of lids, probably with magnets. The sensors would be controlled with a microcontroller; and a display (probably LCD) would show the minimum, current, and maximum heights of the dough along with the temperature. This way the user can see at a glance how much the dough has risen, whether it has already peaked and started to shrink, and whether the temperature is acceptable or not. There is no need to remove it from its warm place and uncover it, introducing cold air; and there is no need to puncture it to measure its height or use some other awkward method.

The device would require a PCB, microcontroller, sensors, display, and maybe some type of wireless communication. Other features could be added, such as an audible alarm or a graph of dough height and/or temperature over time.

# Solution Components

## Height and Temperature Sensors

Sensors would be placed on the part of the device that attaches to the underside of a lid. A temperature sensor would measure the ambient temperature near the dough to ensure the dough is kept at an acceptable temperature. A proximity sensor or sensors would first measure the height of the container, then begin measuring the height of the dough periodically. If we can achieve acceptable accuracy with one distance sensor, that would be ideal; otherwise we could use 2-4 sensors.

Possible temperature sensor: [Texas Instruments LM61BIZ/LFT3](https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/LM61BIZ%252FLFT3/12324753)

Proximity sensors could be ultrasonic, infrared LED, or VCSEL.\

Ultrasonic: [Adafruit ULTRASONIC SENSOR SONAR DISTANCE 3942](https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/adafruit-industries-llc/3942/9658069)\

IR LED: [Vishay VCNL3020-GS18](https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Vishay-Semiconductors/VCNL3020-GS18?qs=5csRq1wdUj612SFHAvx1XQ%3D%3D)\

VCSEL: [Vishay VCNL36826S](https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Vishay-Semiconductors/VCNL36826S?qs=d0WKAl%252BL4KbhexPI0ncp8A%3D%3D)

## MCU

An MCU reads data from the sensors and displays it in an easily understandable format on the LCD display. It also reads input from the user interface and adjusts the operation and/or output accordingly. For example, when the user presses the button to reset the minimum dough height, the MCU sends a signal to the proximity sensor to measure the distance, then the MCU reads the data, calculates the height, and makes the display show it as the minimum height.

Possible MCU: [STM32F303K8T6TR](https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/STMicroelectronics/STM32F303K8T6TR?qs=sPbYRqrBIVk%252Bs3Q4t9a02w%3D%3D)

## Digital Display

- A [4x16 Character LCD](https://newhavendisplay.com/4x16-character-lcd-stn-blue-display-with-white-side-backlight/) would attach to the top of the lid and display the lowest height, current height, maximum height, and temperature.

## User Interface

The UI would attach to the top of the lid and consist of a number of simple switches and push buttons to control the device. For example, a switch to turn the device on and off, a button to measure the height of the container, a button to reset the minimum dough height, etc.

Possible switch: [E-Switch RA1113112R](https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/e-switch/RA1113112R/3778055)\

Possible button: [CUI Devices TS02-66-50-BK-160-LCR-D](https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/cui-devices/TS02-66-50-BK-160-LCR-D/15634352)

## Power

- Rechargeable Lithium Ion battery capable of staying on for a few rounds of dough ([2000 mAh](https://www.microcenter.com/product/503621/Lithium_Ion_Battery_-_37v_2000mAh) or more) along with a USB charging port and the necessary circuitry to charge the battery. The two halves of the device (top and underside of lid) would probably be wired together to share power and send and receive data.

## (stretch goal) Wireless Notification System

- Push notifications to a user’s phone whenever the dough has peaked. This would likely be an add-on achieved with a Raspberry Pi Zero, Gotify, and Tailscale.

# Criterion For Success

- Charge the battery and operate on battery power for at least 10 hours, but ideally a few days for wider use cases and convenience.

- Accurately read (within a centimeter) and store distance values, convert distance to dough height, and display the minimum, maximum, and current height values on a display.

- Accurately read and report the temperature to the display.

- (stretch goal) Inform the user when the dough has peaked (visual, audio, or app based).

Project Videos