Jayden Heller’s Work Log

04/07/2025

Week we had our check off for the semester and everything went according to plan. The only things we didn’t get checked off were the PH sensor that we were unable to test as we needed to test it in a actual system

03/30/2025

This week has been a lot of grinding trying to get everything to come together. We spent multiple hours over the curse of the weekend testing our code for the auto tuning PID. We have gotten it to tell when they system is leveling out and would then increase the kp and once it hit the peak and started checking for oscillations and fine tuning it in. We still need to get our final values out printed on the website. The next 2 days are going to be still trying to get everything to come together and present our project.

• Get final values out printed on the website
• try to smooth out the oscillation checking and final
• Get Estop wired in

03/23/2025

This week we ran into some problems testing the code. After we uploaded the code to the esp32 the esp32 wouldn’t load the website. It would repetitively crash and I was unable to fix it so I reached out to some other members for help and we should hopefully be able to finish testing and get everything rounded out for our project check off on April 1st. I am worried that we wont be able to get it all in by that time but I’m hopeful.

• Implement and test code for autotune function
• Add section to website for constant outputs
• Figure out where the Estop should be wired in
• Look to helping with the turbidity sensor

03/16/2025

This week we were ready to test the tuning but ran into problems getting the code uploaded to the GitHub. Our plan is to get it tested and possibly finished. Nothing on the list was able to get finished so it will all get pushed into the next week. We also have some slide that will need to be finished and some prep will need to be put into that presentation in the early parts of the week.

• Implement and test code for autotune function
• Add section to website for constant outputs
• Figure out where the Estop should be wired in
• Look to helping with the turbidity sensor

03/09/2025

After our meeting with Daniel at the start of the week we were able to get a large portion of coded written up and is now ready to be tested during this up coming week. We also met with Daniel on Friday to test the thermocouples and see what is exactly wrong with them. In doing this we were able to figure out that the data being outputted is a consistent four degrees off which should just require a simple change in code.

The progress that was made with the autotune completed a good portion of our goals for this week. That being said we do still have to work on getting the manual Estop wired and testing of the code will determine where we move from there. Looking ahead my focus will most likely change from the auto tune to helping with the turbidity sensor and the Estop. That being said here is the todo list for the week.

• Implement and test code for autotune function
• Add section to website for constant outputs
• Figure out where the Estop should be wired in
• Look to helping with the turbidity sensor

03/03/2025

This past week we had a very relaxing break. Due to that not too much progress was made during that time. As soon as we got back it was right back to work. We met with Daniel today so that he could demonstrate what tuning the PID manually looks like. From that we were able to get a good idea of what the prosses is and plan to meet on Tuesday to start programing. All of the todo list is still relevant for this week but to reiterate what that is here it is.

• Write out pseudocode for autotune
• Write actual code for autotune
• Implement and test code on bioreactor
• Wire Estop
• implement Estop

02/16/2025

Not a lot was able to get completed this week with having cdr presentation. We were able to set up a time with our sponsor for both running tests with the turbidity sensor and a run through of the procedure used to find the tuning constants for the PID. With all of that here is the continued list for the week.

• Write out pseudocode for autotune
• Write actual code for autotune
• Implement and test code on bioreactor
• Wire Estop
• implement Estop

02/05/2025

This week I was able to get a good understanding on how the PID control will work and what steps are needed to continue. From my understanding the PID works like this:

R is the target temperature and Y is the read temperature from the thermocouple. We use this data to then calculate the error between the two(E) and multiply it by out proportional gain(kp), then add it to the product of our running sum error and integral gain(ki). This gives us our control signal that then needs to be converted into something the heaters can use to increase or decrease the temperature of the tank. The way we get our kp and ki is through manually tuning the system. This is the tricky part that we are working on automating. We were able to draft up some very rough code.

In the coming week I hope to figure out and understand the process that the sponsors use to calculate the kp and ki so that it can properly be implemented into the code.

TODO Review and Next Weeks

Being brutally honest the todo list for this week was very vague as I had no idea on what I was doing or an understand of the process. Going into this week I have a lot better understanding on what’s going on and what needs to happen. That being said the fallowing is what I want to get done in the fallowing week:

• Read through report of the reactor to find process of manual tuning
  • If not reach out to Daniel
• Write out pseudocode for autotune
• Write actual code for autotune
• Implement and test code on bioreactor
• Wire Estop
• implement Estop

01/26/2025

This week I started to get a grasp at PID autotuning and how its supposed to function. In the beginning of the we I had just taken a look at what PID’s were and how to auto tune them. By Thursday we had throw together some slides to present our project to the rest of OSHE, by then we had figured out there there were two good ways of doing the autotune those being the Ziegler-Nicholas and Tyreus Luyben methods.

On Friday we met with Daniel to do a water run of the bio reactor where we got to observe how all the moving parts work. He also told us that they have designed a autotune using the Ziegler-Nicholas method and was sending us his work so we can implement it into code and possibly test if we are given tap access for the lab. My only concern moving into next week is figuring out the coding language for the system.

01/17/2025

This week we met with sponsors to see what they wanted us to try and complete over the semester. After that we designed our project specs around those requests.