Programming a Microcontroller to Drive a Fisher & Paykel SmartDrive™ Washing Machine Motor to Power a Go-Kart.

Microcontrollers are one of the basic building blocks of the “Internet of Things”. In this paper, I describe the tools and processes needed to program a STM32F302R8 microcontroller to drive a Fisher & Paykel SmartDrive™ brushless direct current motor. The motor is used to power a go-kart. The STM32F302R8 is an ARM® Cortex®-M4 microcontroller, programmed with the “C” programming language. The F&P SmartDrive™ motor is a brushless direct current motor, which relies on a microcontroller unit to provide commutation for the coils

Assisted Living: Domestic Power Monitoring utilising Home Automation Products and Cloud Storage

This paper describes the development of a system for taking measurements of electrical power consumption in a domestic situation and using a web service to store the measurements in a cloud hosted database. This is part of a larger project to evaluate the potential for using power monitoring as a proxy for wellness as part of the assisted living projects at Wintec

A minimally intrusive monitoring system that utilizes electricity consumption as a proxy for wellbeing

The purpose of this work was to test the hypothesis: `Off-the-shelf domestic electricity meters can be utilised to assist in monitoring the wellbeing of elderly people` Many studies have shown that it is, in theory, possible to use domestic electricity consumption to determine `activities of daily living` but the availability of systems for actual use is very limited. This work followed the Design Science Research Methodology to create a Java application running on the Google App Engine cloud service that interfaced with both electricity meters and voice and text services. The system was implemented and tested over a three month period with one older person and their carer. Results demonstrated that the technology readily succeeds in meeting the study`s initial objectives. The need for more sophisticated decision logic was apparent and a method to determine whether a home is currently occupied is likely to improve the ability to create more timely alerts

Off-the-shelf Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring Devices Utilised in a Low Activity Detection Service

There is a growing awareness for the need to provide low cost solutions for the care of the elderly and in particular to allow them to keep living independent lives. In parallel to this there has also been significant advances in a number of technical areas including 1) monitoring electricity consumption for the purpose of reducing power costs, 2) non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM), 3) using sensors to determine activities of daily living and 4) cloud computing. The purpose of this work was to demonstrate that it is possible to use a readily available consumer off the shelf electricity monitor to provide a low intrusive activity monitor for older persons. This work uses the Design Science Research Methodology and builds on the results of our previous work that used raw electricity usage data. In this work we are trailing the use of a meter that uses NILM to identify individual appliances in the home. The information on appliance use was analysed by a cloud base program and alerts were sent to the carer when lower than expected activity was detected. Participants both in this work and those reported in the literature have mentioned the annoyance of having multiple sensors in a home, especially if they emit either constant or flashing light. In contrast NILM allows the use of multiple electrical appliances to be monitored without the need for a large number of sensors to be deployed – just one sensor at the meter or fuse board. The confluence of a number of technologies has enabled the creation of a low intrusive and low cost monitoring system to have become a reality. The initial trial of the system has been shown to be a mostly reliable alternative to a system built on multiple sensors. Based on previous work that involved the deployment of multiple sensors, the new system is expected to be more acceptable as it has the desired attribute of becoming invisible to the user

Low-cost rapid authoring tool for Moodle quizzes

ABSTRACT This paper describes the motivation and development of a desktop application developed by the authors called Question Machine (QM). It rapidly creates electronic quizzes that can be imported into Moodle. It is being evaluated by students doing a userinterface design course

Industry certification courses: Embedding Microsoft’s MOC 2274

Embedding industry certification courses into tertiary programmes is well established in many tertiary institutes, both here in New Zealand and overseas. This poster documents the Wintec School of IT recent initiative to offer the Microsoft 2274 MOC [Microsoft Official Curriculum]; Managing a Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003/2008 Environment

Low-cost rapid authoring tool for Moodle quizzes

This paper describes the motivation and development of a desktop application developed by the authors called Question Machine (QM). It rapidly creates electronic quizzes that can be imported into Moodle. It is being evaluated by students doing a user-interface design course

Question machine: A tool for creating online assessments in the blended learning and Moodle environment

Question Machine is a software program designed and written by Andy Fendall, a staff member in the School of Information Technology at Wintec. The program has been well received across the world with hundreds of copies installed each month and the program being available in fourteen languages. Question Machine provides a user friendly Windows interface for creating a variety of quiz questions. Multi choice, true false, gap-fill/cloze, short answer and numerical are the formats available for generating questions. Sophisticated and challenging questions can be generated using screen captures from existing digital material. Once a test is generated it can then be imported simply into a Moodle site. Question machine supports the blended learning environment that allows students to engage with their learning at a place and time of their choice. A particular feature of Question Machine is the ability to provide student feedback where questions are incorrectly answered. The workshop provides an opportunity to meet the author and to hear the presenters reflect on their experience of using quizzes in a blended learning environment; to hear stories of increased student engagement and how technology can reduce work load through self marking

Matariki Interactive Waka Project Event 20th July 2017

This event presented the waka prototype to invited guests and the general public for the first time. It provided an opportunity to learn more about the people behind the project, view preliminary plans and drawings, and to learn about the creative journey to date. A partnership project with Wintec's Māori achievement, this event was held in the social space of the Engineering building at Wintec's Rotokauri campus. Students and staff from across Engineering, Trades, Early Childhood Education, Media Arts and the Centre for Business Information Technology and Enterprise who have been involved, were given an opportunity to show their work. The interactive waka sculpture is set to grace Hamilton’s Ferrybank Reserve on the Waikato River for the 2018 Matariki celebrations led by Wintec and key partners Hamilton City Council and Longveld Limited. The steel structure will reach nearly seven metres in height, and along with motion sensors and surround sound will depict key elements of Matariki for visitors to interact with