Formulate a final project proposal
One final project I would like to do is a device that can monitor the headspace of a wine tank and control the addition of purge gas (compressed Nitrogen, food grade) if necessary. Another related final project, I would like to try is a rugged chassis for embedded computers such as a Raspberry Pi, Arduino, XBee, or ESP8266 microcontroller. Specifications would be weathertight, possibly mount as a riser box to an existing PVC eletrical pull box. Perhaps you can screw it into the vent port of a wine tank and monitor pressure. It will have metal knobby terminals so you can attach wires from a lead acid battery or other low voltage source for applications which require a long run time. It will have IEEE 802.11n (WiFi) radio capability, and in the future, IEEE 802.15 (XBee). The waterproof cover will hold the application specific sensor, input or output device, such as camera, moisture sensor, gas sensor, thermocouple junction, etc... The chassis should allow for one and possibly two dry contacts.
This device is an example of a classic BANG-BANG controller. Bang - the gas is turned on. BANG - the gas is turned off. Another more formal term for this type of controller is a hysteresis controller. Controls are very interesting, and they are very common in many of the Fabacademy projects, as well as the equipment in our Fablabs. A nice resource regarding different controllers can be found here: http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.141/spring2011/pub/lectures/Lec03-MotorControl.pdf. The fun part is finding useful and purposeful applications for these type of controls for real world problems. The applications are endless.
File: electrical-outlet-box.stl.zip)
(File: project-rendering.stl.zip)