Final Product Design

“Be stubborn on vision but flexible on details.”
– Jeff Bezos, Amazon

The VOSCUU Novus group only gets more interesting by the day! After a successful brainstorming to decide on the features of the product - A Pet LED Reflective Collar with GPS and Hidden Camera, within the past week, the company focused on the more detailed aspects of product development. The two main aspects were the electrical circuit design and the physical product design. These two aspects of the project are very vital as they determine the pricing of the final product, the possible profit margin, the procurement of raw materials, and many other key aspects.

Physical Product (Material) Design

The physical product design process was led by Chinonye, the company's Technical Marketing Design Specialist who was successful in drawing up a sketch that suits the aesthetic and functional needs of the customers. In carrying out this design, he was also very particular about ensuring that the product was comfortable for the necks of the pets while paying attention to the need for securing the product to prevent theft. The sketch is, however, yet to be modeled using CAD software. The challenge was getting suitable CAD software. However, this stage of design would be completed within the coming week for proper documentation.

Electrical Circuit Design

Figure 1: The Schematic Diagram

The electrical circuit design is the second highly critical aspect of the product design phase. This design determines the functionality, efficiency, and durability of the product. The electrical circuit design was led by Shadrach, the Technical Design Team Lead. The schematic design was done using an online design software called EasyEDA V5.3.14. The software has the capability of designing and simulating various electronic circuits. It is a very effective software, having over 1 million real-time updated components with links to actual products for easy purchasing.

The circuit made use of the following components;

555 timer
Resistors
Capacitors
LED Array
Single pole 4 throw switch
Single pole single throw switch
Photo NPN transistor
5V Voltage Source
GPS Module
Camera Module

As seen in the schematic diagram above, the circuit is designed such that the GPS Module is permanently connected to the battery to ensure that it is constantly transmitting to identify the position of the pet.

The switch U4, when closed, supplies power to the camera and the rest of the circuit. After current flows through U4, it may go through the phototransistor which would only permit the flow of current between the emitter and collector if there is no light incident on it. This enables the product to work in automatic mode, turning the LEDs on when there is no light and turning them off during the day or when there is light in the environment.

If U3 is closed, it serves as a by-pass for current, thereby overriding the function of the phototransistor and causing it to power on regardless of if there is light. U2 is a single-pole 4 throw switch that makes an owner able to manually control the frequency of the blinking of the LEDs. The switch, when closed to position 5, totally turns off the LEDs.

Figure 2: Internal circuit of a 555 timer.

The basic 555 timer gets its name from the fact that there are three internally connected 5kΩ resistors that it uses to generate the two comparators' reference voltages. The 555 timer IC is a very cheap, popular, and useful precision timing device that can act as either a simple timer to generate single pulses or long time delays or as a relaxation oscillator producing a string of stabilized waveforms of varying duty cycles from 50 to 100%. The 555 timer component is used in this project to control the blinking operation of the LEDs.

The entire circuit is powered by a 5v 3000mAh Lithium-ion battery which is light, durable, and able to power the system for at least 3 days.

The datasheets of all the components can be found here for further understanding of the technical and physical specifications of each.

The design was also not without its own challenges as the simulator had issues with some user input components that were selected for the circuit. However, there was a need to do some further research on components outside the software to ensure functionality.

Market Research

The market research was started in order to understand the likely demand for the product, an acceptable price range for it, and other behaviors of pet owners. This aspect is led by Ojukwu, the company's sales, and marketing manager. The questions asked include what pets people love and how often they are with the pet all day for those who have one or more. The form was designed using Google Forms and can be found here.

Figure 3: People's love for pets

The survey is currently being carried out and we would have an outcome in a few weeks' time.

Following the progress highlighted above, the team would be starting off with report writing. As discussed during the team meeting on the 6th of April, 2022, the report would be structured and each subheading would be shared with respective team members and later collated and vetted to have detailed and concise documentation of the project.

The following would be the focus of the team for the coming week;