Arduino code to control ventilator. Designed and engineered by Fi-Ventilator team.

Fi-Ventilator-Project

This project was in response to the Code Life Ventilator Challenge by Agorize. The project opened on March 18th, 2020 and closed on March 31st, 2020. The goal was to design a low-cost, simple, easy-to-use and easy-to-build ventilator that can serve the COVID patients, in an emergency timeframe.

Our team, Fi@UCSD Ventilator Team, consisted of a team of 11 members: Evan Kay, Micheal Arellano, Imran Matin, Clemente Guasch, Clara Romero, Kody Harris, Dayan Khandawa, Marcin Kierebinski, Luca Scotzniovsky, Shan Hannadige, and Kalpa Semashinghe. Our team was split into three subteams: Ventilator, Sensors and Flow Components, and Controls. The final cost of our standalone ventilator was $170.67.

Controls Sub-Team

This repository was designed and implemented by the Controls Sub-Team consisting of Luca Sctozniovsky, Clemente Guasch, and Imran Matin. The main functionality of the controls system is to handle user and sensor input to specify how air is transmitted to the patient. It takes in user input from potentiometer knobs and displays those values onto the LCD displays. It also handles the motors for the bellow compression and decompression. It also handles the pressure sensors that read in the pressure in the bellow and expiratory pressure. It also handles the opening and closing of solenoid valves to allow for the passage of air to the user. It also has the capability to sound an alarm if critical situations for the patient occur. The electrical (wiring) and software components of the ventilator were handled by this team.

Here is a list of the electronical components that were necessary for this project:

• Arduino Microcontroller
• Arduino Breadboard
• Breadboard Jumper Wires (Male to Male)
• Breadboard Jumper Wires (Male to Female)
• Arduino compatible LCD Display
• Potentiometer Knobs
• MAP Pressure Sensors
• Alarm Buzzer
• DC Motors with Encoders
• Motor Controller with H-Bridge
• External power source (Battery Pack)
• Solenoid Valves

The main .ino file that contains the control code for the ventilator is not complete or tested.

Interesting Notes about what was learned in this project on the Controls Sub-Team:

• Analog values are from 0 to 1023
• Digital valus are from 0 to 255 (or HIGH and LOW)
• Arduino pins are defined as INPUT or OUTPUT in the code
• Functionality of DC Motors with and without Encoders and Motor Controllers
  • DC motors contain two channels and either can be HIGH or LOW
  • Depending on which channel is HIGH and which is LOW will determine if the motor spins clockwise or counter-clockwise
  • If both channels are LOW, then the motor is stopped. If both channels are HIGH, the wires may melt.
  • A motor encoder does not affect the motor at all. Its sole job is to provide information about the angular position of a rotating shaft.
    • In simple terms it is how far the motor has traveled in total in the +/- direction since inital position). That value can be +, 0, or -.
  • A DC Motor with an Encoder that travels only one direction will have this setup:
    • DC Motor VCC and GND are connected to the power supply
    • Encoder VCC and GND are connected to Arduino (5V)
    • Channel A and B are connected to 2 input pins on the Arduino
  • An H-Bridge is an electronic circuit that allows for the polarity of the Voltage applied to a load.
    • Put simply it either provides signals in these pairs: HIGH,LOW ; LOW,HIGH ; LOW,LOW to control the direction the motor is turning.
  • A Motor Controller can be used to control both speed and direction.
    • The speed of a DC motor can be controlled by varying its input voltage and usually done using PWM (Pulse Width Modulation)
    • The direction of a DC motor can be controlled by an H-Bridge changing the polarity of the voltage applied.
  • A DC Motor with an Encoder and Motor Controller will have this setup:
    • A VCC1 that is 5V
    • A VCC2 that is usually 5V-35V (can vary) to power the motors
    • GND
    • Two output pins that are connected to the +/- terminals of the DC Motor
    • Two input pins that are connected to Arduino pins so Arduino can change which is +/-. These control the switches inside the H-bridge.
    • PWM or Enable pin is an input pin connected to an Arduino pin so the Arduino can change the motor speed to a variable speed by controlling the voltage applied to the DC Motor.
    • The Encoder setup is not affected by adding the Motor Controller, so the same setup is used.
  • Tracking distance traveled using Arduino Encoder Library
    • Create an Encoder object that takes the two Arduino pins that are connecetd to the motor encoder channelA and channelB.
    • This library tracks how much distance is traveled by the motor in total (+ or -). That value can be read or reset.
    • Attach interrupts to the pins that you are using for the motor encoder for best performance. (On Arduino Uno it is pins 2, 3)
  • Arduino is not able to do multi-threading hence, you cannot check if a condition is satisfied for the whole time the loop() function is execting.

Ventilator Assembly in Progress

System Block Diagram

Labeled Fi-Ventilator Circuit Diagram

Wired Fi-Ventilator Circuit Diagram