Fire-Powered Phone Charger
Overview
This project integrates peltier modules to convert heat generated from a camp fire into electrical energy for charging devices.
Challenges & Solutions
This project was built for a university course which prompted us to build a product that harvested wasted energy. We decided to design a device that harvesed heat from a camp fire to charge devices while camping. This meant we had to balance performance with industrial design considerations, as it would be a consumer product. In order for the peltier modules to work as efficiently as possible, we used a pin style heat sink to keep the back side as cool as possible to create as big of a temperature gradient as possible. This also met the aesthetic requirements from our industrial designer.
Technical Details
I designed an electrical charging system that used an ATTiny 85 microcontroller to monitor the voltage of the system to notify the user when the device was at a high enough energy output to charge a phone and energize the USB port. This microcontroller also monitored the temperature of the device to notify the user if the device was overheating.