Snow Sensors for Automatic Heated Driveway

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Snow Sensors for Automatic Heated Driveway

I. Introduction

1.1 Title: Snow Sensors for Automatic Heated Driveway

Motivation

The idea for this project first arose during the late winter months of 2002. A group member was at the home of a Princeton alumnus in his hometown of Waltham, MA attending an admissions interview. He had inadvertently, and presumptuously parked his car in the driveway of his interviewer after a snowstorm. The driveway was built sloping downwards from the main road and had a heated driveway system built underneath. After conducting the interview, he was about to leave the home of his interviewer when he encountered a most embarrassing situation in which he was not able to get his car out of the driveway and onto the street. The problem stemmed from a heated driveway that had been shut off prematurely. As a result, snow that had been heated on the driveway had fallen to the bottom and reformed as ice. Try as he might, he was not able to move his car out of the driveway, no matter how much his tires squealed outside the home of his interviewer. It took the help of a triple AAA tow truck and pull anchor to raise the car to street level.

The problem he faced, occurred in quite a unique situation, but the idea of a heated driveway with automatic sensors is a notion that would do more than save poor high school seniors from embarrassment. Millions of households across America and around the world located in climates where winter months bring harsh winters with accumulating precipitation in the form of snow are forced to begrudgingly shovel snow off of their driveways after a heavy snowfall, all in order to go about their daily lives. Imagine the convenience of a heated driveway tha...

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...CTG $0.28 3 $0.84 Yes

SPDT Slide Switch ECE Store MHS-123 $1.46 1 $1.46 Yes

PIC (16F877) Senior Design lab 16F877 $5.76 2 11.52 Yes

RF Transmitter Senior Design lab TXM 900-

HP3-PPS $30.33 2 $60.66 Yes

RF Receiver Senior Design lab RXM 900-

HP3-PPS $44.98 1 $44.98 Yes

Temperature Sensor (LM35) National Semiconductor LM35CAZ $3.02 2 $6.04 In Transit

Aluminum Heat Sink - $1.69 3 $5.07 No

1 Amp Circuit Breaker ECE Store - $2.96 1 $2.96 No

Printed Circuit Board ECE store - ~$13.00 2 $26.00 No

Electro-mechanical Switch ECE store - $2.82 2 $5.64 No

RG-174 50W coax cable ECE Store - $.24/ft 1 ft $0.24 No

Total $174.63 9/15

Labor: $30/hrs *2.5 * 300 = $22,500

Total cost = $22,674.63

Works Cited

(1) http://www.hep.upenn.edu/SNO/daq/parts/lm35dm.pdf

(2) http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/1N%2F1N6266.pdf

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