Since my last blog in October, my group and I have chosen to make piezoelectric shoes using an insole that you can slip into your shoe. These insoles convert kinetic energy into electrical energy allowing you to charge a portable charger while walking. We have been able to make a lot of progress so far and we would like to thank Mr. Hunt for 3D printing our insoles with holes for the piezoelectric crystals. We also were able to solder the piezoelectric crystals in parallel and connect them to diodes. The diodes allow us to change the current from AC to DC in order to charge the battery pack. Although we have come a long way, we have faced some challenges. One of the first challenges was a lack of knowledge of the equipment we were using. This included not knowing that we needed to get a “voltage” reading of the multimeter instead of a “milliamp” reading. We also needed to learn how to solder properly which we were quickly able to figure out and get pretty good at.
We are very close to finishing putting us on target to be ready and present on April 9th at the showcase. However, there are a couple more steps that we need to take in order to be finished. That includes first testing with different materials in order to allow us to maximize the voltage that we produce. Then we also need to connect the battery pack onto it and finish our final test in order to show our project working. Lastly, we need to create a good-looking presentable final product for the showcase in early April. I am very happy with the way that our project is coming along right now and we can’t wait to show everyone our final product at the showcase.