Project 2: Portable Desk Lamp 

Inspired by the IEEE Real World Engineering Project:  

“Solid State Lighting for the Developing World”  

Introduction and Motivation 

“About two billion people in the world’s under-developed nations do not have access to modern
forms of energy [1]. Hand-in-hand with this is the lack of access to modern forms of lighting, forcing
these people to resort to technologies, such as kerosene wick lamps and candles. These devices
are relatively expensive, inefficient, and the gases they produce (such as Carbon Monoxide and
Sulphur Dioxide) are dangerous. While taken for granted in the world’s developed nations, the lack
of safe and reliable sources of light after dark has a profound negative effect on the
socio-economic condition of people in under-developed nations. Without adequate lighting,
education and economic development programs suffer: it is difficult to improve literacy when there
is insufficient light to read a book or a blackboard. Recently, non-governmental organizations have
suggested that solid-state devices, in conjunction with small-scale energy sources, could be used
as an alternative to devices such as kerosene wick lamps or candles [2]. The technical challenge is
to develop an inexpensive, reliable, clean and safe source of light for those who currently do not
possess it.” [3]

Project Brief 
Your task in this project is to design and create a portable LED desk lamp. As minimum
requirements (for a Pass level mark), the desk lamp must:
● be freestanding
● have sufficient light output for reading/writing tasks without causing eye strain
● be able to operate without being connected to an external power supply
● not exceed specified current draw whilst in operation

For a higher (Distinction/High Distinction) mark, the desk lamp should:

● be able to be recharged via 5V DC microUSB input.
● incorporate adjustable brightness to optimise energy consumption
● incorporate a “sleep” mode functionality to turn LEDs off after a delay if inadvertently left on
● incorporate a “flashing” mode functionality to attract attention in emergency situations
● be built to a robust standard

Assessment 
The project will be assessed via:
● demonstration of a working lighting array at the beginning of Week 10 practical class (1%)
● a written “feasibility report” on LED array configurations due at the end of Week 10 (5%)
● demonstration of your lamp during your Week 12 practical class (9%)

Details of the demonstrations and required report content can be found through the rest of this
document. Please carefully examine the provided rubrics for exact assessment and specification
details.

[1] The World Bank, “Rural Energy and Development for Two Billion People,” 2004.
[2] Peon et al, “Solid state lighting for the developing world: the only solution,” Proc. of the SPIE, Volume 5941, pp. 109-123, 2005.
[3] L. Wyard-Scott and J. Smith, (2014, Jan 1) “Solid State Lighting for the Developing World,” [Online]. Available:
http://www.realworldengineering.org/index.php?page=project&project=90
Demonstration Assessment Rubric 
Week 10 Must demonstrate a Lighting array gives 250 Aim for max 300mA
milestone working light array​ at lux difference from 5V drawn from DC supply
the beginning ​of DC power supply at during demonstration
Week 10 practice class 20cm distance from light
(0.5 marks) meter throughout
15x15cm square
(0.5 marks)

Chassis & Must be freestanding Chassis is robust and Entire project is soldered
Construction with a minimum height presentable to the judges on veroboard(s) ​(1 mark)
Quality of 20cm from LEDs to
table surface The base of the lamp Lamp requires multiple
does not overlap the assessments due to lack
Function as a reading 15x15cm square of robustness on
lamp ​(0.5 marks) (0.5 marks) demonstration day
(up to -0.5 marks)

Lighting Functional light, turned Minimum measured Minimum measured

Efficiency on using a switch or intensity of 250 lux at all intensity of 250 lux at all
jumper corners of 15x15cm corners of 15x15cm
(1 mark) square and uniform light square and uniform light
coverage within square coverage within square

Maximum current drawn Maximum current drawn

at the boost converter of at the boost converter of
300mA average ​(1 mark) 170mA average ​(1 mark)

Advanced Variable light intensity Functional battery

functionality settings using a switch, charging circuit,
jumpers or measured charge flowing
potentiometer into the batteries

(Running down Charging current to be

batteries doesn’t within 550mA to 900mA
count!) ​(0.5 mark) (1 mark)

Super Delayed-switch off Convert light to a Lower flashing duty

advanced (“sleep”) functionality flashing mode activated cycle is better (saves
functionality activated using a using a switch, or adding energy)
switch, or adding a a jumper connection, for
jumper connection attracting attention in
emergency situations
Light should turn off
~10-15 sec after the Flashing frequency to be
switch is activated within 0.2 to 2 Hz
(1 mark) (0.5 marks)

General Q&A General ability of the

entire team to answer
questions
(1 mark)
Suggested architecture: 

Recommendations: 
● The electrical circuits ​do not necessarily have to be soldered together​, though your
lamp will be more robust if they are. Only attempt to transfer your breadboard designs to
veroboard if you are confident that your soldering skills are advanced enough to do so.
● Each subsystem should be created on a separate piece of veroboard and connected
together to form the entire electrical system. This will allow you to place components in
more convenient locations inside the lamp as well as to work on different systems
simultaneously. ​Note: When designing the LED array, if you do not account for the
loss in voltage from other components (e.g. transistors) outside of the array, and
allow for some margin of error, you will find the lights will be dimmer than you
expected when everything is connected together.
● Make sure conductive parts are prevented from touching each other when put into your
lamp. This may cause your lamp to have short circuits and stop working on demonstration
day! Insulating tape and insulating barriers are recommended.
● If you do not have a AAA battery charger, it is recommended that you purchase your own
cheap alkaline batteries to prototype test. Fully charged, rechargeable 1.2V AAA batteries
will be available for the week 12 demonstration.
● When you don’t have access to the DC power supply, you can test your charging circuit
using a 5V DC adapter (from your smartphones/tablets) and a micro-USB cable (not
supplied) along with the supplied micro-USB socket. Design your charging circuit is so it
doesn’t draw more current than your DC adapter is rated for, or you might damage it!
● There is a “Project 2 Guide” on Moodle. Please read it!

“Super advanced” functionality: 

● Only attempt these if you know what you’re doing.
● No help will be provided for these functions.
● Make sure you correctly use larger value electrolytic capacitors so they don’t explode.
● One tip: There are other modes that you can use on a 555 timer.
Feasibility Report on LED array configurations 
You are all graduate engineers and your team has been given the task of designing the LED array
for your company’s new product, the “Lamperino 2000​TM​". Your supervisor has asked you to
prepare a “Feasibility Report” that evaluates and then compares (using a table) the LED array
configurations shown below, in terms of the following criteria:

(a) feasibility (Will it work? What are the chances of it working?),

(b) power consumption of each of the LEDs and individual resistors (R​A​, R​B​, R​C​),
(c) cost (assume all resistors have the same cost - find some real costs, consider large and
small quantities of lamp production) and
(d) robustness (What happens if an LED or resistor breaks?)

You must first calculate and select appropriate values for R​A​, R​B​ and R​C​ that will turn on the LEDs.

Configuration A Configuration B

Configuration C

From the insights gained conducting these evaluations, you are then required to:

Design, evaluate (with regard to the four criteria above) and recommend an LED array
configuration that will provide a minimum of 250 lux at a distance of 20cm.

You may assume that:

● The source voltage available to power the LEDs is V​S​ = 4.8V.
● LED characteristics are similar to “White LEDs” found in the Datasheets folder of the
Projects section on Moodle. You should use the “Typical” value for the “Forward Voltage
(V​F​)” as the LED turn on voltage and the corresponding typical “Forward Current (I​F​)” as the
target operating current for the LEDs.
● Each LED gives approximately 45 added lux at distance of 20cm when turned on.
● Permitted values of resistors in your designs must come from the “​E12​” range of values.
● If current through an LED exceeds 25mA, the LED has a 50% chance of electrical failure.
● If power absorbed by a resistor exceeds 62.5 mW, the resistor has a 20% chance of failure.
● The “failure” of a component leads to it becoming an open circuit.  
Feasibility Report Template 
Word limit: 1500 words, excluding summary, ToC, references and appendix 

Executive Summary 
An executive summary is a brief summary to help the reader get a quick overview of the purpose of
the report. Be sure to check the resources provided on Moodle about writing Executive Summaries.
This page does not have a page number.

Table of Contents 
This should be automatically generated by your word processor. All sections including sub
sections, i.e. headers, are to be listed here together with page numbers. The Executive Summary
is not to be included in the Table of Contents. Be sure to number all your sections and sub-sections
as per the report writing tutorial.

Background/Introduction 
Describe the purpose of this report in the context of the described scenario (a feasibility report). Be
sure to check the resources provided on Moodle about writing Introductions.

LED array configuration evaluation 

Subsection on evaluation of given configurations
Show how you calculated and selected the necessary values for R​A​, R​B​ and R​C​.
Evaluate, with calculations, the given LED array configurations
Use sub sections for different configurations.
Summarise the results of your evaluations in a table comparing the three configurations
with regard to the four criteria listed in the project brief.
Subsection on your own proposed design
Select the number of LEDs required to design your own array that meets lux requirement
Evaluate your design with regard to the criteria in the previous subsection

You are expected to have correctly labelled and captioned circuit diagrams of your designs to show
your work. Circuit diagrams should not be hand drawn, and all elements should be labelled.

Conclusion 
Write your conclusions here. What is your recommendation for the LED array design and why? Be
sure to check the resources provided on Moodle about writing Conclusions.

References 
Each reference in the report are to be listed here. References could include books, web pages and
data sheets. See these links for IEEE referencing:
http://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf​ and
https://ieee-dataport.org/sites/default/files/analysis/27/IEEE%20Citation%20Guidelines.pdf

Appendix (if required) 

Put information that does not need to be in the main body for some reason. It could be information
that is not essential to explain your work but still supports it, lengthy and repetitive information and
programming code. Each appendix has to be referred to in the text. The order (Appendix A,
Appendix B, etc) they are presented in is dictated by the order they are referred to in the text.
ENG1002 Marking Rubric for Project 2 report

Content Fail Pass Credit Distinction High Distinction

Executive No Summary, or provides Provides incomplete Includes most required Provides a clear overview of Gives a thorough overview
summary only the type of information overview of project; focus moves but weighting may project; appropriate weight of project with appropriate
(10 marks) in report with no actual may be on the type of be out of proportion; may to all content; mostly weight to all the required
content. information contained; may lack sufficient detail or appropriate level of detail, content; no extraneous
include significant include some extraneous no extraneous content. content.
unnecessary content. content.
Table of No Contents page provided. Provided but very sketchy Provided but contains a few Provided with only 1 or 2 Professional standard
contents and/or contains several key key faults. Untidy or minor faults. Neat layout Contents page provided
(5 marks) faults. Untidy layout. unclear layout. All sections numbered All sections numbered
Background Gives little idea of what the Topic, context, problem, Topic, context, problem & Topic, context, problem & Topic, context, problem &
(10 marks) report is about, poor &/or aim unclear due to aim explained but room for aim clearly understood & aim clearly explained with
understanding of problem weak understanding, poor deeper understanding and explained. Information evidence of deep
or aims. organisation of info, clearer organisation of organised logically and understanding of purpose.
omission or incoherence. information. expressed clearly. Info well organised &
expressed.
Design No calculations are shown Some calculations are Some calculations are Calculations for some Calculations for all
(30 marks) to justify design decisions. shown, but not all are shown, along with some configurations are shown, configurations are shown,
Incorrect application of correct or correctly applied. correct application of theory along with correct along with correct
theory Weak justification for design to provide justification for application of theory to application of theory to
No justification for design choices. design choices. provide justification for provide justification for
choices Circuit diagrams are neat. Circuit diagrams are neat. design choices. design choices.
No circuit diagrams. Circuit diagrams are neat Circuit diagrams are neat
and elements are clearly and elements are clearly
and uniquely labelled. and uniquely labelled
Insightful interpretations of
results of analyses.
Use of tables, Not or rarely used where Used inconsistently; lack Mostly used where Consistently used where Consistently used where
figures, and they would be expected; number & titles; not or appropriate; number & appropriate & referred to in appropriate; all referred to
appendices uncaptioned, not referred inconsistently referred to in titles inconsistent; mostly text usually by number; well in the text by number. Well
(App.) to in text; point of content is text. Data may be hard to referred to in text though designed & labelled, easy to designed & correctly
(10 marks) unclear. read due to design; lack of not always by number. read. App. labels match labelled, easy to read. App.
key or label/units on axes. Data mostly clear but some listing in Contents, may be labels match listing in
App. labels missing or don’t design errors. App. labels small errors. Contents.
match listing in Contents. mostly match listing in
Contents.
 Content Fail Pass Credit Distinction High Distinction
Conclusions Omitted or little idea of Unnecessary repetition of May be small recap of No unnecessary content; No unnecessary content;
(10 marks) results, limitations and background, aim or method; background, aims or results explained clearly results fully & clearly
recommendations. results unclear, no method; results and though with room for explained; high level of
limitations &/or limitations &/or development; limitations awareness of limitations;
recommendations. recommendations given but &/or recommendations highly appropriate and
minimal. given where appropriate. insightful recommendations
made.
Referencing Little or no attempt to cite Inconsistent information Most appropriate All appropriate information All appropriate information
(5 marks) or reference information. acknowledgement; information cited; follows correctly cited and correctly cited and
inconsistent format of an established referencing referenced in an established referenced in an established
reference list; does not style but may be some referencing style. A few referencing style. No errors
follow an established errors in format of minor errors allowable. found.
referencing style. reference list entries.
Presentation Inappropriate &/or Type & size of fonts not Type & size of fonts not Type & size of fonts mainly Type & size of fonts easy to
(10 marks) inconsistent type &/or size appropriate &/or always appropriate or appropriate & consistently read & consistently used;
of fonts; layout creates inconsistent; layout creates consistently used; layout used; layout easy for reader, margins allow for
difficulty for reader; difficulties for reader; mostly clear but some areas margins allow for marker comments, without wasting
margins too wide or narrow; margins too wide or narrow; difficult for reader; margins comments; text rarely too space; layout & spacing easy
text too dense or sparse text too dense or sparse; may be too wide or narrow; dense or sparse; title page on the eye; text not too
title page lacks some title page lacks some text too dense or sparse at contains all required dense or sparse; title page
required content. No required content. Some times; title page may lack content. Report looks contains all required info.
attempt at editing to create attempt at editing to create some required content. cohesive, may be a few Report looks cohesive with
cohesive presentation. cohesive presentation but Report edited for cohesion, small inconsistencies. only minor inconsistencies if
many inconsistencies. some inconsistencies any.
remain.
Writing style Very difficult to understand Difficult to understand at Meaning mostly clear Meaning clear & mostly Meaning expressed
(10 marks) due to incoherent or times due to disorganised or despite some disorganised expressed concisely; passive concisely & precisely;
convoluted sentences; convoluted sentences; or convoluted sentences; voice and impersonal passive voice and
many contractions and noticeable use of minor use of contractions sentence structures used to impersonal sentence
informal vocabulary & contractions and informal and informal vocabulary & avoid “I” or “we”; focus is structures used to avoid “I”
expressions; no or minimal vocabulary & expressions; expressions; passive voice on the work rather than or “we”; focus is on the
avoidance of ‘we’; strong inconsistent avoidance of and impersonal sentence personal input; no work rather than personal
focus on personal input. ‘we’; some focus on structures mostly used to contractions or informal input; no contractions;
personal input. avoid ‘we’; may be minor vocabulary & expressions. A formal vocabulary &
reference to personal input. few minor lapses. expressions used
throughout.

Executive Summary (10 marks) Contents (5 marks)
Topic & aim Clear neat layout &
presentation
Method (brief) Numbered sections & sub-
sections
Results Page numbering : ii, iii etc pre
Introduction then Arabic 1,2 etc
Limitations and/or Section & sub-section headings
recommendations are informative and match
content
No unnecessary content Appendices have number &
title
Conclusions (10 marks) Writing style (10 marks)
Recaps key results or design Clear and concise
features
Notes limitations & Impersonal language
recommendations
Follows on from Discussion, Formal vocabulary and
doesn’t repeat background or expressions (Eg: ‘design’ rather
detailed method than ‘come up with’)
Content matches project Aims Focus on the work, not our
effort
Correct spelling
Design & Evaluation (30 marks)
Correct lookup of typical VF and IF from data sheets
Logical analysis of configuration A, with appropriate resistor values chosen.
Logical analysis of configuration B, with appropriate resistor values chosen.
Figures, tables, appendices
Background (10 marks)
(10 marks)
Introduces topic in context Numbered in sequence with titles
Explains problem to be Captions accurate & descriptive
addressed
States aim and scope (where Captions in correct position (above tables,
needed) below figures)
Motivation & report purpose Columns, rows & axes labelled, axes
should be clear but need not be appropriate scale; units & keys given, data
explicitly stated. points & trend lines clear
Structure outline (not essential) Referred to by number at appropriate point
in text
Appendix numbers & titles match listing in
Presentation (10 marks)
Contents page
Font style & size appropriate & All appropriate content in Appendices
consistently used
Margins, layout & spacing easy
Referencing (5 marks)
on the eye, room for comments
Text not too dense or sparse Known referencing style used, preferably
IEEE
Title page has all required All appropriate content cited & referenced
details.
Overall impression All Reference list entries in correct format
Correct calculation of power consumption for configurations
Correct evaluation of robustness and discussion
Correct evaluation of cost trade-offs

Logical analysis of configuration C, with appropriate resistor values chosen. Logical and convincing evaluation and justification of own design.

Circuit diagrams are neat and elements are clearly and uniquely labelled