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Adapt

Modular battery packs that leverage wireless charging technology

Role

Project Lead

Timeframe

January-May 2019

Skills

Leadership

Scoping

User Testing

Mechanical Design

Electrical Design

3D printing

Adapt was my first exposure to leading and managing a team of engineers and in many ways opened my eyes to engineering leadership. After moving through an interview process, I chose Adapt Devices as my client. The team of 2 second year entrepreneurship students had the product idea to create modular battery packs that magnetically attached to a phone case. The battery packs would use wireless charging to then charge the phone and provide a power boost during the day. Additionally since the packs were modular, they could be hot-swapped to provide power at a moments notice without ever needing to plug in the phone. The mounting platform could also be used for other accessories such as wallets or car dashboard mounts.

The product was still in its early phases with only a roughly designed 3D printed prototype at first. This gave the team the opportunity to dive into the industrial design of the product and perform user testing on the attachment system and experience. Since the product was still in its early stages I was also able to communicate the technical limitations and tradeoffs of the device from my team’s research to the client to set their expectations and better define their product. By the end of the semester we were able to hand off an early integrated functional and experiential prototype. There was room for iteration but the system architecture and overall design philosophy of the product was laid out.

This first exposure to a sort of product management role put me on to a new path. While I liked getting immersed in the technical details of the project, I really liked being able to step back from those details, think about the product as a whole, and consider key questions like who was using this product, what problem did it address for them, and based on those answers, what were the key priorities for product features.

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Product

  • The client teamed up with Generate to design a modular phone case that used magnets to hold various attachments to the back of the phone, namely an external battery

  • The client also wanted the battery packs themselves to be stackable and charge each other

  • Client presented us with a preliminary proof of concept prototype with off-the-shelf electronics and a non-functional design.

  • By the end of the semester we were responsible for creating a Rev1 integrated prototype of the case that would have a proven industrial design and working, intelligent electronics.

  • My role in the project was as the project lead. I was responsible for scoping the project, creating and executing a project plan, and interfacing with the client as well as support in technical work wherever necessary.

Design Path

  • On the mechanical side the project started with brainstorming and creating a variety of industrial design concepts to user test

  • We created a user testing survey and tested them with a variety of user bases around campus. We then used the survey data to pair down to a verified effective design.

  • From there we began converting that into an enclosure for the electronics with special considerations for the mating geometry between the case and the battery pack

  • Meanwhile we began designing and scoping a PCB that would manage the power transfer between other battery packs and the phone as well as sourcing a battery

  • The last month of the project was devoted to integration between the subsystems, refining the designs, and testing the prototypes

Challenges

  • The client initially wanted the stacked battery packs to charge each other wirelessly but that was clearly electrically infeasible. Instead we had to pivot to using pogo pins and receptacles which posed a significant challenge to the electrical integration into the mechanical system

  • Ensuring the magnets were strong enough to hold up under the load of the battery’s also posed a challenge.

  • Condensing a lot of other circuitry into a board small enough to fit in the allotted space posed a significant challenge.