WarmUp Boot

Team Members

Jackson Kleeman, Class of 2019, Systems Engineer

Daniel Reiff, Class of 2019, Systems Engineer

Allen Salama, Class of 2019, Systems Engineer

Nathan Schmetter, TA

Overview

No matter how thick the socks and no matter how many foot warmers you stuff into your ski boot, there are some days when the conditions are just too brittle for comfort. We aim to solve this by developing a ski boot heater in which a rechargeable battery pack fitted to the boot powers up two heating pads, one on the top of the foot and the other on the toes, meshed within the boot. And to ensure customization and to combat overheating, there will be a temperature gauge the user may interact with to adjust the temperature to his/her liking. This interface will also be fixed to the boot, and have thickness so that it may double as an encasing for the Arduino and circuits. Each heating pad will be linked to a button, with a green LED on top of it to indicate whether it is on or off, and an accompanying dial under each button to allow for the user to manually adjust the warmth of each pad. A row of 4-6 LED's will be located at the top of the interface to illustrate how hot each pad is.

Objectives

To create an efficient closed loop circuit between the battery pack and heat pad that does not lose power^[1]
To prevent the boot from overheating
To ensure that the panel boot warming system should be waterproof and unaffected by the elements
To create an efficient and elegant user interface that will allow for the wearer to control the temperature of each heating pad.

Challenges

Learning how to use Arduino in creating a user interface for temperature control
Ensuring the general safety of our design, by eliminating exposed wires and ensuring a limited amount of current is supplied to the heat pads so that they do not overheat
Encasing all exposed electrical components to not only make the product look more polished, but more importantly, to ensure the system is waterproof
Learning how to 3-D print to create encasings for the interface and any exposed electrical components
Creating an effective, closed circuit
Ensuring there is enough voltage in our battery pack to power the heating pad, without compromising comfort of functionality of the ski boot
Further down the road, we would like to see if we can add a solar panel component to our system as an additional means of charging the battery. Figuring out how to attach the solar panel onto the ski in a way that is both strong yet matches the ski’s flexibility