VGCC Students Combine Electronics and BBQ
This spring, the final exam for students in the Electronics Engineering Technology program at Vance-Granville Community College was a unique blend of modern technology and North Carolina tradition. Two classes combined to build a computer-controlled pig cooker, which they tested by hosting their own barbeque around the Gazebo on the college’s main campus to end the semester.
For the students, engineering the pig cooker was not only fun but also a chance to use many of the skills they learn in the EET curriculum, which prepares them to design, build, program, install, test, troubleshoot, repair, and modify electronic components, equipment and systems. The students set out to precisely control the level and distribution of the heat in the cooker, using one large main burner and separate booster burners in different areas of the cooker. To measure the temperature, they installed thermocouples in the cooker. These were wired to a programmable logic controller (PLC), which in turn controlled the valves for the booster burners. Students also set alarms to activate if the burners went out or if a grease fire occurred. Finally, they wanted the ability to automatically control the cooker’s temperature for different times during the day. Multiple power supplies and signal amplifiers had to be designed and built, control software and interface software had to be written for the PLC, and all the devices had to be wired and tested. Students were divided into six teams, each with different responsibilities for the project.
Tom Bowen, head of the EET program and lead instructor on the project, was pleasantly surprised by how well the design worked. “I’ve cooked a lot of pigs before, and was pretty sure I knew what to expect as far as holding the heat in the cooker and what normal temperature fluctuations we would see,” Bowen said. “But when they flipped the controls into automatic mode and those booster valves started clicking on and off to control the booster burners, it was a whole new ballgame. It’s not unusual to see 30 to 40-degree swings in temperature throughout the day, but you could walk around the cooker and look at the four thermometers and they’d all be within five degrees of their programmed set point. I had no idea the controls these students designed and built would work that well. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next semester!”
Students invited family and friends to come enjoy the fruits of their labor when they fired up the cooker on May 12. Students included Alvin Durham, Ernest Durham, Tyrone Henry and Teddie Hines, all of Henderson; Brandon Kearney and Blake Dickerson, both of Franklinton; Robert Hoffmann, Chris Mosny and Austin Norfleet, all of Kittrell; Damian Pettaway of Manson; Wyatt Currin and Daniel Repasky, both of Oxford; Micah Whitney of Stem and Brad Cooke of Stovall. All agreed that the project was a resounding success.
For more information on the EET program , contact Tom Bowen at (252) 738-3256.
Above, left: VGCC Electronics Engineering students put finishing touches on the hardware (left) and the software (right, in background) needed to make their computer-controlled pig cooker successful.
Above, right: Students (from left) Alvin Durham and Tyrone Henry, both of Henderson, work on their final exam, as the computer-controlled pig cooker was put to use on May 12.
