James Allen

27/04/2011

Engineering Report Preliminary Course Module 1 Household Appliances Due: Wednesday week 1 term 2 2011

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Synopsis
This report aims to give a recommendation on which radio would be most useful and effective for the general home use. While both types of radios are fully capable of conducting their given task, they both vary on some of the vital points. When someone buys a radio what do they notice first, they are drawn to particular item depending on its aesthetics. Also if the item isnt visually appealing, why would they want it in their home? Thus it is very important when observing the functional ability of an appliance you must take into close consideration of all the design features which have been incorporated. The radio also needs to be able to conduct the given task. This for a radio should include being able to receive radio waves to produce a sound for the operator. Most radios are able to receive both FM and AM radio stations, as well as being able to operate on different radio frequencies. Sometimes radios are incorporated into a bigger unit, such as a stereo system. By doing this the designer gives the buyer a better deal creating it cheaper and a more useful item for them to buy. When someone buys a device of this nature, they also think about how long it is going to last. Wellknown brands are known to be more reliable, mainly because the buyer has owned a device of that brand before. These devices by these well-known brands can be sold at a higher price, this is a kind of premium for it being made by that brand, and Apple is a prime example. In this report I am going to give you a recommendation on which of the two radios would be the best buy, based on the appliances aesthetics, function ability, reliability and if there are other functions which the device can provide.

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Introduction
The invention of the radio is a very controversial issue which continues to be argued about to this day. But some facts are known. James Clerk Maxwell was the first to prove mathematically that radio waves could travel through free space. While many demonstrated radio waves in a lab, Nicola Tesla proposed that it could be used for telecommunication of information. It was in 1900 that the first transmission of a voice through a radio signal was conducted by Reginald Fessenden. Later in 1901 the employees of the Marconi Company successfully conducted the first transatlantics communications by radio. Because of this success the Marconi Company was awarded with the patient of the invention of the radio. This invention was now coming into a high demand. Ships were being fitted with the new apparatus; the titanic was fitted with one which allowed it to put out a distress signal saving many lives. Some news bulletins were also being transmitted, this influx in advances in this technology sparked great interest for some of the big investors. Around this time Marconi also developed a system of tuned circuits for radio transmission which used only one given frequency for the signal to be sent though. In 1933 Edwin Howard Armstrong developed frequency-modulated or FM radio. This allowed for the improved the audio signal of radio by controlling the static caused by electrical equipment and the earth's atmosphere. With this discovery came the development of the telephone through radio which allowed direct telephone communication to 187 foreign countries. Another major development was that of the transistor which allowed for sound amplification and eliminating the need for a vacuum tube. These also opened the way for modern electronics which contain thousands of these transistors. The development of the transistor allowed of the size of a radio to be reduced considerably, people could now fit a radio into their pocket and take it everywhere. This became the most popular electronic communication device in history, with billions manufactured during the 1960s and 1970s. These were soon incorporated into bigger system such as a cassette or later a CD player. With so many of these devices out on the market it has become quite hard for someone to choose the right system for them. It can also be quite daunting trying to decide out of hundreds of devices which each aid slightly different uses. There have been quite a few developments in radios over the years and you want to be quite up to date. Even though the new digital radios have come out and are the logical choice I have been informed that the system to run them is yet to get up and running in the southern highland, creating them not to be a logical choice at this time. In this report two different types of radio systems are going to be compared; the outcome will be based on aesthetics, reliability, how well it works and if it has any other functions. There will be a series of tests and 3|Page

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observations carried out to draw to this conclusion; these will be out lined in more detail later in the report.

Methodology
This experiment shall contain mostly observation but these will be backed up with research. However when testing the working of each device a simple experiment from which a conclusion will be drawn. Once all the aspects of the results have been collected the radio with the most in its favour will become the radio of choice. When it comes to the aesthetics of a device such as a radio there are two main types of looks that the designer goes for; a modern stylish or old fashioned. Between these two categories are where most radios fall, but of course there are some which chose to be different. With the ones that were chosen for the experiment one falls in the old fashioned while the other is closer to the modern style. This aspect is only an observation but will help in the whole picture when we are recommending and the more suited radio. For the materials used in each device, there are the main ones which make up the shell of the radio but then there are the different parts of the working. These are made up of circuit boards and amplifiers, there are also batteries in one of the radios these all become design factors when considering how reliable the device is. Quite a bit of these are not commonly known products and research of what these types of parts must be done. For the circuit boards a website was found which described in general terms what these are made of. But for the purposes of this report the exact names of these materials isnt needed. The results section will include a list of the materials which I could observe and gain from research, as well as a short description on whether these would be an ideal choice of such a device. To assess how well each of the radios performed its task, the number of radio stations which the radio could receive clearly was counted. This was done by going through the frequencies and recording how many could be clearly heard and understood. It is not the most effective way of determining the best radio but it makes a clear difference between the radios. Of course these results would differ depending on the location of each radio; they were both placed in the same spot for the duration of the time the testing took place. Another aspect which could be added to this experiment if there was no clear winner, because one runs on batteries they could both be turned on to see the power usage. For the radio which uses mains a power a power usage meter would be need to record how much the device uses. Bu then there would also be needed to prove how much the radio part of the appliance uses because it performs does multiple tasks, thus complicating the matter considerably. Both of these radios are from around the same electronic era thus meaning that they both contain the same technological systems as each other. This may be confused because of the digital display but that has nothing to do with the working of the radio system, as this has been closely examined. 4|Page

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Results
The result is going to be in quite a few sections because of the amount of some of them, the materials will make up quite a bit. If this section doesnt make sense, refer to the conclusion and appendix for clarity. Most of these results are observations as resources were a limiting factor which some of these results could have been more exact if the correct apparatus had been obtained.

Sound Quality
Appliance Vintage radio Clock radio FM frequencies 11 stations 32 AM frequencies 5 stations 23

Aesthetics
classes Colour Vintage style radio -Light Blue -silver -Blockish with curved corners -Grill at the front like old style of radio -centre dominated by tuning knob -its got a cheap feeling about it Clock radio -White -Silver -green (Led display) -Curved with all the buttons and knobs incorporated into the curve -Led display at front -Speakers at side

Visual appearance

These are all observations

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Materials
As you can see in the pictures shown in the methodology they are both predominantly made of plastic. These materials arent a contributing factor in the operation of the device because most of working is on the circuit board. All the materials chosen for the workings of this design have been tested for their efficiency and cost. There are other more advanced designs but these are more costly and dont provide a great gain in performance. As the materials in some appliances contribute to the safety of the device, these radios dont contain any such dangers thus eliminating the need for safety parameters needing to be incorporated into the design.

Other features
The clock radio has in its design multiple features, to gain the highest possible efficiency. These include: CD player Dual alarm clock Led display

The vintage style radio has no such other features to offer.

Conclusion
After the assessment of these two fully capable radios a conclusion has been decided. After close analysis of the aesthetics, reliability, how well it works and other functions, that the clock radio came out as the clear leader in all these areas. It was quite surprising that the vintage style radio didnt even stand out in any areas.

Recommendation
As stated in the conclusion the clock radio was vastly superior over the other vintage style radio, thus making it the logical choice and the one of the two which is recommended.

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_radio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_radio http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Museum/Engineering/Electronics/history/radiohistory.htm http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/radio_2.htm

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