Re: Complete Newbie with some simple questions.

From: CFoley1064 (cfoley1064_at_aol.com)
Date: 12/06/04 

Date: 06 Dec 2004 05:35:15 GMT

>Subject: Complete Newbie with some simple questions.
>From: "Bishop" kwayne@new.rr.com
>Date: 12/5/2004 12:38 PM Central Standard Time
>Message-id: <HAIsd.85052$ye4.54325@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com>
>
>Hi all, I'm a complete newbie here. I'm a VB programmer and could use
>recommendations on what parts I need, suggestions on part makes and models.
>As with most things, I want to keep the price as low as possible.
>
>What I want to do it use a heart rate sensor and a magnetic sensor to record
>heart rate and revolutions when someone is riding an exercise bike. Below
>is a brief illustration:
>
>Hear Rate Sensor and Magnetic Sensor >>> Not sure what stuff I need here >>>
>digital IO board >>> Windows API for the Digital IO board.
>
>A couple other things that play into this:
>1. The Computer with the digital IO board may be a hundred feet or so from
>the bike. I'd like to use cat5 cabling to span the distance.
>2. Eventually I'd like to record data from multiple bikes at the same time
>on the same computer. This is not necessary for the first prototype but
>it's worth mentioning for the parts list.
>
>That's it. I'd appreciate any ideas, thoughts, suggestions!
>
>Thanks, -Ken

Hi, Ken. I'm assuming you want an ethernet connection between your PC and your
I/O board. I'm also assuming you have some facility in programming ethernet
with VB.

You're going to need some kind of dedicated controller on the I/O board end, if
for no other reason than to run the network connection. Also, given excercise
bike wheel speeds, you'll probably need a counter on the I/O board, especially
if you're thinking about more than one bike per controller.

Having said that, I think the best low cost way to do what you want is to embed
an ethernet-ready SBC at the I/O end, and learn the small amount of programming
necessary to get it to do what you want.

If I were in your shoes:

1) I'd look at a simple circuit to measure heartbeat

http://circuitos.tripod.cl/schem/r100.gif

which has an open collector output.

2) I'd use a magnet and a reed switch or hall effect switch for measuring
wheel revolutions

3) I would use one of the Rabbit boards with ethernet shown at

http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/

for the I/O. Look particularly at the RCM3200 development kit. It's got legs,
and is fast enough and has I/O enough for many bikes and heart monitors at one
time. It does program in a proprietary C, but is inexpensive to start with.
They're advertising a complete development kit including protoboard, all cables
and development software for one of these ethernet enabled boards for less than
$350 USD on their website.

4) As a newbie, I would get the Jan Axelson book "Embedded Ethernet and
Internet Complete: Designing and Programming Small Devices for Networking",
available from hobbyist sources or Axelson's Lakeview Research website. Get
this first. It costs $50 USD and is worth every penny. It uses the Rabbit for
project development, and has lots of code on the disk that you can just cut &
paste for the RCM3200 module.

Once you get your project down, each individual RCM3200 module is $79 USD. You
also might have the option of going with one of the less expensive Rabbit
modules for production. The RCM2200, which might do what you want, is only $55
USD each.

I know this isn't exactly what you wanted to hear, and might be a little more
than you originally thought you'd spend, but I think it's about the perfect mix
of low cost and ease of learning curve for a limited quantity of units for a
newbie, especially if you've ever done any C programming.

Good luck
Chris

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