My Graduate Project--Real Time Truck And Filed Timing System With Automatic StopWatch

Haider

HI everyone

im Haider Ali Conputer Engineering Techniques Dept.
College Student Under Graduate Program
From IRAQ
i Have Final Year Graduate Progect
my Idea is Use Microcontroller Board To Make

((Real Time Truck And Filed Timing System With Automatic StopWatch System))

Because I Like 100m Sprint Very much that why i decide To make This Project

My Idea is to USE parallax Microcontroller (Basic Stamp or Propeller) What every

but fist Before Every thing
i want to explain my idea and how this system work

First We Have to Embedded System Device ( 2 Microcontroller Board)

1- In the Starting Stage Connected with MP3 Shiled (To Play The Puzzle Sound) And The MP3 Shiled Connected To Speack To (Output TheSound)
in This Board Also We Have Xbee WiFi wireless communication
To Send Signal To Another Board in End Stage

2- The Second another Board in End Stage Have Xbee Shiled to Recive Signal To Starting Timing
Wen The Sprinter pass the End Line Where will be
IR Sensor or Laser Sensor (anyone will work Better i'll Choice ti)
When The Sprinter Cut The Laser Line The Sensor send Signal To Second Microcontrolled Board To input Pin (Because There Will Be Wire Connection)
When The Second Microcontroller Board Receive the Signal Form Sensor
That Mean the Sprinter End the Race And The Timer Should Stop Calculate Timing

after Stop The Calculation of Timing The Second Board Show The Time on LCD Screen


What i need

How To Programming The Xbee Wifi Wireless with Parallax To Send And Receive Signal
is There A MP3 Player Shiled (With Very Fast Response Time) To Connected With Parallax Board To Play The Sound
How To Programming Clock Timing System
To Calculate Time in Msec
Like 9.88 Sc
And Programming it To Receive Signal To stop Calculation And Show The Final Time In LCD Screen

how To Program LCD Screen to do what or The LCD Screed Do not Need Programming (Microcontroller Need Programming to Show Data on LCD Screed)

And What Type of IR OR Laser Sensor Should I USE


Which is better USE Propeller or Basic Stamp (Which One Have Great Support of Sensor And MP3 Shield And LCD Screen And Wifi Shiled)

And IS There Shield Work With Parallax Board Like This One or There is Another

MP3 Player Shield


This Figure Made it by Using Windows Paint Program To Explain My System i Hope it will Be Helpful






Is There Any One Have And Idea Or Suggestion About That I really Want To Know Every Thing

And This Is My First Post is this Forum

I'm Sorry About My English language (May Be There Will Be Mistake

Thank you very Much

My Regards

SRLM

Hi Haider, and welcome to the forums!

For playing a sound you don't even need a shield. The Parallax Propeller can play .WAV files directly from SD card. Take a look at Spin objects here and here. If you prefer to use C you can find that here. For hardware you can build it yourself (it's pretty straight forward) or use the Propeller Activity Board, Propeller BOE, Propeller Backpack, or Propeller Human Interface Board.

For sound, if you don't care about fancy tones and a buzzing sound is acceptable then you can just output via series of pulses to a piezo speaker. I'm thinking something like this. I have a bigger version that is so loud I can't use it indoors because my ears hurt.

One of the biggest challenges will be making sure the timing is correct. You likely won't be able to perfectly sync the clocks of two Propellers, so you won't be able to compare timestamps at your leisure.

What I would do is use two lasers. One laser goes across the finish line, and when broken indicates a contestant finishing. A second laser mirrors this output (via a simple electric circuit) and points back towards the Propeller at the start position. That way, all the processing, from start to finish, is set by a single Propeller.

Using the Propeller, you'll be able to achieve very accurate and consistent timings with this system.

LoopyByteloose

I'd use the Propeller 1, much more power and more cost effective. And I would use the Parallax Propeller ProtoBoards as there is a lot of extra 3.3v and 5.0v power available on them.

There may be a better board for use with the Xbee shields.

Haider

thank you very much

but why i need to sync the Time

i will make the second board at end finish calculate the Time and find it

i think the wifi signal speed is (very very fast)
when i will sent the start signal from first board to second board to start timing (via wifi)
it will be very accuracy and fast (there will be no delay Time)

but is there wifi sheild with Range 100 or 150 meter to ensure the connection between the tow board done with no problem

thank you very much

MY REGARDS

SRLM

Haider wrote: »

thank you very much

but why i need to sync the Time

i will make the second board at end finish calculate the Time and find it

i think the wifi signal speed is (very very fast)
when i will sent the start signal from first board to second board to start timing (via wifi)
it will be very accuracy and fast (there will be no delay Time)

but is there wifi sheild with Range 100 or 150 meter to ensure the connection between the tow board done with no problem

thank you very much

MY REGARDS

The problem isn't the actual signal time. As you say, WiFi is very fast (speed of light and all...). The problem is the variable latency that using the wireless system might induce. I suspect that sometimes the packet will get through in, say, 10ms and other times in 20ms. Sometimes it may be as fast as 1ms. These are just numbers to illustrate the point that the wireless system will likely have some latency and variable jitter in that latency. I suspect that if you want the most accurate system you'll have to forgo a wireless system entirely (or stick with a very simple system).

In regards to WiFi: I doubt you'll be able to find a module that works reliably over 100 meters (at least not without some antennas...). You'll likely need to drop to a different protocol and frequency to get 100m. Something like this would make sure the signal gets through (link).

Ken Gracey

Haider,

Welcome to the forums!

Is the WiFi device basically just a means of communicating between the starting and finish line? If so, I think you could achieve the project for less money and less complexity using the XBee 60 mW RF devices. And, these will plug neatly into a Propeller Activity Board at either end. This would be a really clean, cost-effective solution:

http://www.parallax.com/product/32910
http://www.parallax.com/product/32407 x 2

Seems like you'll need to sync the time base between the two Propellers on either side. Maybe this could be done with the Propeller counters or an accurate external clock chip.

The people on this forum will provide the right direction for you.

Another question: how can we get more customers like yourself in Iraq? At your university, what microcontrollers are you presently using? I should find out if there are export restrictions of our products to Iraq or customs fees on your end. Are there other people like yourself who might like using our microcontrollers?

Thanks,

Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.

SRLM

Ken Gracey wrote: »

Seems like you'll need to sync the time base between the two Propellers on either side. Maybe this could be done with the Propeller counters or an accurate external clock chip.

I think that's one of the main problems here. Maybe you could send a bunch of packets from one Propeller to the other and immediately loop them back, then get the average flight time and use that as a constant to add to the race time? This will give you a statistical likelyhood that the important packet (the race start or race over) gets through in that time, although it wouldn't be a guarantee.

Haider

Thank you very much to MR.

SRLM

Loopy Byteloose

Ken Gracey



i Have Question

what is difference between this WiFi modules

http://www.parallax.com/product/32407

http://www.parallax.com/product/32408

http://www.parallax.com/product/32409

http://www.parallax.com/product/32412

and why there is many model of Wifi Modules


Second Can i USE this Antenna to Increase th Range

http://www.parallax.com/product/32410

that my question

now i want to say something (i dont know if its wrong or right)

i think in i have no delay time in the system this will be perfect
the delay time in the system is when the first wifi module (in first board) send signal to second wifi module in second board to start The Timer

(This is not a problem .... this is best part in project and it might help us to make the system work in perfect )

i will tell us how

the most part in system having delay time is when the first board try to sned signal to mp3 or wave player module to output starting beam (from speaker) to sprinter

this will take a time
and the sprinter need a time to recognize the voice and start sprinting

i mean the system might recive the start timing signal in second board and start timing while the MP3 Or Wave Player in First Board is Decoding The Sound File To Play It

Mr SRLM Say That th Time Needed To Send Signal From First Board To Second Board is might be 20 or 10 MS

and We Have Also Delay Time To Play The Beam Sound (Abslutly its more Than Time Needed To Send Wifi Signal)

So i Think This Will Help US To Make The System Stable

20 MS (Wifi) Time = (25 or 30 MS Decoding Sound File Time

This Will Make The Time Equation In system is Equal (Stable)

And Also i Thing i Dont Want to Make The Secnod Board Send The Wifi Signal Direct
No

I Want To make FeedBack System by making this

connect Wire in Speaker and connect it to Board in input Wifi Pin And Programming The Board (if it Recive Signal From This Pin so The Board Will Send Signal Via wifi to another Board)


more Explaining

When it start the Race Bottom The First Board Will Start Decoding Sound File And Send The Analog Signal To Speaker To Play Beam Sound
(Sprinter After Hear it Will Star Running)

When The analog Singal Out Form Board To Specker There Will Be Sire To Send Feedbak Signal Form Speaker To board So Make The Board Send Wifi Signal To Second Board To Start Timing


What about this Idea

i really want to Hear Your suggestions


and about Mr.Ken Gracey Question

We Dont Study Microcontroller In My universities
There is Another Engineering Department in Another Universities in Iraq Study microcontroller
in my City Diwanyiah There is No shop for microcontroller of embedded Device System
in Baghdad there is Shop Sell Microcontroller
Parallax And other Company
A Few People in my university Care About Microcontroller and Embedded System

My University is ......................... (This Make me Fell .....i dont know what sould i say)

if you want to know what i mean Read This Post For me please

talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/1600023-what-can-i-do-a-message-from-someone-need-help-please.html

Thank you very Much

My Regards

Ken Gracey

Haider wrote: »

i Have Question
what is difference between this WiFi modules

http://www.parallax.com/product/32407

http://www.parallax.com/product/32408

http://www.parallax.com/product/32409

http://www.parallax.com/product/32412

and why there is many model of Wifi Modules

Hello Haider,

The company who makes these XBee modules makes well over 100+ variants of the same basic concept. What varies is the antenna style (chip, wire, SMRA), power (which affects transmission distance), communication protocols for networking (DigiMesh, or ZigBee), frequency (3-4 kinds) and protocol. Parallax only carries the most popular versions that serve 90% of the market, so we've already made these decisions for you so you don't have to replicate the work I have done along with many others in deciding what's best. You see, we have access to the supplier engineers, their sales people, and their support staff. They were just in our office last week, and we work closely with them to sell and support only the most common XBee modules.

For your project, I suggest 32407, because it will work over a good distance (best conditions would be a mile, with no obstruction and line of sight outdoors). But you don't need a mile because you are probably running on a track, so I think this module would work on a 400m track no matter where you are running.

As for the delay, SRLM is probably about right. Once you start, you can send a packet that includes a start byte to the receiving Propeller. These little modules communicate at a high baud rate if you want (115K?) so you shouldn't be talking about more than a few milliseconds of time. You could also subtract that amount of time from the receiving Propeller. You might need to put it on a scope to figure this out - or we can ask a Digi engineer.

I read your link and I see that you go to Islamic University College Najaf (a private University). I'd like to sell your school our microcontroller kits most commonly used in education. Here's why: Parallax has done well in niche markets where we have made relationships with the faculty or distributors. If you think your university could use Propeller in an embedded systems course let me know and I would take time to meet with the professors over Skype. Maybe it's something we figure out after you've shown your professors your very interesting Track and Field Timing System project?

Sincerely,

Ken Gracey

Ken Gracey

Oh, and I edited your post to remove the giant hyperlink, Haider, as you asked in the PM. - Ken

Haider

About Packet Data Via WiFi

Why Do i Need To Send 115k ?
Its Just Starting Signal So it Should Be less Than 5k
Or not ?

thank you very much

My Regards

kwinn

Haider wrote: »

About Packet Data Via WiFi

Why Do i Need To Send 115k ?
Its Just Starting Signal So it Should Be less Than 5k
Or not ?

thank you very much

My Regards

115K is the baud rate or speed of the transmission, 115K bits/second.