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Data Acquisition — Parallax Forums

Data Acquisition

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2001-12-10 03:55 in General Discussion
I do not own a Basic Stamp yet, but I am wondering if it can do what
I want before I go to the expense of buying one. I looked back
through the messages here and didn't see anything like this.

I would like to build a data acquisition system for my RC truck. Sort
of a real time dyno. I am looking to monitor the following: battery
voltage, current draw, battery temperature, motor temperature and rpm
in the beginning. Then maybe later add on G forces, servo positions
and who knows what else if the first part would work.

I figure I only need to collect data 4 times a second for 6 minutes.
Figuring 5 sets of data 4 times a second for 6 minutes means 7200
data points. Once done the data could be transferred to a PC of
plotting.

So I guess what I want to know is if this is possible with the BS?
Open to ideas, recommendations and input.

Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-12-09 20:25
    For Hank

    First, it appears you want to collect a huge number of data all of which have
    to be stored in variables. Stamp does not have this room for this many
    variables so you have to work around it. With Stamp it is possible to read
    the five variables you want, capture the readings in Hyperterminal, then get
    more data using the same variables. This way you can get an infinite amount
    of data. If you capture the data to Excel, you can graph it with a mouse
    click. If you decide to go ahead with the project, stay in touch and I will
    show you how to set up a data reading program that uses the same variables
    over and over.

    Sid
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-12-09 20:37
    Sid,

    Hummm... I didn't figure that 2700 data points was a lot of data and
    that BS didn't have at least that much storage. Using Hyperterm is
    not an option because the truck will not be connected to a computer
    as it runs around a track. Hummmm.... maybe I'm barking up the wrong
    tree here in looking at BS for what I want to do.
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-12-09 20:44
    It isn't the data stoarge that is a problem, Hank - there is plenty of room
    for that. The problem is you have to assign avariable name to the five
    parameters you want to read. If you read them once and capture the data then
    you can re-use the variables. If you don't read and capture then you have to
    have a new variable for each parameter each time you read it, and that makes
    for a huge number of variables. It appears tht your solution would be to use
    an inexpensive RF Link like the TWS/RWS from Rentron, send the data to
    another stamp connected to your PC and capture the data that way.

    Sid
    Sid
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-12-09 20:51
    For Hank

    Alternatively you could read each parameter, add it to a "sample"
    accumulator, then an the end of six mminutes compute the average of all your
    readings. That would only take 10 variable. You would have to make sure
    that the total sum of any one variable did not exceed 65500 because that is
    a 16-bit variable and the largest that Stamp can store in a variable.

    Sid
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-12-09 21:24
    Can't he just store the var into eeprom and reread the var again using the
    same 5 or 10 var, as long as he writes to eeprom after each read of all.
    Original Message
    From: <Newzed@a...>
    To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
    Sent: December 09, 2001 12:51 PM
    Subject: Re: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Re: Data Acquisition


    | For Hank
    |
    | Alternatively you could read each parameter, add it to a "sample"
    | accumulator, then an the end of six mminutes compute the average of all
    your
    | readings. That would only take 10 variable. You would have to make sure
    | that the total sum of any one variable did not exceed 65500 because that
    is
    | a 16-bit variable and the largest that Stamp can store in a variable.
    |
    | Sid
    |
    | To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    | basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    | from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
    Body of the message will be ignored.
    |
    |
    | Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    |
    |
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-12-09 21:31
    For Iga

    Don't know - he is going to be reading 7200 words of data. Don't think the
    Stamp storage is large enough to hold a program to write that many separate
    variables to EEPROM.

    Sid
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-12-09 21:46
    Sid,

    OK, I understand better. While it still seems that having that few
    varibles is still pretty limiting. The RF option does seems
    interesting, I'll have to look at the specs for them.
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-12-09 21:47
    I was thinking more of a separate I2c eeprom and looking at the info He may
    not need words but bytes

    bat voltage one byte
    current draw one byte
    bat temp one byte
    motor temp one byte
    rpm one byte
    g fource one byte
    servo pos one byte

    so 7 bytes per reading X 4 readings per second = 28 bytes per second x 60
    seconds = 1680 per minute x 6 minutes 10080 bytes total so a 128 kbit eeprom
    = 16000 bytes there will be some waited space because of page write you will
    need to write 8 bytes per writing to keep the pages even, but you still only
    use 11520 kbytes now the speed is another matter you could look up some of
    Tracy Allen's timing for commands . I hope this is correct ?


    Original Message
    From: <Newzed@a...>
    To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
    Sent: December 09, 2001 1:31 PM
    Subject: Re: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Re: Data Acquisition


    | For Iga
    |
    | Don't know - he is going to be reading 7200 words of data. Don't think
    the
    | Stamp storage is large enough to hold a program to write that many
    separate
    | variables to EEPROM.
    |
    | Sid
    |
    | To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    | basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    | from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
    Body of the message will be ignored.
    |
    |
    | Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    |
    |
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-12-09 21:53
    For Hank

    Goto www.rentron.com

    Using an RF link would let you read and acquire the data for 60 minutes if
    your truck would run that long!!

    Let me know if I can help. I have and am using the TWS/RWS modules.

    Sid
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-12-10 01:31
    >I do not own a Basic Stamp yet, but I am wondering if it can do what
    >I want before I go to the expense of buying one. I looked back
    >through the messages here and didn't see anything like this.
    >
    >I would like to build a data acquisition system for my RC truck. Sort
    >of a real time dyno. I am looking to monitor the following: battery
    >voltage, current draw, battery temperature, motor temperature and rpm
    >in the beginning. Then maybe later add on G forces, servo positions
    >and who knows what else if the first part would work.
    >
    >I figure I only need to collect data 4 times a second for 6 minutes.
    >Figuring 5 sets of data 4 times a second for 6 minutes means 7200
    >data points. Once done the data could be transferred to a PC of
    >plotting.
    >
    >So I guess what I want to know is if this is possible with the BS?
    >Open to ideas, recommendations and input.

    You could do that with a BS2e or a BS2p, which have 16kbytes of
    eeprom for storage of program or data. (The programming is easiest
    on a BS2p because of an extra command that it has.) I have a note
    on a small data logger using the multibank stamps posted at
    http://www.emesystems.com/BS2SX.htm#datalogger

    Or you could do it with an ordinary BS2 and use external eeprom to
    store the data. If you want a superb tutorial on how to build a BS2
    data logger using an external eeprom, you can't beat Scott Edwards'
    manual for the (now discontinued) Data Collection Proto Board. Scott
    still has the manual on line for free download at:
    http://www.seetron.com/pdf/dcpb_mnl.pdf

    Newzed's suggestion of a radio link to hypercard would of course give
    you immense storage options!
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-12-10 02:48
    An external Eeprom would be the answer with bs2, or or use a bs2e / bs2sx /
    bs2p and use a couple of pages for data storage, then serout the data to
    your pc when you have finished. The stamp would be perfect for this. There
    are plenty of examples around for shifting data into and out of eeproms.

    Regards,
    Chris

    Original Message
    From: Newzed@a... [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=yNVx6la3diNrbHGZeDMspLnLo_pv3pi0OHPdsEmzOp_zfn3Bz0AIijt4sJpxDKfzKI0KI8M]Newzed@a...[/url
    Sent: Monday, 10 December 2001 4:44 AM
    To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    Subject: Re: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Re: Data Acquisition


    It isn't the data stoarge that is a problem, Hank - there is plenty of room
    for that. The problem is you have to assign avariable name to the five
    parameters you want to read. If you read them once and capture the data
    then
    you can re-use the variables. If you don't read and capture then you have
    to
    have a new variable for each parameter each time you read it, and that makes
    for a huge number of variables. It appears tht your solution would be to
    use
    an inexpensive RF Link like the TWS/RWS from Rentron, send the data to
    another stamp connected to your PC and capture the data that way.

    Sid
    Sid

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  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-12-10 03:55
    I'd definately be interested in your project. I started a project some time ago
    but never implmented a protocol. What do your packets look like? Did you
    implement 2-way communications?

    Thanks,
    Kevin

    Newzed@a... wrote:
    >
    > For Hank
    >
    > Goto www.rentron.com
    >
    > Using an RF link would let you read and acquire the data for 60 minutes if
    > your truck would run that long!!
    >
    > Let me know if I can help. I have and am using the TWS/RWS modules.
    >
    > Sid
    >
    > To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and Body
    of the message will be ignored.
    >
    >
    > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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