NRF24L01+ MSP430 adapter board

 
Finally got some work done on my adapter board for the NRF24L01+ or the SI24L(whatever the chinese knockoff is). The board was based on the datalogger board that I had created. I removed the memory chip and added the pinout header for the NRF module. I opted to forgo  a crystal, and left the pins unused.

This board uses the MSP430G2452 chip though I had been considering the 2X53 chips, though it'll require a slight modification. I may try to add a solderable jumper so that either of the types can be used.

Will add a link to the source code and board link on OSH park.

Wand Buildout

The assembly of the wand became somewhat tricky with the wiring and the electronics package and the container.

The wand handle base was where all of the wires came out. Im glad I had some extra wire but it became a problem fitting into the pill bottle.

The electronics package itself was a bit tricky to construct with the limited confines of the pill bottle, but in the end, it was able to squeeze inside the bottle. The only thing is that due to the extra wiring, it is pushed out of the back and sticks out. Solution, add a bigger bottle to the end.

 This is the bottom side showing the accelerometer. Everything is hardwired so I'll have to desolder it when I'm done.

The top view showing the transistors and power side of the module. Building this out was well...a test of patience...

And finally, the end product. The hand leaves a bit to be desired....but it works. The paint job needs some work, but hey, this could be used for something else later on.

Powerboard V1.3

This is the third iteration of the powerboard(1.3) that I've been using for work with solar cells. It was meant to be a smart version using a 2211 to monitor the voltage levels via comparator.  The other part of this project board was to also test 2 things. First, printing of the board to get an idea of the size and test the layout. Second was to test a smt crystal. Both of these objectives were reached, but...

Unfortunately there are several issues with the board, most of which can be worked around, but with the loss of designed functionality. I will admit, this is one one poor design and will need to be resolved. With this, I can actually add some new hw functionality, though I'll be doing a bit more checking next time.

While working on some TimerA related testing I decided to do a weekend run of the datalogger. This is still a single channel run until I get the multichannel code tested a bit more. This graph shows a simple light level set of readings for the weekend starting on a Friday and going through to Sunday night.
as I don't have the exact times, I believe the flat lines around the 25-35 level are from an external lamp or from the monitor. I haven't not confirmed it yet. I should hopefully have 2 channels recording this week and can start looking at light levels and temp readings throughout the days. first a simple 1 day test, then a week long test.

Wired up.

Logger wired up with the addon board. This was a quick setup with a button board, sensor board(cds connected) and just a third wired servo wire connector. I also decided to use jst power leads for the battery adapter harness(was tired of the long leads for the original connector). This is connected to an xbee for transferring the data wirelessly, and of course an LP for the programming.

The space taken by the program is currently just under 3k and I have a bit more to add...This is a bit of a concern and I'm considering using a 2453 for the last board as it'll double the amount of program space I have available. I'd prefer not to do this as I think the 4k limit I initially wanted to keep the prog within is still within reach.

Currently the updated code adds a simple header writer function that I've implemented on the single channel recording and another test mode that is suppose to record to 3 channels, though running into some difficulty.  For some reason A.0 only reads as 1024, even when connected to ground....When I figure this issue out, I'll add a blurb to this post describing the findings.

ADC input test.

First run of the ADC10 with a simple light meter(Cds) with the results as expected. The light sensor was placed facing my computer monitor prior to my going to bed(just past 4am). So the graph shows the monitor running for a short period of time before going to a black screensaver, then eventually going to standby. This next transitions to the increase in light from the morning sun peaking through the window. The last part around the 50k mark is when I moved it closer to the window which pretty much pegged the level
Current setting of the sref is as follows( VR+ = VCC and VR- = VSS) though I may go with (VR+ = VREF+ and VR- = VSS) using 2.5v refgen to expand the range. I'm also down converting the data to 8bit values instead of using the 10bit values for testing purposes. I plan to have this as an option for the user to be able to select between. As I have a few updates that I'll be doing to the code, the current sources have not been updated yet.

This is a shot of the add-on board prior to being populated. The current setup that I'm using has a xbee and light sensor connected to ADC0. Pics to come soon.

MSP430+RFID

LaunchPad + RFID Reader. 
This is one of my older projects and something that I figured would be interesting to work on. This used the G2211 proc with a loop that waited for serial data before comparing the input key with some keys that were stored in an array. It worked like a charm and fit in about 600 bytes of code(when not optimized). This includes a set of RFID card data(keys) for testing. This was not something I had actually planned on working on but due to the serial code giving me some headaches, I figured I'd try something simple first. I  put the Parallax RFID reader  put to some use.

Update: Posting source code in git.

https://github.com/voodoofish/msp430_RFID

4 hour data collection.

Initial runs proved I had some logic to fix up, but after a day of more testing, I was able to get a stable though short recording period of the full span of the chip (65536 bytes). This graph shows two days temps after arriving to work. The high initial temp was due to the device being in my pocket and starting it shortly after arriving. This shows fairly consistent temps throughout the day so we know our env is at a nice cool temp.

The next milestones are related to the timing intervals and as soon as I build a second setup, I'll start testing longer periods of time in the day range, then week range. To make my efforts easier I've been using another chip(2211 and 2231 that came with the LP boards) so that I can do the timing tests and not reflash the chip over and over with the growing code footprint. After I've come up with some good timing functions I'll move them over to the main codebase and integrate them into the project. I'm also tempted to order more boards as these are working out so well, though I'm also considering some changes.Will have to consider it over the weekend.

Graph data.

This is the first graph of data pulled from the data logger. This was a simple test, but verified saving and retrieving of data from the chip and some other test functions that I have been working on. This test used the WDT interval timer and took roughly an hour to run to collect 4096 samples. The variances in temp were due to the time and the amount of sun hitting the logger(2 rapid increases in temp). I think it's time to populate another board as I know the setup works and would allow me to start running longer tests while working on code.

Source code is now in a git repo: https://github.com/voodoofish/Logger430

DataLogger

I received the datalogger board today(July 3rd 2012) and after multiple hw tests to verify that board functioned as expected, I completed the first of 3 test boards. The last test is to verify that the memory chip is recording correctly, and until then I can't say that this board is 100% functional. though the current 80% has me pretty excited. Now I'm waiting for the addon board that is breaks out the datalogging pins plus a couple other pins to a standard 3 pin configuration.

Images included in this set have the button 1 switch which allows for it to be a reset or action button, and the male header pins. The other image shows the board pre switch and header mockup and also conected to the lp which allows me to do the uploading of programs. Very happy so far.  I'll work on getting the memory chip tested as well as doing some initial tests on the data input ports(adc channels)and communications port(hw uart).

See the 43oh project page for more info.

Garden project update 2 and 3 - Watering system 1

Early prototype of my gravity fed watering system. The valve is electronically controlled and currently is working with my test setup. Next will be to integrate it with the sensor monitoring system and have it actuate based on the current data being read in. I have an event that I'll be displaying a working(mostly) version tomorrow morning, so this evening will be filled with testing the logic and trying to get this in a mostly working form. All of the parts are there...and each works independently....

This is a wired up setup that I brought to the Pasadena engineering and Science expo. Unfortunately I didn't get the sensor (PCB)boards in time(they arrived in the post today)so I had to leave the sensor circuit in the breadboarded setup(which means lots of wires that make it look blah). I'm still using the Launchpad dev board until I can get the wireless setup buttoned down. Once I have it finalized, I'll be able to develop a circuit board that integrates all components in a nice clean fashion. The exciting part of this project was finishing some of the code that uses the sensor data to trigger the on/off switch that lets the water flow. I have to fine tune it at this point but the main part/point of the project is working.

Garden Project update 1.

2 of three sensors working and data displayed to lcd panel. Wired up prototype showing 1 setup that I'm using for local debugging. With the lcd panel connected this works great, but this isn't an ideal setup if I want to keep source code down as it eats up quite a bit with formatting the layout of data. I have a few ideas of how I can get around this issue, one being offloading all layout to another setup( some sort of connecter like an audio plug to hook up both the data reader and transmitter.)

Garden Project Initial notes from a while back.

From a Project a while back

First test if the remote setup using wireless transceiver and solar panel(out of pic) This is only transmitting one of the data points to see how well the data gets through at the range and low voltage. This should get some interesting data as it will be in direct sunlight which should show a steeper evap curve. we'll see what the data looks like this eve!

Some Data at the time...
This is a side by side comparison of two data sets. The first was posted on Monday and the second is from some testing on Tuesday morning. The second set shows the cleaned up data with less noise thanks to a simple fix in the hw setup. As you can see, it cleaned things up quite nicely. The data set also shows the low moisture level of the soil, then the addition of water. The second slight bump in the level was when I added s bit more water...the readings are at a 2 second interval and this shows 1000 total readings.