Hello Guys.

I am thinking of building my first project and i need directions where to start.

The project am thinking of is a sensor system that gives change in position as numeric value to a computer. (or the numbers can be evaluated on a computer based on initial position sensed) The detector is tracking points. And these points can also be loaded with radio signal emitters and any thing that helps get accurate position where they are. The detector and points to be tracked are within 40cm X 40cm X 40 cm of 3d area. The important thing is the live numeric data and the points can not be loaded with to much electronics. Power to the points and the sensor can be separate.

if you can direct me with a microprocessor and sensor types that are good for this project i would appreciate it. thanks

 

I would think that using RF and 40 cm distances is going to be a severe complication. For distances that short, some other means would be less trouble.

We need more information about the project. What are the "points"? What sort of resolution do you need or want? We would need this information at the very least before making suggestions about how to do the measurement and what microprocessor would be most suitable.

Ant data entering a computer has to be in numeric form. Computers only work with numbers.

 

Thanks for the response beenthere.

Am not sure if i really know what resolution i might need for this job but i would like to get a very accurate data for changes that are happening in seconds.

The points we are sensing are dangling points. they go up and down and horizontally too..(mostly up and down) I think its going to be necessary to put sensors on the points to figure out the horizontal distance between them.

and yes i figured the computation has to be done on the board as well but yah the goal is to get numbers out of movements of the points

 

So far i thought of building a wireless accelerometer with ADC (if i dont buy a built in one ) on each point and putting the receiver on the base station to do the computation. but i dont know which micro i will endup using since am not that familiar with build codes other than a little VHDL. i can do c++... and i guess c wont be that hard too

items am thinking of using are

On Shine 433MHz High Sensitivity Transmitter/Receiver Pair - On-off keyed" (OOK) modulation at up to 9.6Kbps
Pololu MMA7260QT ±6g Triple-Axis Accelerometer

so what do u think?

 

I have no idea what a "point" is, except in the geometric sense. Or, for that matter, why they change position, at what rate they do it, and what degree of accuracy that the change must be noted. Also - is the positioning information absolute or relative?

 

They are balls that are dangling from a metal bar. as a dangling balls they move freely horizontally. They also go up and down if a person pulls the wire the ball in dangling on.There are 3 balls. The horizontal and vertical movement happens at a rate somewhere 10-20m/s. I would like my data very accurate. As precise as i can get it. the position is relative to the sensor. its 0 near the sensor and 10cm or something depending on where the ball is above the sensor. - thanks for taking time to check on my questions. i will try uploading a draw sometime soon.

 

Boy, with one magnet and three unbuffered Hall effect sensors, getting to microns is no problem. Balls plural complicates matters.