input devices (Proximity Sensor Deck)

This weeks Assignment is to build an input device that can read real world data and translate them into numbers so basically build a sensor but since my final project does have a lot of sensors so i thought out to build a sensor node that can process all the sensors and send them to the CPU for further processing and thus the goal is clear and we have the technology.....

Project: Proximity Sensor Deck

Goal: an I2C Node that can process several Sharp IR Distance Sensors and produce useable data

Files Used In this Project can be Downloaded here

Let the Dance Begin !!!

Starting this project i had one of 2 options one was building the IR Sensors using IR transmitters and receivers and some circuitry from scratch and the other was buying the sensors from our local Electronics supplier pre made, and after a bit of thinking i just went with the store bought ones since they are cheap and are good quality sensors while building the sensor was just going to take to much time and effort

here are the sensors :

but after reading the datasheet i decided to try it out on a breadboard with the attiny44 but since the lab here does not have any DIP package ATtiny44 i build a SOIC Breakout board using the modela

and after a bit of work in gimp i ended up with a working set of modela files

And thus after a bit of milling, drilling, soldering and programming we get this

which turned out to be a helpful tool for Ultra Rapid prototyping

and after a bit of programing it was working

so i thought out designing the pcb

after a bit of schematic design i ended up with this beauty

Ain't she a mess but its good enough for now optimization comes later

and now for laying out the PCB

P.S.: I used TH Connectors because we ran out of SMD and soldering TH as SMD is not a smart way to have a solid connection

and after a bit of haggling with the DRC i finally came up with this

and after a bit of work in GIMP i get a set of working files

and after a bit of milling drilling and cutting we get this

Now after decking the board with components we get

and now for the test of truth : avrdude -c usbtiny -P usb -p t44

 

Success !!!!!!!!

awesome now comes the hard part programming the board

since i am a newbie to Embedded C Programing i will use arduino which i have been using for a while is not the best option for accurate efficient systems but its good for ultra rapid prototyping

Burning the bootloader

and now programming fortunately the sensor i used has an arduino library which is compatible with ATtiny44 MCU Awesome

after a bit of code reworking

WE GOT DATA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and thats it for this part of the project in the final project i will switch out the Serial For I2C which will allow for faster and more robust data transfer with the main CPU

Awesome See you Next Week