Post by thread:Telemetry encoding

Dear all, I'm planning to use a 16F84 to take data from four sensors and output them to a miniature RF telemetry unit (Linx LC418). The latter is carrier wave modulated, so I'll need to digitally encode the data. Has anyone out there done this? If so can you give me any tips - e.g. what encoders are available. Do I even need one if I have a PIC? Space is at a premium! TIA! Chris -- Dr. Chris Kirtley MD PhD Associate Professor HomeCare Technologies for the 21st Century (Whitaker Foundation) NIDRR Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on TeleRehabilitation Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Pangborn 105B Catholic University of America 620 Michigan Ave NE Washington, DC 20064 Tel. 202-319-6247, fax 202-319-4287 Email: spam_OUTkirtleyTakeThisOuTcua.edu http://engineering.cua.edu/biomedical Clinical Gait Analysis: http://guardian.curtin.edu.au/cga Send subscribe/unsubscribe to .....listprocKILLspam@spam@info.curtin.edu.au

Just bit bang your data out as if it were a serial port. Using standard async formatting (1 start, 8 data, 1 stop) you can easily capture the data on a PC via it's serial port and a terminal program. Pick a standard baud rate that the Linx can handle. Remember that you'll want to HAVE carrier for a mark condition so that you'll know when you're out of range and you start getting overrun errors on the incoming data. "Dr. Chris Kirtley" wrote: > > Dear all, > > I'm planning to use a 16F84 to take data from four sensors and output > them to a miniature RF telemetry unit (Linx LC418). The latter is > carrier wave modulated, so I'll need to digitally encode the data. Has > anyone out there done this? If so can you give me any tips - e.g. what > encoders are available. Do I even need one if I have a PIC? Space is at > a premium! Have you considered the brute force method (KISS)? Depending on your data rate requirements this might be easier and smaller. A SMT 4060 + 4051 and a 4046 let you do audio FM telemetry. For each time slice you connect your sensor, and it changes the frequency of the VCO used to modulate your radio link. You recover the FM with another 4046 and then A/D the result at your PC (sound card could do it too but more PC side software required). You set aside one slice to be higher that max (or lower) sensor and use that to sync the recovery process. In my case I modulated the FM transmitter directly, but because I was scanning at 10kHz I could get away with just using the key pulse as a clamp reference for the other DC coupled signals. There are many ways to skin this cat, depending on your data rates, resolution requirements, reliability issues, size/power constraints. The 4051/4046 is going to draw a LOT less power than your PIC (and choose the lowest PIC clock rate you can to save power (and choose a nice baud rate number to make your software easier. 1.8432Mhz is nice). Hope this helps get you started. Robert.RolfKILLspamUAlberta.ca

Dr. Chris.... It would seem to me that you could form up your own data packets within the PIC and then send those packets (frames) to a centeral gathering or server site - be it feet or miles away. Depends, of course, on your RF power - and I'm assuming it is slow. Packet radio uses frames similar to X25 frames: [header, addressing, data, check sum.] This way, the server can check on the integrity of the data. You can obtain a copy of the AX25 spec (Amateur Packet-Radio Link Layer Protocol, Version 2.-0, Oct. 1984) from the ARRL, 860-666-1541. Other block frame protocols also exist. See most digital communications texts. Phil If you wanted to test this idea without coding first, buy a KPC-3+ pair or radio modems from AES Milwauke or HRO Anaheim. I was a part of the KPC-3+ design team. On Monday, June 12, 2000 8:30 PM, Dr. Chris Kirtley [SMTP:.....kirtleyKILLspam.....CUA.EDU] wrote: {Quote hidden}> Dear all, > > I'm planning to use a 16F84 to take data from four sensors and output > them to a miniature RF telemetry unit (Linx LC418). The latter is > carrier wave modulated, so I'll need to digitally encode the data. Has > anyone out there done this? If so can you give me any tips - e.g. what > encoders are available. Do I even need one if I have a PIC? Space is at > a premium! > > TIA! > > Chris > -- > Dr. Chris Kirtley MD PhD > Associate Professor > HomeCare Technologies for the 21st Century (Whitaker Foundation) > NIDRR Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on TeleRehabilitation > Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Pangborn 105B > Catholic University of America > 620 Michigan Ave NE > Washington, DC 20064 > Tel. 202-319-6247, fax 202-319-4287 > Email: EraseMEkirtleyspam_OUTTakeThisOuTcua.edu > http://engineering.cua.edu/biomedical > > Clinical Gait Analysis: http://guardian.curtin.edu.au/cga > Send subscribe/unsubscribe to listprocspam_OUTinfo.curtin.edu.au