hockeyrcks9901 3 Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 Hey guys, I have my EE Senior Design Project that was done with two MSP430 devices. A MSP430-F5438A and a MSP430-G2553. The main part of the project is a stepper motor control system used to accurately simulate Florida rainfall intensities on a 30'x8' test bed. It also has a wireless rain sensor used to measure the rainfall amount. Obviously I can't go into too much detail here...it would take too long. I'm currently uploading a YouTube video and some pictures of the project. Here is a picture of the Motor Driver portion of the main board. There are two of these identical portions, one for each motor: Here is a picture of the Microcontroller portion of the main board. Here is a picture of the Low Voltage power supply portion of the main board. It supplies 3.3V, 5V, and 12V. I am away from my home computer but I will be able to access and upload the code, as well as a few more pictures and a video of the system operation. I have tons of documentation for this project and I'm hoping to enter it into the POTM contest. Like I said, I'll get a video and some more pictures up later this week. I look forward to learning some more stuff from you guys! -Adam C. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 Pretty neat Adam. What's the rain sensor? Sent from my PI39100 using Board Express Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hockeyrcks9901 3 Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 Pretty neat Adam. What's the rain sensor? Sent from my PI39100 using Board Express Custom made for the project. It has 32 conductors spaced out on your typical rain gauge. There is another conductor with 3.3V constantly applied. As the water in the gauge rises, it connects the 3.3V to some of the 32 conductors. These 32 wires are run through two 16:1 muxes. The microcontroller can now read which levels are high by using the analog comparator. As the uC runs through the loop, checking each line that's connected to the mux, it increments a counter when the line is high. Using this method, it knows how high the water is in the rain gauge. This is then sent wirelessly to the main board using a couple of Xbee modules. It's really quite simple.The only connections to the uC are four select lines (paralleled to each mux), two enable lines to switch between the two muxes, and ones signal line from each mux. I'll be able to post all the Eagle schematic and board files along with all the code later this week. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zeke 693 Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 I would like to see a photo of the rain sensor. Are the parallel tracks on the sensor exposed copper? What is the spacing on the tracks? How will you prevent trace erosion caused by electrolytic reaction? Does it measure the amount of rainfall or is it just a presence of rain detector? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hockeyrcks9901 3 Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 I would like to see a photo of the rain sensor. Are the parallel tracks on the sensor exposed copper? What is the spacing on the tracks? How will you prevent trace erosion caused by electrolytic reaction? Does it measure the amount of rainfall or is it just a presence of rain detector? They are just the bare ends of some wire. The erosion has not been an issue so far. The reading is done so quick that there is never very much current flow. As fast as the uC can read the lines is as long has current is present. It then goes to sleep until the next reading. It measures the amount of rainfall. One part of the sensor is accurate to within .1 inches and another section is accurate to within .2 inches. I'll try and get a picture up on Tuesday. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kenemon 29 Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Everyone is after that rework station Santa is offering for X-mas POM............ :twisted: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hockeyrcks9901 3 Posted December 6, 2011 Author Share Posted December 6, 2011 Everyone is after that rework station Santa is offering for X-mas POM............ :twisted: It's a nice prize for sure... My reason for posting now is that we just finished presenting the project to our review board on Friday. I didn't want to post the project until it was complete. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hockeyrcks9901 3 Posted December 6, 2011 Author Share Posted December 6, 2011 Here are the updates I promised: There are two main features not shown in this video. One is a wireless rain gauge that is placed on the test bed and transmits the measured amount of rainfall back to the control unit. The other the fault detection system. If at any time a fault occurs in the simulation such as a short circuit, or overheating, the system will shut down and alert the user utilizing the screen and the red fault indication light. Thanks for looking and feel free to show it to anyone you please. My next step is uploading some pictures of the wireless rain gauge and some more of the internal components. I'm working on that now. Rear of Keypad and LCD: Main control board, Keypad, LCD, LV Transformer on the right, HV Power Supply on the bottom behind a plexiglass screen to protect from contact. Front of Keypad and LCD: Overall View of Internals: Here is a video that shows the Wireless Rain Gauge: I shot this with my phone and didn't have a plan of action when filming it so it's not very well done but it gets the point across. And now for some pictures of the Wireless Rain Gauge. Overall view of components: Another overall view: Closeup of the method used to detect water: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hockeyrcks9901 3 Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 And now for some schematics and PCB Layouts: First we have the Low Voltage Power Supply: And it's board layout: Next up is the Motor Driver: And the Motor Driver board layout: Third we have the Microcontroller: And the Microcontroller board layout: Last but certainly not least, we have the combined board. This board contains the Low Voltage Power Supply, the Microcontroller, and two Motor Driver circuits: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kenemon 29 Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 The rain simulator is an interesting device. Will you be posting any code? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hockeyrcks9901 3 Posted December 13, 2011 Author Share Posted December 13, 2011 Absolutely. Fair warning, it's a huge file. I'm at work right now but I will try and remember tomorrow. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hockeyrcks9901 3 Posted December 21, 2011 Author Share Posted December 21, 2011 Sorry about it taking so long to get the code up, I was on vacation. This is just the code for the simulator, not the wireless rain gauge. I'll put that up shortly. RainSimulator.c bluehash and kenemon 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kenemon 29 Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 thanks for posting the code hockey, looks efficient and professional, i appreciate you sharing your knowledge.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hockeyrcks9901 3 Posted December 27, 2011 Author Share Posted December 27, 2011 I'm still looking for my wireless rain gauge code. Things tend to go missing when you move. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.