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Data Logger Help (Hardware suggestions)

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ChrisPomeroy

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ALL I'm asking for is suggestions on HARDWARE that will be needed to build this. I'm thinking microcontroller, UART, Some sort of communication chip, etc. ANY and ALL suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Each device being monitored generates a 32-bit word to be stored.
AGAIN, I'm just looking for hardware suggestions...i.e. what is needed to make this happen.


NEED: to create a data capture device that couldperform a data capture function with no human assistance, and provide a signal when it has completed its task.


Specific requirements are:


- not much bigger than a standard paperback novel (or two)


- power draw of less than 10 watts; may require a self-contained power supply


- capable of reading one ARINC 429 bus


- sufficient RAM and NVM to hold approx 1800 ARINC 429 labels per bus


- would have a programmable trigger condition


- capability of selecting 4 labels on each bus to be monitored


- trigger condition and data items to be monitored would be loaded into the unit via personal computer


- capability of defining the position of the trigger position relative to the captured data (eg, all data before trigger, all data after, or trigger in the center of the data)


- would capture data when the condition triggered, and light an LED to announce that fact


- capable of writing out the captured data to a laptop


- would have a flange-mount case that could be adapted to a variety of mounting configurations


- would use a connector common to the aircraft industry


- equipped with an on/off switch


Example trigger condition:


Weight on wheels transitions from True to False AND APR Arm is True AND (Left Cowl Unlocked is True OR Right Cowl Unlocked is True) AND
DC Essential Bus Voltage is greater than 18.0 VDC


Note that each of these signals could be on different ARINC labels, possibly on different busses. Some signals are Booleans, some are twos complement BNR.


SOME THOUGHTS I'VE HAD...


“sniffs” (i.e. monitor only/no transmit) an aviantion standard serial data bus


Commercial or proprietary UARTS could probably be made available for communicating with the bus protocol


Continuously copies all traffic to a non-volitile BHFB (Big Honkin’ FIFO Buffer).


Freezes operations (including buffer state) and sets an external flag (LED?) upon trigger condition.


Trigger condition programmable through external device (probably PC based utility, via an RS-232 or USB hookup. Trigger defines combinational logic based on data sniffed from the bus, and trigger can be defined to freeze the FIFO at any point along the FIFO timeline.)


Self-contained, long-term power supply with power conservation feature (i.e. minimal drain when no bus traffic—may be OK if initial traffic not captured while waking up.)


may need to have a real-time clock / date & time stamp feature at trigger.


The idea is to just log the data to the FIFO once the trigger logic has been evacuated as true.


Thanks in advance
 

Use MSP430 & Dataflash Memory to log the result

regards


bobi
 

I would use 8052 (or similar CPU), battery backedup RAM (organized in 64kB pages - can have several of them), Real-Time Clock (Dallas DS12887 - has cristal, battery built-in, and will keep Time&Date for at least 10years, easy interfaces to 8051 family), 12bit D/A converters (eg. LTC1288).
The RTC clocks the whole system with user-selectable time (1/128, 1/64, 1/32 .... 1/1s).
Resultes stored in RAM and sent via RS-485 ( or RS-232 if connaction with the host laptop possible).
Laptop runs custom-written software in LabView or similar.

Thats all for now 8)
 

A standard PDA with support for flash cards/USB/Serial port with some of interface circuite and little programming will do the job. It may be cheap, easy and time saving to use a standard PDA.
 

I think the PDA suggestion is the fastest and the easiest HW for you.

Search google for USB data i/o boards and you will find a lot of interesting ones that can be connected to a PDA.

For SW, you can use either LabView or any other programming language to capture the data and process it. The good thing about LabView is that you can work with it on your PC and the move it over to the PDA even if they use different CPUs. But it is a little bit pricy.

Good luck,
/Farhad
 

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