SmarterLife Challenge - geocar update

8 Nov 2013

This has been a great week, I got to install the PSoC Creator and downloaded my first program. Started with the sample capacitance from the demo and right away moved into what will be part of my project.

First I dropped a UART box in the designer, changed the baud rate and moved into the C part. Used an UART example and the documentation for the tool to guide me. I took me about half an hour or so to get it running but that was very quick for me considering this was my first time using this device.

For testing I used a USB to serial TTL dongle from my PC, opened the virtual serial port created for this device using putty and started typing. By using the PSoC debugger pretty fast I could make it run. Then moved in with the bluetooth adapter. From the PC side, changed the USB to TTL for a USB bluetooth dongle. And same procedure with putty obtaining flawless result.

Here is a picture of the PSoC with the bluetooth device. I decided to use the lower pins just because of my Arduino background. The UART using as of now is a software serial, which works like a charm.

My next step this week is getting some code in the Android that communicates with the PSoC. The Android code should not take long. Moving with the Android since where I am now I have limited components.

Once I get home back from my trip I plan to hook up more devices to the PSoC. Cannot wait to see it collecting GPS data and recording it to a SD card.

The resistors on the bread board are just left overs from past projects. All connections are straight, just VCC, GND, TX and RX.

This is an amazing device and I will try to push it to the limit, to get as much as I can from it. Pretty sure it can handle all that I need from it and more.

It might be my lack of experience with other boards but this one feels like a nice product to work with. The designer works good, the board was just plug and play and there is a fair amount of documentation and growing.

Good luck to the rest of the participants and to everyone using this board. Future posts will have code and more details.

Top Comments

camuyano over 12 years ago in reply to vsluiter +1

Of course. I will put it together and upload it. The bluetooth that I am using is Module HC-06 Master for Arduino ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wireless-Serial-4-Pin-Bluetooth-RF-Transceiver-Module-HC-06-Master…

camuyano over 12 years ago in reply to vsluiter

I just uploaded some sample code of Android with PSoC, check out the post on Smart Life Challenge: geoCar PSoC meets Android sample The android code is on github with the link in the post and the PSoC Creator code is attached to the post. Feel free to copy, share, modify, trash what ever you want.
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shabaz over 12 years ago in reply to camuyano

Hi Javier,

Got it. Thanks! Great project.
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camuyano over 12 years ago in reply to shabaz

The android will be used to pull out the GPS log data from the SDCard connected to the PSoC. GPS data will be log into an SDCard to be latter on pulled out from an Android phone. On a possible option is connecting the PSoC to the home wifi router and uploading data automatically by itself. The Android interaction is the main goal, and the WIFI is a stretch goal.
The communication from the PSoC to the Bluetooth is via serial communication.
Once data in on the Android phone It can be relay into a host server or plot into a map to see where the GPS locations were from.
The PSoC in the car may have an LCD but the main use of the device is by itself with a periodical link with an Android phone to collect recorded data.
When I explain my project to friends I say this to be similar to an Airplane black box. Where data is recorded for latter extraction. In this case is not just in case of an emergency, it should be extracted for periodical monitoring of car usage (lets say by a sibling).
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shabaz over 12 years ago

Hi Javier,

Interesting project ; ) How is the Bluetooth and Android to be used? Maybe I missed the explanation in an earlier introductory post (just wondering what the overall solution will look like). Is there a block diagram or text description of the whole thing?

Thanks!
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camuyano over 12 years ago in reply to vsluiter

Of course. I will put it together and upload it. The bluetooth that I am using is Module HC-06 Master for Arduino (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wireless-Serial-4-Pin-Bluetooth-RF-Transceiver-Module-HC-06-Master-for-Arduino-/221282887995?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33857ce93b) that you can get for $10 or less on ebay. It is a serial TTL device, so wiring it up directly to the PSoC is all you need. When packed it all up and uploaded to github will let you know here.
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