Early last week I told you all about the Texas Instruments Inductance to Digital converter.
I recieved it yesturday and did some quick tests.
The EVM kit comes with a single board, about 4 inches long and about 1/2 inch wide that plugs into your USB port.
On the board is a small coil, the IDC and an MSP430 chip.
The software is downloaded from the TI website and enables you measure the changes in output as the coil picks up metal approaching it.
If you place your hand infront of the coil, your capacitance interacts with the inductance and gives you a change in the output.
I took my Element 14 pen and used it as a metal object to move in and out of the coil field of view. The sensor was very sensitive to even small changes in position of the pen.
The TI video demo shows a sensitivity to about 2 microns, which is very impressive.
I bought the EVM to experiment with the inductance changes caused by thunder storms and to look at measuring metal content in various materials.
From my early experiments, it should provide some very interesting results.
I will post more information as I have time.
Meanwhile you should take a look at the TI website and consider what you could do with the inductive sensor.
Who knows, maybe we can get TI to free some up for road testing.
DAB
