Thursday, 23r October

The assessment day! Everything worked out well and fine.

Made some fixes and patches before the assessment by the GA himself.
-Fixing the buzzer in cold zone
-improving the buzzer in critical cold zone
-initialising redhot, bluecold, and greenormal integer to 1 for every system start
-initialising the fan output RC7 at system off state
-having the buzzer beeps when the system starts and initialize
-having the buzzer beeps for every system end

Wednesday, 22th October

Continuous Assesment: 23th October 2008

Managed to integrate the system with Desmond's subsystem
Problem encountered:
-first the patient room system has random ON-OFF period.
-problem is the GND between Desmond's and mine is not common
-make common GND and SUPPLY by using the common power supply
-succeed in integrating the system

Adding rhythmed buzzer to the HOT for fun purpose.

1 . . . 1 . 1 . 1 . . . 1 . . . 0 . . . 1 . . . 1 . . . 0 . . .

Possible Future Updates:
-Accurate temperature system using LM35DZ
-Creative LCD system

Monday, 20th October

Planning to integrate system with Desmond's subsystem
-if a patient room is requested, will ON the system
-if patient room is done, OFF the system

Fixing the ON-OFF system programming
-always initialize on=0;
-use one port to do ON-OFF (RB0)
-if RB0==1, on=1; while on=1, system is working
-within the while loop, if RB0==0; on=0; breaks from the while loop

Friday, 17th October

Done a few things in the programming.

Things added:
-added a buzzer for sound notification
-when state changes to hot, it will beep once for 20ms
-when state changes to cold, it will beep once for 10ms, wait 10ms, then beep 20ms
-when state changes to super hot, it will keep beeping every 10ms (can't be stopped bcoz in while loop)
-fixed the light system (below 1V and beyond 0.3 V blue LED lights upl below 0.3 V, white LEDs light up)
-added 'OFF' indication in LCD when temperature sensor is not turned on

Future updates:
-fixing 'while loop' system in the thermal sensor
-added long beep to super cold state
-using LM35DZ to make a better, more accurate sensor
-adding more features to the LCD such as moving text, blinking text, etc.

Thursday, 16th October

PCB Design is done.

Subsystem is done.
Patient Care System:
*Thermal Sensor
-There are 5 states; Normal, Hot, Super hot, Cold, Super cold. Normal is at 2-2.3V. Hot is at 1.9-2V. Super hot is at anything below 1.9V. Cold is at 2.3-2.6V. Super cold is at anything beyond 2.6V.
-Normal is represented by GREEN LED. Hot is represented by RED LED. Super hot is by BLINKING RED. Cold is represented by BLUE LED. Super Cold is represented by BLINKING BLUE.
-LCD can show the state that the thermometer is in. There will be special warning for Extreme states.
-LED Fan will be turned on at HOT and SUPER HOT state.
#Possible Upgrade:
-Using LM35DZ instead of Thermistor to make a better accurate reading.
-Using Buzzer to indicate states. Extreme hot: quick intermittent sound. Extreme cold: slower intermittent sound or long continuous sound.

*Light Sensor
-In dimmed environment will light up Orange or Blue LED. LED will be lighted up until a button is pressed to turn it off.
-In dark environement will light up 2 white LED. LED will be turned off once the environment returns to dimmed or bright.
#Possible Upgrade:
-Since sensor is not stable alone, a voltage divider may be formed by combining multiple LDRs or connect it with resistors.

*LCD
-It shows information about lighting, temperature, and patients.
-Moving dots in waiting/loading mode.
#Possible upgrade:
-Moving text
-using pushbuttons to change state

*Fan Cooling System
-Fan will be turned on when the state is hot or extreme hot.
-Fan cannot be used alone from port's output voltage/current. A circuit with transistor must be used to amplify the current
-Arrangement: Output Port ->Resistor ->Base ; Emitter ->GND ; Collector ->Fan GND ; Vcc -> Fan voltage

Wednesday, 15th October

Making the PCB Design using Altium Designer 6.

PCB Design:
1. Sensor
This PCB is where all the sensors are located

2. Indicators
This is where the LEDs, Fan connectors, and buzzers are located.

3. Switches
This is where the pushbuttons and DIP switches are located

4.LCD
This is where the LCD is located.

PCB Design is made modular to ease placement and hardwares prelocating.

Tuesday, 14th October

-Found out how to drive the fan.
Fan requires 210mA of current while port outputs can only provide 25mA current max. So we need transistor to amplify the current.
Choosen transistor is BC337 which is NPN transistor, Emitter-Base Voltage is 5V, and current output form collector is 800mA.

-Starting to make the PCB Design.

Monday, 13th October

-Debugging and fixing temperature sensor

-Integrating the whole system

-Finished integrating but not yet finalising

-Buying parts from Farnell: LM35DZ temperature sensor and 4 7-segment LEDs PCB mount

Sunday 12th October

Integrating everything:
Temperature Sensor
Light Sensor
LCD

-Found out that temperature sensor sometimes work and sometimes not.

Saturday 11th October

No Progress.

Progress finished:
Light touch sensor
If there's a change in voltage in LDR, lighting will go from one state to another

Temperature sensor
Normal (green), warm (red static), hot zone (red flicker) finished. Left with cold and freezing zone. Additional: display temperature in LCD.

Fan control
Using 3rd party fan. Will be turned on when temperature is at hot or extreme zone. Fan speed adjustment may use potentiometer or temperature sensor.

Progress unfinished:
RF device
haven't implemented

7-segment
might be used as clock or counter for baby regular medication/feeding/care time.

LCD
used as information display device.

PCB Design:
havent implement

Friday, 10th October

16th October: PCB Design Submission
23th October: CA2 Assessment

Manage to implement the LCD:
LCD will be used to display any information about the babies.
Will going to implement it with LDR and Thermistor sensor.

RF and Fan control might not have enough time to implement.

Thursday, 9th October

Manage to make the LDR works!
Material:
Advance Fam Lab Circuit
LDR
Multimeter

Workflow:
LDR is used to measure light intensity. If the intensity is too low, LED will light up. In the system, LED will light up if the voltage output from LDR is below 2.3V (Vd=5V, Vgnd=0V, Vinput = 9V). 2.3V is 470d or 1D6h.

Improvement:
-Further possible improvement is to light up different amount of LEDs in different situation.
Ex:
Bright environment = no LED
Dimmed environment (night time? below 2.2-2.3V and higher than 1.5-1.7V?) = 1 or 2 LED
Dark environment (below 1.5-1.7V?) = 4 LEDs?

-Some strings and texts in the LCD to show that the env. is bright or dim or dark.

Next implementation:
LCD and keypad?
wireless RF to transfer data?
LED 7-segment?
-->used to show temperature beside showing it in LCD
-->reminder, quick alerting device?
controlling fan?

Wednesday, 8th October

Manage to make temperature sensor working at 3 different zone: hot, cold, normal
materials:
10K thermistor
10k resistor
*build in Voltage divider circuit form*

Parameters:
Vout <> low voltage caused by low resistance thus high temperature -> red LED on
Vout >2.2V and <2.5v> normal resistance (7900-10000), normal room temperature ->green on
Vout >2.5V -> high voltage out caused by high resistance thus low temperature ->2 LEDs on

Problem encountered:
when either one of the LED is on (thus in normal or high temperature), the LED light up very dimly that we can hardly observe its light. When both LED on (thus cold, low temperature, hi-resistance) they can light up very brightly.

Solution:
still not known. Might ask the GA tomorrow. Another possible way is to use LM35DZ (Centigrade temperature sensor) which is better and more controllable than using voltage divider circuit. LM35DZ gives 0.5mV output voltage for every 1 degree Celcius.

LDR: Lighting sensor
Lighting sensor will be used to lit up baby incubator at night or when lighting is low.

materials:
LDR
37K (since LDR resistance is very high, we need highter resistor to control the voltage swing better)

LCD: havent implemented
used to tell parents and nurse about baby's profile and condition

Fan control: havent implemented
Fan control is a responsive action when temperature in baby box is too high.

RF Wireless: maybe used to send baby data to nurse but havent implemented. maybe used for emergency alarm (such as turning on the buzzer). Immediate reminder. Baby's sound sensor to quickly alert the nurse about what happen with the baby.

7th October

I am researching about temperature sensor.

I found about temperature sensor and how it's used in PIC 16F877.

I am learning about simple voltage divider which will be used to supply voltage input to my microcontroller to measure the temperature. This simple voltage divider cost me a hell lot of time to research.

I am learning that a lot of people in the internet are doing this project too which means that I can learn and copy from them.

I am learning that Op-Amp can be used to modify the voltage divider so as to provide safe amount of current to the PIC 16F877.

Overall still doing nothing.

6th october

I am "starting" my subsystem.

I am checking the program and playing with them.

I am trying to add, reduce, and test the PIC program.

I am learning that voltage from power supply should be at 6-9V for the circuit to work.

I am learning about ADC. That Analog Input is continuously variable such as variable resistor and Digital Input is only 1s and 0s.

Due on...

The project is due on 23rd of October when it will be assessed individually per subsystem.

The PCB design submission should be on 9th of October.

This is the 7th October and I am still at nothing.