The DAQ arrived yesterday. I spent about an hour and half in some seriously deep thought with my nose buried in my laptop reading through the DAQ manual, forum posts and example code. The goal being to finalize my strategy on how I'll use the device to accurately record & time distance traveled, display progress and with reasonable accuracy, determine the winner and riders' true elapsed times.
Seems like these requirements would be so simple to meet. However, they are not. Well, not for a semi perfectionist, bent on having this set up be more than just remotely accurate. The DAQ is simply an interface with the real world, it won't think for the computer. The main issue is that its output is not event based. Meaning it doesn't alert the computer when something is going on or happened. So, the computer has to monitor the DAQ and it's inputs and perform its own logic on the results. Which by the way may be erased if they aren't monitored quickly enough. So, everything will need to be accomplished in a loop. Yeah, I know, still seems simple but, there are limitations, unruly behaviors and other concerns with the DAQ and sensors that need to be accommodated.
Sensor position has come under fire again. The crank position may not provide accuracy in timing I desire. I think I am going to have to go with a wheel mounted magnet to improve the accuracy of the timing but, not require the setup to deal with as high of a frequency as a roller mounted magnet. Which means some potential magnet modification. More work.
The rest of this problem going to have to be solved in code and and ample amounts of testing. The plan is now to build out a couple of methods to accomplish the requirements in code. Then bribe some friends to take turns putting the set up through its paces for a full blown test. Hoping to do a little more reading this evening and possibly some coding tomorrow.
Tentative Test and Tune day is May 14th. Anyone up for a little sprinting on rollers. I'll probably only need you to sprint for 20 seconds 50 or 60 times. :)
Maybe I'll just work on a logo for the blog and GUI. That's easy enough and would not require as much thought.
