I just recently tried making a tripmaster using a GPS dongle. For the people who don't know what a tripmaster is: it's a device that accurately calculates the distance travelled by a vehicle.
I used a gps dongle to calculate the travelled distance using vincenty's formula. I made some adjustments and it worked reasonably well. However, it wasn't accurate enough... So now I'm thinking of starting a new project!
I want to make a device that counts the number of rotations from a tire. Imo it should be reasonably easy to make. I just need a sensor (optical, magnetic or something like that) with an usb jack that registers the pulses every time the tire rotates. for instance, I could assemble a magnet onto the tire and fix a sensor next to it..
The only problem is... I don't know how to retrieve pulse signal from an usb device without any third party software. What kind of sensor would you guys suggest? I was thinking of building my own device for this project, but I don't have a data acquisition card to process any signals...perhaps a consumer sensor with third party software would be easier to start with, but I have no idea where to start looking. Do you guys have any suggestions where I should start looking? I'm a real n00b with electronics. Any help would be highly appreciated!
greetings,
xendelaar
I used a gps dongle to calculate the travelled distance using vincenty's formula. I made some adjustments and it worked reasonably well. However, it wasn't accurate enough... So now I'm thinking of starting a new project!
I want to make a device that counts the number of rotations from a tire. Imo it should be reasonably easy to make. I just need a sensor (optical, magnetic or something like that) with an usb jack that registers the pulses every time the tire rotates. for instance, I could assemble a magnet onto the tire and fix a sensor next to it..
The only problem is... I don't know how to retrieve pulse signal from an usb device without any third party software. What kind of sensor would you guys suggest? I was thinking of building my own device for this project, but I don't have a data acquisition card to process any signals...perhaps a consumer sensor with third party software would be easier to start with, but I have no idea where to start looking. Do you guys have any suggestions where I should start looking? I'm a real n00b with electronics. Any help would be highly appreciated!
greetings,
xendelaar