USBCELL rechargeable batteries - charged using the USB port
These came out a while back and are worth the money, in my opinion.
I searched for software specifically made to monitor the battery level of USBCELL batteries and got nothing. There are some USB port monitor programs out there which might tie in somehow, but they could be unrelated also.
Anyway..
Is it possible to write a program that tells you the battery level of the USBCELL when its plugged in and is charging?
EDIT
If it makes any difference, the batteries have status lights that turn on when plugged in.
There is nothing to install (optional or required) to get these to work.
its USBCELL man here
Yes regular versions have embedded circuitry, though we do make a special USBCELL version (mainly currently for corporates), that is branded and has a downloadable USB charge monitor - that can carry cross promotions/discount codes. This is programmable, but not in the general retail version. Regular packs can also be branded for events, www.usbcell.com/customize.php
In the meantime, there is a special christmas USBCELL pack for gamers - http://www.usbcell.com/product/13 which is great for gifts
regards
USBCELL EcoMan
I don't have these batteries, nor have I used them, but the most likely situation is that there is internal circuitry inside the batteries that decides whether to pull power from the USB port.
A "normal" battery charger works the same way in that:
if there is power and the battery is not charged, draw power to charge the battery;
else do not draw power.
So, it is quite unlikely that you'll be able to monitor the battery's voltage, as there should be no reason for the battery to "communicate" upstream to the computer via USB.
Unless these batteries have a proprietary protocol to communicate their status, you are out of luck.
The standard specifications (E/O/UHCI) do not provide for any information beyond the "Port Power" bits to indicate that the hardware is supplying power to the port (not if its being drawn by the device).
Some embedded systems offer more extensive information, but it comes from custom on board logic. (Usually a power circuit connected to the USB port, and not part of the actual USB controller).
The USB Battery Charging 2.0 specification, should address these issues. But it will be quite a while before products supporting it hit the market.
If you do find a trick, keep us posted !
Related
I am a physicist, and I had a revelation a few weeks ago about how I might be able to use my personal computer to get much finer control over laboratory experiments than is typically the case. Before I ran off to try this out though, I wanted to check the feasibility with people who have more expertise than myself in such matters.
The idea is to use the i/o ports---VGA, ethernet, speaker jacks, etc.---on the computer to talk directly to the sensors and actuators in the experimental setup. E.g. cut open one side of an ethernet cable (with the other end attached to the computer) and send each line to a different device. I knew a postdoc who did something very similar using a BeagleBone. He wrote some assembly code that let him sync everything with the internal clock and used the GPIO pins to effectively give him a hybrid signal generator/scope that was completely programmable. It seems like the same thing should be possible with a laptop, and this would have the additional benefit that you can do data analysis from the same device.
The main potential difficulty that I foresee is that the hardware on a BeagleBone is designed with this sort of i/o in mind, whereas I expect the hardware on a laptop will probably be harder to control directly. I know for example (from some preliminary investigation, http://ask.metafilter.com/125812/Simple-USB-control-how-to-blink-an-LED-via-code) that USB ports will be difficult to access this way, and VGA is (according to VGA 15 pin port data read and write using Matlab) impossible. I haven't found anything about using other ports like ethernet or speaker jacks, though.
So the main question is: will this idea be feasible (without investing many months for each new variation of the hardware), and if so what type of i/o (ethernet, speaker jacks, etc.) is likely to be the best bet?
Auxiliary questions are:
Where can I find material to learn how I might go about executing this plan? I'm not even sure what keywords to plug in on Google.
Will the ease with which I can do this depend strongly on operating system or hardware brand?
The only cable I can think of for a pc that can get close to this would be a parallel printer cable which is pretty much gone away. It's a 25 wire cable that data is spread across so that it can send more data at the same time. I'm just not sure if you can target a specific line or if it's more of a left to right fill as data is sent.
To use one on a laptop today would definitely be difficult. You won't find any laptops with parallel ports. There are usb to parallel cables and serial to parallel cables but I would guess that the only control you would have it to the usb or serial interface and not the parallel.
As for Ethernet, you have 4 twisted pair with only 2 pair in use and 2 pair that are extra.
There's some hardware that available called Zwave that you might want to look into. Zwave will allow you to build a network of devices that communicate in a mesh. I'm not sure what kind of response time you need.
I actually just thought of something that might be a good solution. Check out security equipment. There's a lot of equipment available for pc's that monitor doors, windows, sensors, etc. That industry might what your looking for.
I think the easiest way would be to use the USB port as a Human Interface Device (HID) and using a custom built PIC program and a PIC that includes the USB functionality to encode the data to be sent to the computer and in that way be able to program it independently from the OS due to the fact that all mayor OS have the HID USB functionality.
Anyways if you used your MIC/VGA/HDMI whatever other port you still need a device to encode the data or transmit it, and another program inside the computer to decode that data being sent.
And remember that different hardware has different software (drivers) that might decode the raw data in other odd ways rendering your IO hardware dependent.
Hope this helps, but thats why the USB was invented in the first place to make it hardware and os independent.
I'm looking for a GPS for a small class project. We want the smallest GPS possible and all we really need it to do is to give us longitude and latitude values when we poll it.
I tried looking at sparkfun, but since we haven't really worked with this type of hardware before, it's hard to know which kind we really want/what parts we need.
What We Need:
smallest possible
longest battery life
only need long and lat
able to be polled from some other device such as a mobile app or website
Thanks!
there are two paths to this, one is just get a bluetooth receiver, you will be able to poll it from a mobile phone or whatever. going to likely be as big as the phone, have the battery inside, etc. not sure how long it will last on one charge.
There are other solutions designed for putting in packages being shipped, better battery life, but their goal is as data loggers and not necessarily something you can cable up and poll and likely not wireless if that is what you are after.
Now if you want to build your own, and you already went to sparkfun, here is another path.
I know that leaving links in an answer at SO is bad...This was longer than a comment and will add some more info...
You want small you can go with this
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11571
It is a GP-635T gps receiver, if you look at the picture it really is around the size of a quarter. 50 channel. Point it up the way they tell you, antenna is built in, just power it and it works.
You will need to hook up to it. It is the serial version not usb, in either case you need a cable like this.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10361
This link is to a cable with 6 or 8 inch pigtails, the gps receiver comes on a board with a not so uncommon connector on it, this cable allows you get at those connections, you only need three.
The datasheet on the sparkfun page or probably just search for the part number, you need to look at the UART TTL pinouts not the usb pinouts. Yo uneed 3.3 to 5.5volts to power it pin 2, pin 1 is ground. then pin 3 is txa serial out. This is where you get your data.
these are various solutions that will work
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9873
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/718
http://jim.sh/ftx/
some soldering may be required. The above links are various solutions between $10 and $15 for ftdi usb to serial/uart break out boards. These will include 3.3v and ground and the rx pin is the receiver for the ftdi uart, you tie that to txa on the gps unit.
What you may not know and may be interested in is that almost universally gps units do their math magic and come up with the various items time, position (2d or 3d), speed, etc. And they output this data in a serial manner. search for NMEA or NMEA-0183. The data sheet for this and any other should give an indication of the default data rate (4800, 9600, 19200, etc baud) and what messages are sent. sometimes you can change the baud rate, sometimes you cant. The ftdi chips/boards are very flexible use a usb cable to plug in the board to a computer, configure your software or a dumb terminal program like minicom or hyperterm or teraterm or whatever (no parity, no hardware flow control) and the messages will appear usually once a second. Whether it is your car navigation, handheld gps, whatever, buried inside is some flavor of gps reciever (sparkfun will give you an indication of just how many different flavors there are and their selection is just scratching the surface) that outputs serial and the software in that unit is receiving that serial data and then doing its thing (mapping, navigating, etc). As with modems back in the day the ones you find in your cell phone might have some of the software/math done by the main processor in the phone to save on money, these libraries are not generally available, when you make the deal to buy thousands or millions of units they allow you to pay for the software to go with it along with your signature on a bunch of legal documents. I assume this is the case, that is how the ones in phones are down to $10 or so where these fully contained solutions are usually $50 to $100 in single quantities and likely not a lot cheaper in quantity.
Once powered, even if it says X number of seconds hot or cold to lock it doesnt always take that, sometimes if it has to search it may still take a while, the less metal you have around (like being in a building or the center of a car) the worse it is to the point it may not lock.
if you have an older garmin street pilot (that is otherwise dead I would hate to kill one of those if it is working) you can rip it apart and likely find a sirf III or other module in there, likely a 5V not 3.3 (there are 5V ftdi based breakout usb to serial. the microftx is both 5v and 3.3, note the gps receiver linked above is also 5v or 3.3) googling will be required to figure out the pinout and such, and soldering might or might not be a challenge.
you can also find old etrex or other handhelds on ebay or wherever (that work!) and for $15 or so get a serial cable, well then you need a serial to usb likely which will also need a level shifter like a max232, you dont plug this right into a ftdi break out board, it will fry it. newer ones have usb and you can power the unit from the usb and likely see the nmea data over the usb as well.
Most of the stuff you see on sparkfun in the gps area is going to be related to these various brands and models of gps recivers that output nmea data over serial. some are 5V some are 3.3, many do not have antennas and you have to buy those separately (and get the right kind, one that plugs into the connector provided, etc). I have a number of these items and they all work just fine, some do better than others around buildings or in trees, etc. Around sparkfun you will also find lipo battery solutions and bluetooth or xbee or other wireless solutions, very quickly if you need wireless, I think you will find just buying an off the shelf solution is best. I have had my eye on the garmin bluetooth thing google
Garmin GLO Portable GPS and GLONASS Receiver
it is about $99. I have not pulled the trigger yet so I dont know how good or bad it is, the el cheapo brands just look cheap.
Of course, a smart phone has both wireless and a gps and you can get a lot of used phones for cheap on ebay. Ios and android. You could "just write an android app" and put it on the phone and use one of the wireless interfaces built into the phone. It will chew through the battery yes, how fast? who knows.
I am new to the locating hardware side of embedded programming and so after being completely overwhelmed with all the choices out there (pc104, custom boards, a zillion option for each board, volume discounts, devel kits, ahhh!!) I am asking here for some direction.
Basically, I must find a new motherboard and (most likely) re-implement the program logic. Rewriting this in C/C++/Java/C#/Pascal/BASIC is not a problem for me. so my real problem is finding the hardware. This motherboard will have several other devices attached to it. Here is a summary of what I need to do:
Required:
2 RS232 serial ports (one used all the time for primary UI, the second one not continuous)
1 modem (9600+ baud ok) [Modem will be in simultaneous use with only one of the serial port devices, so interrupt sharing with one serial port is OK, but not both]
Minimum permanent/long term storage: Whatever O/S requires + 1 MB (executable) + 512 KB (Data files)
RAM: Minimal, whatever the O/S requires plus maybe 1MB for executable.
Nice to have:
USB port(s)
Ethernet network port
Wireless network
Implementation languages (any O/S I will adapt to):
First choice Java/C# (Mono ok)
Second choice is C/Pascal
Third is BASIC
Ok, given all this, I am having a lot of trouble finding hardware that will support this that is low in cost. Every manufacturer site I visit has a lot of options, and it's difficult to see if their offering will even satisfy my must-have requirements (for example they sometimes list 3 "serial ports", but it appears that only one of the three is RS232, for example, and don't mention what the other two are). The #1 constraint is cost, #2 is size.
Can anyone help me with this? This little task has left me thinking I should have gone for EE and not CS :-).
EDIT: A bit of background: This is a system currently in production, but the original programmer passed away, and the current hardware manufacturer cannot find hardware to run the (currently) DOS system, so I need to reimplement this in a modern platform. I can only change the programming and the motherboard hardware.
I suggest buying a cheap Atom Mini-ITX board, some of which come with multi - 4+ RS232 ports.
But with Serial->USB converters, this isn't really an issue. Just get an Atom. And if you have code, port your software to Linux.
Here is a link to a Jetway Mini-Itx board, and a link to a 4 port RS232 expansion module for it. ~$170 total, some extra for memory, a disk, and a case and PSU. $250-$300 total.
Now here is an Intel Atom Board at $69 to which you could add flash storage instead of drives, and USB-serial converters for any data collection you need to do.
PC104 has a lot of value in maximizing the space used in 19" or 23" rackmount configurations - if you're not in that space, PC104 is a waste of your time and money, IMHO.
The BeagleBoard should have everything you need for $200 or so - it can run Linux so use whatever programming language you like.
A 'modern' system will run DOS so long as it is x86, I suggest that you look at an industrial PC board from a supplier such as Advantech, your existing system may well run unchanged if it adheres to PC/DOS/BIOS standards.
That said if your original system runs on DOS, the chances are that you do not need the horsepower of a modern x86 system, and can save money by using a microcontroller board using something fairly ubiquitous such as an ARM. Also if DOS was the OS, then you most likely do not need an OS at all, and could develop the system "bare-metal". The resources necessary just to support Linux are probably far greater than your existing application and OS together, and for little or no benefit unless you intend on extending the capability of the system considerably.
There are a number of resources available (free and commercial) for implementing a file system and USB on a bare-metal system or a system using a simple real-time kernel such as FreeRTOS or eCOS which have far smaller footprints than Linux.
The Windows embedded site ( http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/default.mspx )
has a lot of resources and links to hardware partners, distributors and development kits. There's even a "Spark" incubation project ( http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/community/spark/default.mspx )
What's also really nice about using windows ce is that it now supports Silverlight as a development environment.
I've used the jetway boards / daughter cards that Chris mentioned with success for various projects from embedded control, my home router, my HTPC front end.
You didn't mention what the actual application was but if you need something more industrial due to temperature or moisture constraints i've found http://www.logicsupply.com/ to be a good resource for mini-itx systems that can take a beating.
A tip for these board is that given your minimal storage requirements, don't use a hard drive. Use an IDE adapter for a compact flash card as the system storage or an SD card. No moving parts is usually a big plus in these applications. They also usually offer models with DC power input so you can use a laptop like or wall wart external supply which minimizes its final size.
This http://www.fit-pc.com/web/ is another option in the very small atom PC market, you'd likely need to use some USB converters to get to your desired connectivity.
The beagle board Paul mentioned is also a good choice, there are daughter cards for that as well that will add whatever ports you need and it has an on board SD card reader for whatever storage you need. This is also a substantially lower power option vs the atom systems.
There are a ton of single board computers that would fit your needs. When searching you'll normally find that they don't keep many interface connectors on the processor board itself but rather you need to look at the stackable daughter cards they offer which would provide whatever connections you need (RS-232, etc.). This is often why you see just "serial port" in the description as the final physical layer for the serial port will be defined on the daughter card.
There are a ton of arm based development boards you could also use, to many to list, these are similar to the beagle board. Googling for "System on module" is a good way to find many options. These again are usually a module with the processor/ram/flash on 1 card and then offer various carrier boards which the module plugs into which will provide the various forms of connectivity you need.
In terms of development, the atom boards will likely be the easiest if your more familiar with x86 development. ARM is strongly supported under linux though so there is little difficulty in getting these up and running.
Personally i would avoid windows for a headless design like your discussing, i rarely see a windows based embedded device that isn't just bad.
Take at look at one of the boards in the Arduino line, in particular the Arduino Mega. Very flexible boards at a low cost, and the Mega has enough I/O ports to do what you need it to do. There is no on-chip modem, but you can connect to something like a Phillips PCD3312C over the I2C connector or you can find an Arduino add-on board (called a "shield") to give you modem functionality (or Bluetooth, ethernet, etc etc). Also, these are very easy to connect to an external memory device (like a flash drive or an SD card) so you should have plenty of storage space.
For something more PC-like, look for an existing device that is powered by a VIA EPIA board. There are lot of devices out there that use these (set-top boxes, edge routers, network security devices etc) that you can buy and re-program. For example, I found a device that was supposed to be a network security device. It came with the EPIA board, RAM, a hard drive, and a power supply. All I had to do was format the hard drive, install Linux (Debian had all necessary drivers already included), and I had a complete mini-computer ready to go. It only cost me around $45 too (bought brand new, unopened on ebay).
Update: The particular device I found was an EdgeSecure i10 from Ingrian Networks.
Is it possible to program a wireless adapter attached to a computer?
I need to modify how they work, not just using them to perform a task such as scanning or connecting.
I have already tried the Native Wifi API, but that library is too high level. I cannot modify how exactly the wireless adapter works.
Any solution in any programming language in any operating system is very welcomed. (Sounds so desperate lol)
You need an open-source operating system then. Hardware varies in how programmable it is, but for example, Atheros wireless cards do not have an on-board processor, and therefore they do the absolute minimum of the 802.11 protocol in hardware, leaving everything else to the device driver. More info in these places: http://linuxwireless.org/ http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/linville/wireless-testing.git;a=summary;
If you really need to go further that what commodity hardware can do, look in to GNU Radio and the USRP/USRP2: http://gnuradio.org/redmine/wiki/gnuradio
And yes, you do have to be careful about the legal implications of this stuff, but then if you don't turn off the regulatory framework, there is software to help with that.
Generally speaking, the manufacturer will attempt to prevent you from doing this. Since what you're working with is really a radio transceiver, its operation is regulated. In the US, for example, such things fall under the purview of the FCC. Depending on the country, changing how it operates (and then operating it) is likely to be illegal.
If you have an atheros chipset on your WLAN card then load up linux and install ath5k/ath9k or madwifi and you can do some interesting things with the driver.
I had a look at this and this but no one sounded particularly sure of their ideas and I'm kind of after a different thing anyway. I want to hook my usb power cables (red and black) up to my phone so I don't have to use a battery (the battery is dead anyway and this is just an experiment). The problem is that USB standards ensure that a minimum of 4.35V is supplied, when I only want 3.7V. Does anyone know for sure that you can or cannot regulate power output programmatically? Some other queries I have are: What kind of power does the sleep mode provide? And what would I need to code something in to play with this, C++?
No, you won't find a computer that allows you to set this voltage in software. It would break the USB specification.
You can get 150mA by default, and 500mA if your USB device negotiates it with the computer (requiring a little bit of logic in the device). Multiply by 5V to get the provided power.
A bit more info on the answer from Pascal:
The normal operation (Non-Configured mode) is 100mA
In theory, the operating system should check the MaxPower value of the device's configuration descriptor to decide if to allow it to draw more than 100mA.
In practice, PCs do not do it (and have no way to control it). So you can try taking 500mA.
(Of course connecting a bus powered hub and linking more then one 500mA device, should, not work.)
If the device is not actively used, the OS may (and should) suspend it. When suspended the power is limited to 1-0.5mA (Again, in theory, since it can not be controlled by software).