SparqEE: Enabling Cell phone tech for DIYers

 

Originally I started this blog as a more general purpose hacking site, however it’s been a little more dedicated to sports sensors and ANT+ the last few months. I’ve talked about Kickstarter a lot lately and its potential role with my powermeter project, so it goes without saying that when something cool pops up I’d let my followers know about it.

The short: Easy to use Cell phone data technology for Raspberry Pi and Arduino. Some cool additional boards too!

Keep in mind that my V3 power meter was Arduino based, so this could be a cool extension for ANT+ technology. Switch my code into receiving mode and broadcast your data for live triathlon / race telemetry for coaches, friends, and data / tech geeks like me on the web! If interested sign up for the kickstarter here. These guys have the engineering skills and creativity to make this product happen!

So what could you use it for? Followers of the Tour De France will likely know that the HTC Columbia team did something very interesting with their ANT+ enabled phone here. Their ANT+ sensors (speed, cadence, heart rate and power) talked to their ANT+ enabled cell phones and the cell phone relays that data to the HTC website. Up until now recreating this would be a very difficult prospect – few phones are ANT+ enabled (even HTC ones) and you’d have to deal with making a server to receive and display the data. Sparkfun has some cell modules but they’ve always come off difficult to me and not very inviting to use.

SparqEE is doing the heavy lift on this! They are going to have libraries for easy coding with both Arduino and Raspberry Pi as well as having a server for your projects to communicate with! This means easier cell phone enabled projects. Wouldn’t it be cool for a coach to watch your data in a competitive tri, or a hard training ride remotely?

They also have some really cool low cost add on modules to help fill out your projects in addition to the easy to use shields for using the same module on either an Arduino or Raspberry Pi. The add on board that entices me most is a relatively low cost GPS board. Low cost bicycle tracker? Call it up and find a stolen bike so long as it has GPS signal / power / isn’t in the middle of nowhere. How about a remote g-force logger – lots of sporting applications. Track that “24 hours of Lemons” race or your downhill skiing and snowboarding. People involved in SAE competitions like Formula SAE or Mini Baja can now easily add telemetry! Great experience and all for a about a hundred dollars to set it up.

Some other suggestions for the SparqEE that comes to mind:

Garmin sells a online tracker for about $200 dollars. You could easily build your own for less and add a lot of feature sets such as relaying other useful data. Track your fellow Nordic Skiers on a trail perhaps? Or your Dog?

Competitive Geocaching – track others as they get close to difficult to find / challenging to reach caches! Relay their locations to your cell phone and race them to the goal.

Or maybe do you own Top Gear Style race with a Google maps tracking. This is my favourite. I’m a cycling enthusiast but I also love spirited driving. I’d love to have a distance race between friends!

This project has a lot of potential, and I’ve been avoiding the obvious things: Household monitoring, finding your car in a parking lot, finding your significant other in the parking lot before you find your car, etc. Take a look at it and see if it suits your application here!

Some other items of interest from the team shown below

Press Release: http://www.sparqee.com/kickstarter/20130820_pressRelease.html
Pictures: http://www.sparqee.com/kickstarter/20130820_pics.html
Blog we posted: http://www.blog.sparqee.com/?p=53

Launching a “Product”

Some people have remarked that they may have either been confused about the goals of the project. This is the result of these goals being fairly fluid. Shown above are the next three major phases left in this project. First is to finish building the latest prototype (70%+ Complete) which will serve as the template for the beta units. Once this is debugged I will be producing several Beta units. Initially I’ll loan them out locally, then I will loan them via mail to other candidates. Assuming that things go well I am going to take a serious look at using Kickstarter as a launch platform for development kits and potentially a final FCC / ANT+ approved version. Development kits would be targeted for Delivery in Jan / Feb 2014 while a finalized version would likely be Spring of 2014.

More details of each phase after the break.

Single Sided Measurement, Kickstater Coming to Canada

Just a reminder, the above board made by APCircuits has worked out well. They are a 7/7 mil service however the board was designed for 6/6 mil process of OSHpark. The problem was the turn around. APCircuits had the order on a Wednesday night and it was delivered Monday afternoon. Total cost is $88 dollars shipped with Fedex Priority which was $30 for 4 boards. OSHpark is 17 shipped for 6 boards.

APCircuits are very good, they reminded me that there were “errors” in the board, but as previously mentioned I told them to go ahead. I haven’t found a single problem with the boards and I’ve tested all the small traces. I have tested the RTD sensor lines but they are larger to decrease resistance so I’m not concerned.

Above is the board connected to the debugger, battery and a single full bridge setup which is connected to my 4 setup test arm used in thermal testing from here. This means it’s pretty much equivalent to the Stages One powermeter. Single sided, but that’s just for testing out, coding and debugging.

Below are a few more pictures.

I expect that I’m going to have to re-adjust timelines. I’m away beginning of next month for a wedding and waiting until I’m back to order the strain gauges needed. I’m going to look into re-adjusting my proposed schedule and see what I can do. The “to do” list is still extensive but nothing impossible. The hardest thing really was the reflow. While still not perfect it’s fine. Again, the solution was to ditch the BGA package. That’s advice for any hobbyist with a DIY reflow oven. BGA is too much of a headache, QFN is hard but not impossible. Still haven’t received any import bill for mouser yet.

1. Finish coding that couldn’t proceed until the boards were completed and working
• I only coded initially for one side
• I’m cheating and only outputting raw reads to the power, this is mainly for debugging
• Sort out UART connection to help “debug”
• Look at implementing TE/PS measurements – This is low priority as no head units can read it
• I won’t code thermal until later and I get a sample RTD from omega
2. Enclosure design – I decided to hold back a bit on this due to adjustments that might need to be made for the board design.
3. Instrument another crank (or V3 to conserve cranks, have to rework it by removing old gauges and installing the new ones in the right locations (slight movement and different gauges)) and connect up powermeter.
4. Mount battery, measure current consumption.

My rate of work on this has to slow down anyway from both a financial position and a time position. The board was the main hurdle at this point, right now getting it together. However I am seriously looking at Kickstarter when it comes to Canada in order to offer the Board (~$40), Dev units ($500 – 600), and final units on Hollow Forged Cranks ($700 FCC Approved). At least that’s the goal. I’ll know more when I get circuit board manufacturing quotes and find out minimum order quantities in a few weeks.