12/09/2008 by peter.

After much faffing around (about a year since i started this particular folly) I have actually got a Beta version finished. WOOHOHOO!!!

Some videos to show what it does.

http://www.vimeo.com/1718065 :showing the bootloader in action (only changing the version number in this example)
http://www.vimeo.com/1718090 :Biofeedback 1
http://www.vimeo.com/1718106 :Biofeedback 2

Now just to polish the code and make up the final beta hardware…

Always something else to do

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12/09/2008 by peter.

So far there are 2 biofeedback algorithms in the this contraption although this is by no means all that there could be.
One is a straight feedback system that simply adds the input form the sensor to a pre-set in a way which will have no overflow control. This means that with zero pre-set the output will be positively proportional to input. With a little pre-set, less force is needed to reach high power and the motor can be kept ticking over. With a good bit of pre-set then to get max output muscle action must be maintained below a threshold or there will be an overflow and the thing will stop until the muscle relaxes again. finally with a lot of pre-set then the device will be at max at rest and the more force excreted the vibrations will drop off and then ramp up with pressure.
The second will have a time delay in it so it will ramp up slowly, then once a muscle pulse larger than a pre-set value comes along it will drop off, wait and then start ramping again. This can be tweaked in a number of ways e.g. the dead time can be modified based upon the frequency of pulses received or the pre-set could vary with time, either increasing or decreasing.
Of course data can be fed back and forth to the computer which will be able to carry out more complex algorithms which opens up amazing possibilities….

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12/09/2008 by peter.

With my new 24PCBFA6G sensor and Myself Probe (which was nice enough to fit together with minimal faffing) I can detect squishing of the probe by simply measuring the output of the pressure sensor on my shiny new scope.

and as you can see a squish provides a good positive response (yellow and blue are the 2 outputs form the bridge and red is the difference between them ie the output)

(yes I know the 2 channels are on different scales, that’s just my incompetence but it demonstrates the point anyway)

EDIT: This is a better example

All that is required now is an input amp and some software to make the PIC do something interesting with these pulses.

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