Ideas to start my project.

[Lerior]

Hello,

So, I'm taking Electronics II lab this semester, and my professor suggested I do an Automotive related project for this lab, and I really need all the help and guidance I can get. So basically, the idea that my professor suggested is (A quote from my professor):

"I figured that the brake light failure is not displayed on the dashboard. Similarly, health of the other lights may remain unknown to the driver. To build a consolidated health monitoring system for the vehicle, developing a system to identify the following can help a lot.
1.Brake light failure, Head light/fog light failure, wiper failure
2.Tire pressure, seat belt securing ,
3. Air and oxygen content in the car while parked."


So, I would really appreciate any suggestions on how to start, I have never designed a complex project before; I only did basic LED stuff in the past, never built complex circuits, or worked with arduino before. So, I really need all the help that I can get!


Thanks,

 

[(*steve*)]

Start by googling how these things are done.

 

[Lerior]

Start by googling how these things are done.

I did, but I found a lot of stuff that I'm not an expert on. Ahhh, I feel lost

 

[vead]

Hello,
So, I would really appreciate any suggestions on how to start, I have never designed a complex project before; I

If you want to make any project then first you should know what's the purpose of your project. then try to find out what's the requirement of your project such as what's the part's are require to develop your project then download there datasheet. you will find all information in datasheet.

Now you have list of part's and you have to select correct part's for your project. let's suppose, you are using micro in your project. then decide which micro you want to use in your project. you have option 8051/PIC/ARM, find out reason why do you want to use only particular micro. then you have sensor like temperature to see the temperature of your vehicles.then find the information how will you connect sensor to your micro. assemble all hardware parts.

When you feel your hardware is ready then find compiler for your micro, write program and run program until you see no error's. than its time to program your micro, so you have .exe file in your PC so you have to burn that file into your PC. so just connect your micro with PC using cable and burn the program..

if your project doesn't work then again start to figure out what's the wrongs. My advice divide all work into small parts. Do it step by step. you need to pay more attention if you really want to do it.

 

[(*steve*)]

Start by figuring out how you can tell if a bulb has burnt out.

 

[73's de Edd]

After reading the demands and seeing absolutely mostly "do ables", but then seeing the :

1. Tire pressure
2. Air and oxygen content in the car while parked.

I would be wanting to check out his electronics knowledge and credentials to see, if in fact, he is PRIMARILY an athletics instructor and drew the short straw in a pool of instructors having to take on the burden of teaching an additional class, of a field which none are knowledgeable in.
Ask him to give you some directional guidelines or concepts of those 1 and 2 aspects, to see if he just pulled them from the sky, not knowing their involved complexity, nor his having a rats ass chance of creating their solutions himself.
On #1 not all vehicles have expensive TPMS hardware and the support uProcesor to tap data from.
That #2 is an involved analysis situation unless your car has a "finger" to clip around.

#2 is often covered by measuring cabin CO2 content.
I would be more interested in CO content.

 

[kellys_eye]

#2 is often covered by measuring cabin CO2 content.

 

[Irv]

Wiper failure? Does this actually require an alarm?
After-market tire pressure sensors are available for about $70, so that should be doable.
As for O2 sensors, seems like a carbon monoxide sensor would be much more justified - people die from that every year. Easier to do, too.
Developing a sensor to detect kids left behind in a hot car would be the best use of your time.

 

[hevans1944]

Developing a sensor to detect kids left behind in a hot car would be the best use of your time.

I strongly agree with this. It is past time, given the current state-of-the-art in electronics technology, to implement a "living thing left behind" alarm system. Children, infants, pets, disabled adults... anyone incapable of freeing themselves from a potentially fatal situation not of their choosing can and should be protected with an alarm system that allows Good Samaritans or other official "first responders" to intervene in life-threatening situations.

A "fish eye" digital camera and sophisticated image processing software should be able to determine the occupancy status of a vehicle. Perhaps this could be unobtrusively incorporated into a "dome light" fixture. CCD cameras are sensitive to near-infrared radiation and can be mounted behind "black" (to human eyes) domes while still producing perfectly usable images. Combine this image processing with temperature sensing, audio microphones and passive infrared motion sensors to reduce or eliminate "false positives". Then, when a "true positive" is detected, all hell should break loose with flashing headlights, horn sounding, and perhaps a siren or other loud noise-maker that no one could ignore. One might even go as far as automatically unlocking car doors, so passersby can "rescue" the trapped occupants. Of course everything is to be recorded on solid-state memory modules for legal use after the event... maybe even streamed in real time to a dedicated emergency monitoring network. Sort of like You Tube on steroids.

 

[kellys_eye]

Perhaps this could be unobtrusively incorporated into a "dome light" fixture.

Great location for a detector but a simple IR detector (as used in motion detection devices) would be sufficient. The alternative is an ultrasonic movement detector. These are often fitted in cars for alarm purposes (my Jeep has one) and would alarm if anyone 'left inside' moved even a fraction!

There are many micro-sized SD-card-recording video cameras on the market that have motion detection in them too. Use IR/ultrasonics to alarm for movement and the camera to record any.

Banggood are doing a very cheap camera with 160 degree FOV.

 

[FuZZ1L0G1C]

Left in hot car / possibly asleep or already passed out:
IR would probably trigger each time empty car upholstery heated up.
Doppler sensing may work if it senses fairly fast movement - I've accidentally triggered my alarm several times when parked somewhere with engine off and doors closed.
I wonder if manufacturers have ever put pressure-mats inside seats?
That way, any mass over, say 3 Kg, could trigger alarm or remote beeper.
Provided that same conditions of a basic loop car burglar-intrusion alarm are met.
(Engine off / doors closed).
~~~~~~
~ ~~ .

 

[Hopup]

I think they do have pressure sensors in many cars inside the seats just not very accurate one probably.

Not related to above:

"A sensor pad that is placed under the cover of a child car seat communicates with the parent’s key fob. When the parent gets more than 40 feet away from their car the pad activates, checking for weight. If the weight of a child is sensed, three alarms sound: the key fob, a phone app and the car alarm, reported the Washington Post."

http://wqad.com/2014/07/26/new-mexico-teen-develops-car-seat-alarm-system-to-prevent-hot-car-deaths/

 

[chopnhack]

Agreed, they do have pressure sensors in car seats, it is what is used to enable/disable the airbag in the front passenger seat of many vehicles.

It's a shame the OP hasn't returned since January - the project is doable in parts and has some really good uses. I hope he hasn't given up, automation is one of my favorites ;-)

 

[Kiwi]

Looks like another "Googler" that stumbles onto a forum, asks a question, gets a few replies, then disappears, never to be heard from again.