Week of December 17th

Relatively inexpensive serial to relay board was found on the Internet.

http://www.pencomdesign.com/8ch_relay.htm

The board should be used on one end of the vehicle only.

One of these should be used:

Eight Channel Relay w/enclosure with adapter & 7' cable	Model # S8-RLY-EXT-S	Price: $109.80
Eight Channel Relay no/enclosure with adapter & 7' cable	Model # S8-RLY-INT-S	Price: $88.20

Highlights from the manufacturer:

	ASCII commands to control relays.
	Easy hook up using standard Modular telephone cable, for connecting PC to single board and for multiple board configurations (9-pin serial to modular cable adapter required available separately).
	Any software language that can write to the PC serial port can be used with this relay board NO special drivers needed.
	9600 baud

Command-line Format

The following structure will turn ON relay number 1 on board addressed as "A" using COM2:

CLS.exe /@COM2 /AH1

Note: the path to the program are not shown in these examples.

The following structure will turn OFF relay number 3 on board addressed as "B" using COM1:

CLS.exe /BL3

Note: the /@COM command is not required for COM1

A space is required between "CLS.exe" and "/@COM2" or between "CLS.exe" and "/AH1" if using COM1, spaces are not required between /@COM2 and /AH1

The following structure using one command will turn OFF relays 1 to 4 and turn ON relays 5 to 8 on a 8 Channel board addressed as "C" using COM1:

CLS.exe /CW240

If the relay board is connected to COM1 the /@COM2 command can be eliminated since the software defaults to COM1. Valid COM commands are from /@COM1 to /@COM16. The slash "/" and at sign "@" are required in the command string.

Only one COM command and one board command are allowed on the line at a time with the COM command first.

The software will only accept the codes required to operate our serial relay boards.

If an incorrect command is entered, the software will display the error and open the program window instead of completing the command in the background.

Future software enhancements may allow multiple commands.

Week of December 3rd

Final Presentation Week
---------------------------------

Things needing to be completed this week:

• Finalize Project Proposal to be handed in December 6th.
  
• Clean up proposal that was consolidated last week from each member's different document responsibilities.
• Finalize Senior Design Presentation

Week of November 26th

Pre-Presentation Week
-------------------------------------

Things that need to be completed this week:

• Divide up the sections by member to be completed for the team project proposal due on Dec. 6th.
• Divide up the sections for the Powerpoint presentation also due on Dec. 6th.
  

Note:
We ordered the remaining parts for lighting and connectivity last week. We are waiting for the parts to arrive so that we can lay them out on the table in the workshop.







Addendum:
------------------------------------------------------------------

Some circuit designs for serial to relay enablers were found:

http://b-l-w.de/serialrelay_en.php

Week of November 19th

-consider ordering bluetooth relays from UK or consider alternatives for switching mechanism other than second motherboard.
-visit Pep Boys and set aside lights, cable, fusebox, wires, etc to be ordered
-write bluetooth connectivity software and input software
-find suitable Host motherboard (small profile and usb bootable)
-write proposal document
-create second presentation document for semester "final presentation"
-bring all devices into workroom and lay everything out on table

Addendum:

A device was found which may help with switching the automotive relays by providing a 5V signal:

IOGear Bluetooth Serial Adapter (already have 3):
http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=product&Item=GBS301

Max233 Microcontroller:
http://www.compsys1.com/workbench/On_top_of_the_Bench/Max233_Adapter/max233_adapter.html

Article on controlling relays directly from rs-232 port (with minimal circuit in between):
http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/rspower.html

Week of November 12th

-Created bootable XPe environment on usb drive.
-installed .Net Framework 1.1 on usb preinstaller environment henceforth called PE.
-created PE environment on local system and built ISO via BART's PE Builder 3.1.10a.
-Created test application for serial ports using Visual Studio 2003 specifically for .Net Framework 1.1.
- installed and tested on usb drive.

Addendum:

Requires testing with IOGear Bluetooth Serial Adapter

Week of November 5th

Ordered and received:

auto relays
breadboards
wires

Week of October 29th

Initial presentation or mid-term presentation is due this week.

-design flow diagram via Visio 2007 and included into the presentation.

-Sketchup animation of 1935 Morgan was created and used in presentation.



Outline of the presentation:


Objectives
Introduction
Functionality

Objectives
Determine which devices will be required
Determine what software will be required
Become familiar with parts
Order parts for testing

Introduction
Introduction
Building a circuit to interface with Bluetooth devices and a microcontroller
Building a circuit of relays to enable/disable each light
Connecting a microcontroller to the Bluetooth devices on each end

Functionality
Configuration …
Device Control …

Testing …
Configuration
Device Control

Week of October 22nd

Received 3 IOGear Bluetooth Serial Adapters from amazon.com.

Week of October 15th

Week of October 8th

Created initial sketches of project and how it would work.

Week of October 1st

Original proposal for project is located here: