Event Per Hour

[2M MACHINING]

What I need is a circuit that will read a button pushed and display a rate (button pushes/hour) in rear time.<p>The range would be 1/hr to 360/hr.<p>does anyone know of any existing device that can be adapted. Or would it be so special that a design your own is the only way.<p>If design your own is the answer,what would be easier to start with ,the oopic, basic stamp,or?<p>I have an oopic and played around with it .<p>(but not like Michael J ).<p>Any sugguestions appricated<p>Mike M<p>

[ezpcb]

Mike<p>the easiest way is using binary counter such as 74hc393. use the output pins to drive some LED then you can know the number.<p>a more advanced design is using a uC to drive LCD or 7 segment LEDs. the programming is very easy, you can try it.<p>Mike

[Externet]

Hi.
What about feeding the pulse to the serial port of a compfuser and a tiny Basic program will grab the time stamp; log when the event occurred and calculate the hourly rate? I think even a palmtop can do it.
Miguel

[philba]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by 2M MACHINING:
What I need is a circuit that will read a button pushed and display a rate (button pushes/hour) in rear time.<p>The range would be 1/hr to 360/hr.
...<hr></blockquote><p>
Assuming you mean REAL time (I love that typo...), what is the measurement period? The last 60 minutes or the current clock hour or ...?<p>Probably a micro would be best in both cases. Current clock hour is pretty simple but I suspect you want trailing hour. I'd do a "histogram" approach - 60 buckets (1 per minute) and just wrap around when you get to 60. At each minute tick, clear the bucket for that minute. Upon each button press, increment the current minute count, compute the new presses-per-hour and update the display. You might want to smooth the current count so it goes down or up slowly rather than jumps.<p>There are dataloggers and event counters that might be repurposed to do the counting but the events per hour requirement may be hard to find.<p>Phil<p>[ June 14, 2005: Message edited by: philba ]</p>

[Newz2000]

This kind of makes me think of a project I wanted to do about a year ago.<p>I wanted to make a big button for my computer so that I could push it to make my computer do something. Now that I've learned about micro-processors and such, it seems like this would be feasible. Maybe the original poster could find an old junk computer running DOS or Linux (or Windows) that had a working serial port. Then, a simple micro-controller project which interfaces with a serial port could log the data. A simple report could refresh periodically and show whatever you wanted. By using a computer, you can keep this data for ages and look at historical trends and all kinds of nifty stuff.<p>As a matter of fact, there was a project once called "Phidgets" that allowed you to quickly create devices that interface with a computer using simple VB programs. You could use something like this and a macro running in Excel to log your data. They weren't extrodiarily cheap, but you could just buy the module with a USB port for your computer and then buttons motors and sensors for your project as needed and then simply plug them together.<p>Doing it all on your own, I suspect the total cost of parts would cost less than $10 (not counting a programmer for the microprocessor). This would be for a pic microcontroller ($3.50), a button ($0.50), a serial port ($1.00) and the few misc parts needed to connect them together.<p>Some day I'm going to do this, but not today. I'd also like to have a nob for my computer, or better yet, a nob with a button. I'd also like to have a babel fish and doors that make a satisfied sigh of contentment whenever they open and close, but that is a conversation for a different message board.

[Gorgon]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Matt Nuzum:
.... I'd also like to have a babel fish and doors that make a satisfied sigh of contentment whenever they open and close, but that is a conversation for a different message board.<hr></blockquote><p>Hi Matt,
I think the babel fish is a bit off limit, but the sighing door is no problem. Just look here: http://www.winbond-usa.com/news/pressre ... 2003.shtml
Now you only need the original sound source! <p>Mike M:
I would have tried the oopic if you have it handy. Philba gave you the right approach to the problem, and depending on the possible frequency, you may use longer timeslots for measuring. Just be sure that the possible number of counts in the period is smaller than the 'bucket', so you don't overflow the counter.<p>TOK <p>[ June 16, 2005: Message edited by: Gorgon ]</p>

[upsmaster]

Hi
Maybe try Red Lion Controls they make a large selection of process meters I used them a lot for feet per min/sec and total feet. most meters have more than one type of input and some have outputs too..check them out.
joe

[Engineer1138]

Mike M: You didn't say what the device was to be used for, or any size/power restrictions.<p>The easiest DIY solution is to do it with an old computer that's not currently being used. You can read a pushbutton directly from the serial port. I have a circuit and some software on my website at the bottom that does just this. Feel free to copy it if you find it useful.<p>If you don't want anything that big, then pretty much any micro like the BS will do; it'll just take longer because you have to wire up display, pushbutton and do a lot of the stuff a PC would have built-in.