gwolski
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2009
- Messages
- 163
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I had this project in mind ever since I bought my MAWD. I wanted to be able to keep multiple flights' worth of data without having to drag my laptop to the field. I shelved the project for a while once PF came out with the SL100 (with storage for 31 flights' worth of data). Since I had all the parts on hand, I finally decided to go ahead and finish anyway, so here it goes.
The heart of the unit is a 5v Arduino Pro Mini board which is connected to an 8x2 character LCD and two push buttons. I soldered a right angle female header to the end of the Pro Mini and cut a slot in the top of the project box for the header. Doing so allows me to easily swap between the MAWD cable and the Arduino programming cable. Power is from an A23 12v battery.
I added a DS1307 real time clock. It's not required to get data from the MAWD, but it allows me to add a timestamp to the downloaded data file.
Finally, I used a micro SD card breakout (mounted externally for easy access to the card) for storage of the downloaded data.
The dumper uses a MAWD connector cable (I had ordered a spare just for this project). I removed the red wire (+5v) and changed the order of the remaining wires (TX, RX, GND) on the black header end to match the pins on the Pro Mini header.
Operation is quite simple - connect the cable, power on the data dumper, power on the MAWD, then press the red button. The dumper issues the MAWD data dump command and writes the data to the micro SD card. The program isn't totally bulletproof, but it does check for the presence of both the micro SD card and the MAWD connection.
Does it work? Sure enough! I compared the downloaded data from my dumper with the data saved through the MAWD data capture program. Line by line identical!
This was a really fun project. I learned a lot while building and programming the dumper - Arduino libraries included the LCD (LiquidCrystal), Time, Wire (I2C), DS1307RTC, EEPROM, and SD. Even though I did get an SL100, I don't plan on getting rid of my MAWD any time soon!
The heart of the unit is a 5v Arduino Pro Mini board which is connected to an 8x2 character LCD and two push buttons. I soldered a right angle female header to the end of the Pro Mini and cut a slot in the top of the project box for the header. Doing so allows me to easily swap between the MAWD cable and the Arduino programming cable. Power is from an A23 12v battery.
I added a DS1307 real time clock. It's not required to get data from the MAWD, but it allows me to add a timestamp to the downloaded data file.
Finally, I used a micro SD card breakout (mounted externally for easy access to the card) for storage of the downloaded data.
The dumper uses a MAWD connector cable (I had ordered a spare just for this project). I removed the red wire (+5v) and changed the order of the remaining wires (TX, RX, GND) on the black header end to match the pins on the Pro Mini header.
Operation is quite simple - connect the cable, power on the data dumper, power on the MAWD, then press the red button. The dumper issues the MAWD data dump command and writes the data to the micro SD card. The program isn't totally bulletproof, but it does check for the presence of both the micro SD card and the MAWD connection.
Does it work? Sure enough! I compared the downloaded data from my dumper with the data saved through the MAWD data capture program. Line by line identical!
This was a really fun project. I learned a lot while building and programming the dumper - Arduino libraries included the LCD (LiquidCrystal), Time, Wire (I2C), DS1307RTC, EEPROM, and SD. Even though I did get an SL100, I don't plan on getting rid of my MAWD any time soon!
