Attention Creative Design Engineers:
Getting Connected To The Internet Can Earn You Cash.





Grand Prize

Internet Connectivity Category Winners

First Prize • Second Prize • Third Prize

Internet Application Category Winners

First Prize • Second Prize • Third Prize

 

INTERNET PIC 2000 CONTEST WINNERS

MAKING THE CONNECTION

SECOND PRIZE WINNER
IDAPIC
by Erik C. Smith, John Wisinger, Brian Murray, Nathan Mickler

Erik C. Smith, John Wisinger,
Brian Murray, Nathan Mickler
College Station, TX
supafuz@ieee.tamu.edu

Remote data gathering, on a large scale, consists of compiling data from various locations into a centralized database. Current mechanisms of acquiring information from electronic equipment use dedicated computers, expensive instrumentation, or extensive site-to-site travel for local data extraction. Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) have been recognized for a number of years as a robust and applied technology providing reliable information transfer across the global Internet.

Consider a new method, based on mature technology, offering low-cost, Internet enabled data acquisition overcoming impediments in remote monitoring and data organization. Enter IDAPIC, an Internet Data Acquisition device using a Programmable Integrated Circuit.

Photo 1—IDAPIC is designed so that various devices may be monitored. We used a temperature IC to test and verify the completeness of the circuit and software operation.

 

IDAPIC consists primarily of an IC modem controlled by a PIC microcontroller and software residing on a host with a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). Slightly larger than a deck of playing cards, IDAPIC monitors serial line outputs (SPI) from a device such as a GPS for position, a motor’s speed, a sound recorder, temperature and humidity, voltage and currents, wind velocity, pressure, and many other applications. Acquired information is sent through the Internet to a Central Management Unit (CMU) that collects and manages data from IP streams destined from several different IDAPICs, simultaneously.

When in operation mode, IDAPIC’s core dials into an Internet Service Provider (ISP), or another modem, and negotiates a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection. First, the line conditions are agreed upon with Link-Control Protocol (LCP), then the network IP settings are chosen with the Network-Control Protocol (NCP).

Next, the chosen device to be monitored is allowed to send a bitstream to IDAPIC’s serial interface. This information is converted or packetized into an Internet-routable format and sent to the CMU through the modem and over the Internet for analysis. The CMU takes in multiple TCP/IP streams and converts the data into a format to be displayed on an HTML document by a gateway-scripting program.