sensor based traffic light system

[Sceadwian]

That's an STK500. That really is a mess of wires though. Willing to pay for a working design hmm? Sounds like you're going to fail your electronics course but I bet you're doing great in managment.

 

[seveprim]

That's an STK500. That really is a mess of wires though. Willing to pay for a working design hmm? Sounds like you're going to fail your electronics course but I bet you're doing great in managment.

Managnent mmm dont they do that with paper and not wires no that looks more like the work of a "Electrical engineer" except an Electrical Engineer would have opted for using all the same coloured wire !

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Looks all the same color to me, ribbon instead of rainbow cable... Either way a mess is a mess.

 

[seveprim]

Looks all the same color to me, ribbon instead of rainbow cable... Either way a mess is a mess.

Now we are both being mean to the poor lad. I say we sell him a completed design if he can afford it !

 

[jikes64]

Thanks

Dude, you posted a truncated (the "..." bit) URL and pasting it into the address box would have shown it wasn't going to work. Here's the complete site address, if anyone cares:
https://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/ee476/FinalProjects/s2003/rs234sy228/476/report.html

You couldn't be bothered to check this yourself and correct it so you foisted it off on us to figure out. I'd like advise and help you but you are obviously clueless and lazy and helping you would eventually end up being a total pain.

The bottom of these threads usually contain four former thread links that relate somehow to the present topic. I've seen four relevant threads at the bottom containing "traffic light" in their titles. I highly recommend you check these out and see how these other school projects ended. You might find exactly what you need.

'Luck on your project!
kenjj

Thanks again. you should look at the "correct post" you pasted for the url link so u see that it still has the truncated ...... thingy! Its not like I dint paste it correctly!
Anyway I totally understand where ur coming from and I appreciate it. Such Reprimands and sacarsms are what actually put me in check. I hope that someday, I will actually get to where i aspire in life despite the fact that I may not be as privileged as you guys are.
Thanks again.
Jikes

 

[jikes64]

Thanks for your posts! Like I said earlier, I definitely dont have a very privileged education/ tutorin like u guys so you will hardly understand but its al good. You should come to Nigeria sometime so you experience what im tryin to insinuate.
There is only one lecturer in the entire dept that knows the slightest about programming and microcontrollers!
I do appreciate the posts though and the fact that you actually took time to reply. Not something Im really used to!
Thanks again.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

We had no computers when I was in school.

 

[seveprim]

We had no computers when I was in school.

I went thru my entire Diploma back 87-91 without my own computer and we programmed in assembler with optical erasable Proms ... no one chip solutions back then except for the 8051, 8048 which cost an arm and a leg for a poor student... besides our lecturers banned such devices as to quote them " you will learn nothing if you use a microcontroller" so all projects where based around a CPU like z80, 6502 or any other 8 bit cpu and we had then wire them up to RAM ROM and any IO and timers we wanted ....

 

[kjennejohn]

Thanks again. you should look at the "correct post" you pasted for the url link so u see that it still has the truncated ...... thingy! Its not like I dint paste it correctly!
Anyway I totally understand where ur coming from and I appreciate it. Such Reprimands and sacarsms are what actually put me in check. I hope that someday, I will actually get to where i aspire in life despite the fact that I may not be as privileged as you guys are.
Thanks again.
Jikes

Point taken on the truncation, but I DID check that it actually brought up a page before posting it.

Anyways, it sounds like you're operating at a real disadvantage here. Your school simply may not have the experience or equipment to get you up to speed on this. If your instructors lack the experience to help you with this you SHOULD be able to solicit the web to get help.

But there are probably thousands of students in the world in the same predicimate that you are and they get the job done with minimal input from forums like this. I go to several forums every day and this one (elctro-tech) just gets loaded with these requests. You can understand that the experienced regulars here get tired of seeing these requests day in and day out, so they give nasty little barbs for answers. Your best bet is to present what you have done so far in schematics and/or drawings (the photos help some). questions like "how do I connect a Hall sensor to my processor" after explaining your project will get you more and better answers. Please don't expect the busy professionals visiting here to drop everything and dedicate themselves to your one project.

Anyone have an idea how jikes64 can present his case here and get proper help? We can't just keep beating on the guy, we too had to struggle as students before arriving at our present level of skill and experience. And I'm sure plenty of us asked lots of questions on the way up. I did.

Good luck with your project.
kenjj

 

[blueroomelectronics]

All anyone has to do for help here is show some effort. I've asked for help and got it, but I make an effort to google my queries first. There are thousands web pages with traffic light information. We are all happy to help and we're all here to learn and share.

jikes64

"If im not able to cross over this hurdle, im gonna have to modify the normal circuit with the timers to somehow incorporate something new."

What normal circuit? Post it so we can help. Do you know anything about your SDK? can you light an LED with it?

Look at the poor soul designing a crane in these threads, I mean final year diploma... Responds to any help with THE SAME QUESTION over and over.
**broken link removed**

 

[Hank Fletcher]

I definitely dont have a very privileged education/ tutorin like u guys

Wait a second, didn't you say this was a final year project for CORNELL?! That's a privileged education I'd never be able to afford. Then again, I seem to remember doing a cross-walk project for a final year assignment in high school, albeit not a four-way.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Copied from another forum site, good advice though.

Dan Sheingold of Analog Devices wrote:
1. Hardware design, even of digital circuits, is inherently analog design, albeit not always with the textbook building blocks, but always with the challenges.
2. Good analog engineers generally are self-selected as a pool of guys/gals who like to tinker with hardware.
3. My understanding of the conventional engineering college curriculum is that it has become more and more rarified in the direction of theory and software, not very attractive to these types.
4. High-school science fair participants tend to be hands-on types.
So---What if a university boldly and baldly offers a 3rd & 4th-year curriculum in the fun and headaches of designing and building electronic hardware, built around challenging hands-on projects? And advertises it as such to prospective students? The curriculum would include basic analog (including digital) circuit design, properties of components, lab instrumentation (bought and homemade), sources of degradation, distortion and interference in electronic circuits, plus lab
courses and a design project in each semester. And do bring in industry design and application engineers for an occasional guest lecture.

Stuart Smith of Elantec Semiconductor wrote:
I think no electronics students should be allowed to graduate until they can show that they can successfully find faults in circuits. This should be a required, practical (Lab) class, with no chance of graduating until the students get an “A”! No simulator tells you exactly where the problem is, no automated tester tells the test engineer what the problem was. Only a breadboard sometimes gives you help by means of smoke signals from the incorrectly hooked up or broken device!
Like fault finding, error analysis is another forgotten science. It used to be done a lot when simulators could not be used to check for every permutation of process variations, supply voltage, temperature, component tolerances, etc

 

[seveprim]

jikes64

Ok it looks like u have the basic hardware under control in that mess so you now need to start of your software design ... for a noob why don't you go with good old flow chart, it is a start and road map of what you want to do. We cant design this project for you because you will not learn if it is done for you.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I was not under the impression that was his hardware but a link to a similar project at Cornell.

 

[seveprim]

I was not under the impression that was his hardware but a link to a similar project at Cornell.

Well I was hoping he would copy it. lol and either way ya look at it he needs some sort of flow chart to understand what is involved in the software.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

There's not enough info on the site to copy it. Hall effects sensor, little wooden cars with magnets, model traffic lights.

 

[seveprim]

There's not enough info on the site to copy it. Hall effects sensor, little wooden cars with magnets, model traffic lights.

well enough info for anyone who really wants to do the task!

 

[Hank Fletcher]

I was not under the impression that was his hardware but a link to a similar project at Cornell.

I hadn't interpreted it like that at first, but I see now that you must be right. I can't understand why he insists on following that particular project in light of the suggestions you've provided, some of which might have much more explicit information and no doubt more practical for the equipment he has available to him. What's the criteria for this project? Using an mcu to impress his profs (all power to him, I know how hard it is to make a case in a new area with diehards), and getting it done in a two-month time frame? If that's all I think he should have a little more faith that he can get it done, and just surf till he can find someone who can ship whatever parts he needs to him.

All sympathies if his personal economic situation or, for instance, shipping to where he's at is not practical, but those are the things you need to know if you're going to help him. We need to know what he's got, and moreover, what he can get - any suggestions beyond that are impractical.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I wish him an anyone else working on a project the best of luck, but hitting the books (or internet search) will provide a wealth of information (and misinformation). The forums are fantastic for opinions and insight but rarely will someone do an entire project for you gratis.

And if it's a traffic light simulation why not just do a simualtion on a PC first, you'll get an idea on the algorithms required to turn it in to a hardware project.
**broken link removed**

I have no idea of his hardware or software skills, and what appears to be a straight forward project (how many people wonder what goes into their traffic lights)
Now this traffic light video is interesting, wonder if it's true.
Is there a secret code to control traffic lights?


https://www.wisebread.com/is-there-a-secret-code-to-control-traffic-lights

 

[jikes64]

Schematics

Thanks for al your replies.
I will post all I have ASAP so you advise me on the best route to take.
I had everything dumped on my laptop but i think the hard disk has crashed cos this last few days it hasnt been comin on and wen it does it gives a HDD error! Ive ordered another and am disposing of the previous one.
Luckily, I had a hard copy backup so I'll just use the links to get them back and I'll post all I can retrieve but most of it is gonna be using the 555 timer and counters.
I still do appreciate. At least Im learnin something from you guys already.
Cheers