A discussion group for the PICMicro microcontroller. Also called the Microchip PIC, this list is dedicated to the use and abuse of this fine, simple, microcontroller. Close to topic posts are welcome, ie. general electronics.
I'm part of the Data Acquisition subgroup of Project Phoenix, a group working on an open
source blood pressure monitor.
I'm trying to figure out what surface-mount microcontrollers we could use. I need to
figure out what our options are before I decide what programmer to get.
Page 2 in the following PPT presentation shows what kind of input the microcontroller
needs to process:
http://www.phoenix.tc-ieee.org/0001_Bibliography/2007-05-24%20EMB%20Presentation/2-Carl-Sensors_20070520_Phoenix%20Sensor2.ppt
Basically, there are two pulses from two sensors. The systolic blood pressure we're
measuring is a function of the time difference between the peaks of the two pulses. The
diastolic blood pressure we're measuring is a function of the time difference between the
troughs of the two pulses.
Does this application require a DSPIC, or would a regular microcontroller suffice? So
far, my DSP background has been entirely theoretical. Whatever we use, the
microcontroller must take samples at a very high rate so that the exact timing of the
peaks and troughs is accurate. A sample rate that is too low would make the timing of the
peaks and troughs very inaccurate. I believe that this application calls for a DSPIC due
to the need to take and analyze data from so many samples. Am I correct, or am I way off
base?
If this application requires a DSPIC, are there any simple DSP projects I could try to get
some practice? Again, I am new to using DSP in a circuit.
--
Jason Hsu
http://www.jasonhsu.com/swrwatt.html
http://www.jasonhsu.com/swrwatt-c.txt
http://www.jasonhsu.com/swrwatt-asm.txt
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