Sunday, July 19, 2009

Texas Instruments TMP100 Temperature Sensor

When looking for cheap and accurate temperature sensors for the next up and coming near space balloon project, I came across this great little device from TI. The TMP100. Tonight I interfaced these little devices with a PIC18F4520 via I2C and everything is working perfectly.


Some basic info about this sensor:

Resolution: up to 12bit
Temperature range: -55 to +125 degrees Celsius

I plan on using two of these to monitor temperature, one for the inside electronics temperature and one for the outside environment temperature.


Thursday, July 2, 2009

TCM8230MD Camera Images Within Reach

Last night I was able issue a start command over I2c to the TCM8230MD camera module to have it start sending images. I'm now receiving valid YUV 422 data off of the 8 bit bus along with the necessary clock and sync pulses.



This camera is definitely not the easiest thing to work with. The datasheet is not as clear I would have liked and the timings necessary for the startup sequence took a little bit longer to figure out than I had expected.


The next step will be to be to send the camera a few more control codes to lower the frame rate and resolution to get the data rate to a more manageable level for the pic. I'm hoping to capture and display my first usable image over the weekend.