Re: Geezer Tracker

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"wkearney99" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:hqydnaTYmapcM0ffRVn-1Q@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Then, the details would be in interfacing that control panel
> > with a cellphone.  That could be gruesome.
>
> Perhaps an LCD with a number selections for a text message sent via
> bluetooth or keyboard interface to a cellphone for SMS messsages?  As in,
> present a list of messages with one button and then send the selected
> message with the second one (or the first one held down 'longer')
> Interfacing to cell phones is always going to be a challenge but if you
hack
> up a bluetooth keyboard and interface a PIC chip it might be do-able.

Yes.  It might be do-able.  I've got to read up a lot more.  I was thinking
that a 12V autodialer might work with a cellphone if the tones are loud
enough.  That might be the simplest thing to do and it would make the
problem one of getting the phone to go on/off hook.  There's so much
progress going on in cell phone technology that it's going to take an effort
to catch up.  Bluetooth and a PIC are probably the most reliable tools.

> > I thought of adding an electronic tilt
> > indicator, but I think it wouldn't serve any useful purpose in
preventing
> a
> > tip.
>
> It might be useful as a sign to stop the wheels from moving.  As in, it's
> beyond reasonable tilt angles, stop the wheels.  But it'd be hard to do
this
> without shutting off the wheels when they're NEEDED to get out of a
trouble
> spot.  Look at how a segway works for ideas on how complex it can be.

Even more complicated is the I-bot stair climbing wheelchair.

http://www.independencenow.com/ibot/

I agree that it's likely to make things worse instead of better, shutting
down the system in a pre-tip mode.  Still, I'd like to have that information
in a telemetry readout along with battery charge state, temperature of the
controller box, location of the chair, a weight sensor that tells me if he's
sitting in the chair and other things.  Sort of home automation transposed
to a scooter.  :-)

> Telemetry of where he's located, what the ground conditions are at that
> location and how the chair's tilted would certainly be useful.  As in,
it's
> fine to allow downward tilt because he's wheeling down a paved path at a
> controlled speed.  But not fine when it's a flat area or the speed's above
> normal, etc.

Again, it would be nice to add that kind of control.  I'll try to add in
what I can or at least leave room to implement it later on.

--
Bobby G.