I work @ a bank in the loan/credit card department. We recently had a merchant customer have their credit card terminal stop working (the box lookin thing they swipe the card thru, you have all seen them). So we went out there and swapped it out for a good one, and my Boss told me just to discard the non-working one.
Well, I took it apart and thought it would be cool if some of you genius' out there could figure out a way to get the display to read the voltage both of my amps are recieving, the amps each one is pulling, wattage output, each amps temp, etc etc. I thought it would be cool if it started out displaying like each amps voltage, then hit button 2 and it displays amp draw, hit button 3 and have it display wattage, etc etc.
posted
well if both amps are on the same power line, chances are they are going to see the same voltage, hince definition of parallel voltage. power output is going to change so hard, you really are not going to be able to read it, best you can do is like AC out, but that will get ya a little more resistence in the output line. ampere on the input should not be a problem, but that will change dramatically as well, when the signal keeps changing from the deck. tempature is not hard, we have industrial liquidators over here that can hook up amp temp on the side of the amp(right by the transistors) and it works great, costs about $50 for it with led readout. best way to rig this up is a series of positive led switches and run them all separately and run a series of clusters of led readouts for it, otherwise you are going to have to be make a all in 1 switch and led readout and be able to make the led distinguish between ac voltage, dc voltage, temp, amperes. that would be something to see, but it would be alot easier if all were individual.
posted
OK, since my first idea didn't seem like it would work, I know have TWO crapped out units I could use. Anyone think of something cool to do with them??
Posts: 436 | From: Hollow Depths of Hell | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hello, I've been thinking about doing something like that. I repair electronics for the Navy, and I guess I know a little more about electronics than the average guy, but I really don't know much. I just fix what the other guys tell me is broken . Anyway, radioshack sell a small thing call a STAMP. It's basically a small micro-processor. It has a number of input pins and a number of output pins (depending on which model) which you can program on your PC and download to the stamp with a serial connection. For instance, one input pin could be set up to read resistances, so button one on your display panel could be 100 ohms, button 2 200 ohms, and so on. You could then program the stamp to provide a different displays for each button. Thermistors are basically resistors that change resistance with heat changes. You could wire one of these to an input and use this as your amp temperature sensor. The only thing is changeing this resistance value to temperature. You could also use one of the outputs tied to an LED or something, alarm or whatever, when an amp temp gets too high. It also will read voltages, so tie that in with a resistance and you get power (watts) which you could also display. The only problem I run into is how to connect a display to the processor. You can find tons of cheap lcd displays on ebay, some even have integrated back lights. The PDF manual that comes with the stamp is very detailed, and goes through every feature, and how to program it. It has some example programs for almost every feature. It comes with a cd-rom that has the program compiler so you just type the program you want and d/l it. It sounds alot harder than it is. I think the basic one sells for about $100, that has like 8 input pins and 8 output pins or something. Check out the shack online... You could also tie a relay onto an output and power a fan when your amp temp gets too high. You can program the high temp alarm point in your program. The thing I would like to do is tie this into my Saab display panel that displays the air temp, MPG, date, time, raido settings, etc. Your card readers probably have the same technology (probably better) but the problem there is to get access to the programs written onto the actual chips, figure out what programming language they're using, write your own, and up-load it back to the chips. We have a chip reader/writer here, but it's a real pain in the ass, and I don't have the faintest clue how to use it.
Well, thats my idea... good luck!
-------------------- '99 Saab 93 Work in progress! Rainbow Pro 3-ways Audio Control 4XS Audio Control ESP2 Audio Control Epicenter a/d/s PH15 PPI EQ31 1/3octave EQ PPI A300 OZ Audio 12" Posts: 10 | From: Ledyard, Ct | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic