*NEW* USB Input/Output Board -- Fusion Brain

[2k1Toaster]

Now Shipping World Wide

Please visit here for more information on the product: http://fusioncontrolcentre.com/Fusio...products_id=28

Some things to note about the final version compared to the beta run:

1.) there is a jumper available to shut off the output LEDs. The outputs still work, but it kills the LEDs.
2.) the output drivers are socketed and replaceable. If you short an output, or connect too-high a draw, it won't fry the board, just the output driver. We will sell these for $1 each.
3.) the power LED is on the correct side.
4.) the 5v regulator is much beefier, rated at 1A instead of 200mA.
5.) the 5v power regulation is improved, with the addition of a 100uF cap.
6.) color coded jumper blocks
7.) has a jumper for one external power LED
8.) board is 1mm smaller

Fully assembled Version 2 Production Board


The first ever Version 2 Production Board Unassembled at Factory! (Piece of History)


Big Box o' Fully assembled Version 2 Production Boards


Fusion Controls Unveils Flagship Microprocessor I/O Board

GAINESVILLE, Fla. & COLORADO SPRINGS, Col. — The long-standing need for a product allowing full integration between the car and the computer has finally been met with Fusion Controls’ new microprocessor board, the Fusion Brain. The Fusion Brain is the first interface board targeted at automotive applications, providing hobbyists and enthusiasts with the ability to interface sensors, relays and other controls with a standard computer.

Details
Smaller than an iPod or laptop hard drive, the Fusion Brain is in a league of its own. Measuring at 3” x 3”, it is fully equipped with 12 digital outputs, 4 digital inputs and 10 analog inputs; it is geared towards sensing and controlling many devices. The Fusion Brain is fitted with headers to allow for connection of modular relay boards, expanding the range of applications while maintaining ease of installation and use.

Typical applications include hydraulic/suspension control, HVAC/climate control and interior/exterior lighting control. Additionally, the Fusion Brain can be configured with several sensors to monitor engine temperatures, mass air flow, throttle position, vacuum pressure, ambient light, ambient temperature and triple axis acceleration.

Additional key features of the Fusion Brain include:

• 0 mA draw from USB bus – device is completely externally powered to isolate noise and interference
• 300mA@12vDC current sourcing per channel of Digital Output – enough to directly drive most relays
• 10-bit ADC conversion ensures accuracy to .005vDC
• Available in both industrial and automotive temperature versions

Development Tool Support
The Fusion Brain has the ability to flash its firmware over the USB bus if updates are released or requested. A skinnable application is provided for control and configuration of the Fusion Brain.

[greenman100]

Availability and Pricing
The Fusion Brain is currently in Beta testing, but will be available by mid-May for $50. The Fusion Brain is priced very competitively, with more inputs and outputs than Phidgets or Velleman interface boards, yet, priced at half of its competition.

Fusion Controls Customer Support
Fusion Controls is committed to supporting its customers by listening to and responding to specific needs. With firmware updates and open source software, it is easier than ever to adapt an interface board to meet your needs.

About Fusion Controls
Fusion Controls is a new company focused on car to computer interfaces. The company was founded and is currently operated by a mechanical engineer and a computer engineer. Together the engineers design solutions to the problems encountered in interfacing.

For more information on the Fusion Board or about Fusion Controls please contact Tim Elmore by e-mail at ElmoreT@ufl.edu. Alternatively, contact Nicholas Vergunst by email at Nick.Vergunst@gmail.com. Photos, block design and interviews are available upon request.

[2k1Toaster]

Please note that the following Software and Hardware is of the Version 1 board (beta) and is no longer in use. The software has been updated and is talked about near the very end of this thread


Hardware:















Software:

These are pictures of the unskinned version. When you first open the program without any skin file present, this is what you will see.

The main page for the Digital Outputs. You can turn each one on or off by clicking the corresponding button. Alternatively you can turn them all on or off with 1 push. The defaut on or off values can be set through the configuration window:




The main page for the Analogue Inputs:




The configuration page that will only be needed when setting things up. Settings are stored in a file and read in on load so this screen will not really be needed while in use:




The digital outputs can have animations assigned to them. Up to 30 frames can be set. The animation as a whole can be set to repeat either forever or a specified number of times up to 2,147,483,648 iterations. So you can either have over 2 billion runs through or run it forever, to only once. This is the setup screen for that:




The digital outputs and analogue inputs are given names that you can easily tell which is which. To do that easily on a touchscreen, there is an OSK:




This is the analogue input type selection area. You can choose what type of sensor is connected, as well as adjust each little variable. For instance, the temperature can be displayed in either Farenheit or Celcius. Also you can change the core voltage of the sensor to make small adjustments. If you place the outisde temperature sensor in your engine bay, you may want to increase the voltage so that it shows colder than it reads so that it is accurate compensating for the engine bay heat. In the picture you see the accelerometer options, where you can adjust the core voltage, as well as the voltage per g-force input to get maximum sensitivity and accuracy. Please note that the default settings are ideal for most if not all situations, but the flexibility is there for the future.





Here are the same images but skinned:



















The software is designed to be as easy as possible to skin. To give you an idea of how easy, this is an example of how the unskinned images got to skinned images:

Code:

**BRUSHED METAL SKIN FILE**

**Global FusionForm Settings
>>MAIN
#BACKIMAGE#\Images\BMV2_Background.jpg
#TILESTRETCHBACKIMAGE#TILE
#SIZE#640;480
#TRANSPARENT#000255255
#COLOURDOWN#Transparent
#COLOURUP#Transparent
#LBLDOCOLOUR#FALSE
#LBLDOFONT#Arial Narrow;30;BOLD
** --> Show label remove comment: #LBLAICOLOUR#LightGray
#LBLAICOLOUR#FALSE
#LBLAIFONT#Arial Narrow;30;BOLD
#GBOXBORDER#FALSE
#GBOXDOLOCATION#12;54
** --> To show label remove comment: #GBOXAILOCATION#12;88
#GBOXAILOCATION#12;54
<<END

**Buttons
>>BTN_DEFAULT
#OFF#\Images\BMV2_Button.gif
#ON#\Images\BMV2_Button_Down.gif
#TXTCOLOURON#LightGray
#TXTCOLOUROFF#LightGray
#BORDERSIZE#0
#FONT#Arial Narrow;18;BOLD
<<END

Each button is seperate. You can skin none, all, or number of buttons inbetween with no problems. All the fonts are independant, as well as all the images. No more making 1 image and aligning button arrangements. Just tell it what image you want to use and it sticks it in there. All of the above skinned images, were created by using 9 small images totally under 80Kb in size TOTAL, not each. So you can imagine how efficient this is. Transparency is fully supported through *.gifs.

Just begin the button's name with a ">>" and end it with "<<END" and that is it. In the above example, "BTN_DEFAULT" is the button on the main page that sets all the digital outputs to their default values. The image for the off value is stored in the directory "Images" with the name of "BMV2_Button.gif". Pretty self explanitory.

[greenman100]

Current Status: Now Shipping

You can pre-order now. Expected ship date is May 31st.
http://fusioncontrolcentre.com/store.php


Video:
http://fusioncontrolcentre.com/alphatest2.mp4
http://fusioncontrolcentre.com/alphatest2.avi

Current status:
Digital Outputs - all functional and tested
Analog Inputs - all functional and tested
Digital inputs - all functional and tested
Modular High-Current Relays - to be built and shipped with beats boards, 1 per board.
Temperature Sensors - to be built and shipped with beats boards, 1 per board.


Pending Projects:
Volume Controls - ETA May 2007
Acceleration Sensors (g-force) - ETA May 2007
Servo Control - ETA July 2007
Infrared Temperature Sensor - ETA July 2007


so: The beta boards will be shipped this week for SURE. That means they will be in the mail by April 21, 2007. I could ship them now, but I'd like one or two more days.

[P3D4T0R]

Id love to be a beta tester... Ill pay full price too

[grayvader]

I'm interested in beta testing...
What is the SW status? Is there a dll or something to talk to?
I'm currently using a Velleman K8055, so this would replace it in my setup.

[greenman100]

Quote: Originally Posted by grayvader

I'm interested in beta testing...
What is the SW status? Is there a dll or something to talk to?
I'm currently using a Velleman K8055, so this would replace it in my setup.

Currently, a skinnable EXE, so it is compatible with any front end.

[StealthRT]

greenman100:
I hope you will be able to update the firmware to allow at least getwindows calls from VB. I, and maybe others, whom made their own dashboards aside of the ones on here would like it better if we can interact with it instead of having to use your skinnable EXE.

Maybe have it as a silent background task that can send commands to your exe to allow what others user could do IF they were using the exe program alone.

Hope that makes since... If not let me know and ill give more detail.

[greenman100]

Quote: Originally Posted by StealthRT

greenman100:
I hope you will be able to update the firmware to allow at least getwindows calls from VB. I, and maybe others, whom made their own dashboards aside of the ones on here would like it better if we can interact with it instead of having to use your skinnable EXE.

Maybe have it as a silent background task that can send commands to your exe to allow what others user could do IF they were using the exe program alone.

Hope that makes since... If not let me know and ill give more detail.

Nick can better answer your question.

I'm Tim, and a mechanical engineering major. I'm in charge of selecting parts and overall electrical design, while Nick handles the computer end. He's a guru, and if he doesn't know the answer, he'll figure it out.

In the meantime, I'm open to ideas for accessories.

[2k1Toaster]

Quote: Originally Posted by StealthRT

greenman100:
I hope you will be able to update the firmware to allow at least getwindows calls from VB. I, and maybe others, whom made their own dashboards aside of the ones on here would like it better if we can interact with it instead of having to use your skinnable EXE.

Maybe have it as a silent background task that can send commands to your exe to allow what others user could do IF they were using the exe program alone.

Hope that makes since... If not let me know and ill give more detail.

The firmware will be sending a bytestream through a *.dll that can be interfaced easily with .NET languages.

So if you do not want to use the skinnable application, then you can still use the dll and create your own interface.

It will be quite a bit of work though, because it sends raw byte data, and you would have to interpret this into the correct formats for button presses, analogue readings, and such. How to do this will be documented and given out on release, but bear in mind that it will be a huge undertaking. I should know, I am doing it!

I will post more information on the software hopefully in just a bit.

[P3D4T0R]

I am, as I have been, waiting eagerly. This is one of the last things needed to finish up my CarPC project and so far I couldnt be more happy.

[2k1Toaster]

Updated post #3 with pictures of the software both skinned and unskinned.


Feel free to ask questions about the hardware, software, or interface between them. Tim and I will answer all questions as soon as we possibly can.

[P3D4T0R]

can you show us an example of the bytestream and what it dose so we have an idea whats in front of us?

[LYHTSPD]

I would love to be a beta tester, but my carpc is still in the works. If you want someone who is "fresh off the boat" in the carpc world to beta test, let me know.

Otherwise I will be waiting for the official release of both the hardware and the software.

[greenman100]

Quote: Originally Posted by P3D4T0R

can you show us an example of the bytestream and what it dose so we have an idea whats in front of us?

You only need to deal with the bytestream if you don't want to use our skinnable EXE.