integrated motion and force acquisition system for tracking (imfast) - thesis report - danushka...

INTEGRATED MOTION AND FORCE ACQUISITION

SYSTEM FOR TRACKING (IMFAST)

M.M.DANUSHKA RANJANA MARASINGHE

Supervisor: Dr. S.M.N. Arosha Senanayake

A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Degree in Bachelor of Engineering (Mechatronics) Faculty of Engineering

Monash University

October 2008

Integrated Motion and Force Acquisition System for Tracking (IMFAST)

Mechatronics Final Year Project | M.M.Danushka R Marasinghe 19778252 P a g e | i

I. Abstract

During sprinting several factors decide the winning or losing of the race. Among them, speed of the

athlete is fundamental. On the other hand proficiency of starting has a significant influence on the

performance. The report presents the procedure of implementing an integrated system to analyze both

speed and stat parameters in sprinting. The final program is known as the “IMFAST” – “Integrated

Motion and Force Acquisition System for tracking”.

The integrated system uses a SignalTEC™ timing lights system to acquire timing data and a MLP500 load

cell to acquire force data. LabVIEW™ has been used to develop the software to acquire relevant data in

real‐time and analyze in a user friendly GUI. The system consists of a maximum of six timing lights and a

load cell attached to a foot block. IMFAST system can also generate a sound of a ‘Gun shot’ as the

starting signal to the sprinter.

The integrated system initiates by clicking a single button. Having the real‐time data acquisition, the

system displays the acquired force values, Maximum force, Time, Distance, Average velocity and

Average acceleration in a user friendly GUI. All the acquired data are saved in a file under a folder

created by the athlete name. The software also provides the user to compare and analyze two

previously saved sessions.

The timing lights and the load cell equipped with two different softwares that operated individually. The

values obtained from both time and force systems were compared with the existing software to validate

the real readings. The average error occurred in the time acquisition system when compared to the

existing software is 4.30% and the average time difference is 0.06s. This system is capable of acquiring

data with a precision of 0.001s. Load cell is calibrated in order to convert the voltage values into force

values. The system is then compared with the applied load values and the displayed values. It shows a

linear relationship with a non‐linearity error of 1.4%. The report also discusses about several

recommendations that can be used to enhance the functionality and user friendliness of the system.


Mechatronics Final Year Project | M.M.Danushka R Marasinghe 19778252 P a g e | ii

II. Acknowledgements

Although final year project is known as an individual work, it is not possible to complete such project

without the help, cooperation, advice and support of other persons. There are several parties that I

would like to mention and express my sincere gratitude.

First of all I would like to pay me deepest gratitude to my supervisor Dr. S.M.N.A.Senanayake for

providing me the opportunity to successfully complete this thesis. The advices and the support given by

Dr.Arosha have made a huge positive impact on the thesis.

I would also like to pay me sincere gratitude to Mr. Khoo Boon How. He is simply the mastermind on all

the knowledge I have gained from the thesis. I admire his willingness to help to any reason at any time.

He would not mind to leave his work aside for a moment to help us. Without him the completion of the

thesis would not have been possible.

I would also like to thank Mr. Edin Swarganda (from ISN) for supervising me throughout the duration of

the project. His support, feedback and advices have helped me immensely to improve the user

friendliness of my project.

I also like to remind the lab technicians in Monash university engineering faculty specially Mr.

Paneerselvam Arjuna for the helping hand given to me whenever I need one.

Also I would take this opportunity to thank my research lab mates; Indra, Monhun, Jolene and Mervin

for supporting me all the time by clearing my doubts and keeping me entertained. They have created a

stress free environment inside the lab that enabled me to concentrate well on the project.

Finally I would like to convey my sincere appreciation to Ramesha and all my colleagues, lecturers and

friends who some way or another helped me to complete this project successfully.

Thank you very much!


Mechatronics Final Year Project | M.M.Danushka R Marasinghe 19778252 P a g e | iii

Table of Contents

1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Literature Review .......................................................................................................................... 2

2. Objectives.............................................................................................................................................. 5

3. Concepts and Overview of the System. ................................................................................................ 6

3.1 Time acquisition system ................................................................................................................ 6

3.1.1 Timing Lights ......................................................................................................................... 6

3.1.2 Bluetooth™ ............................................................................................................................ 6

3.1.3 SMARTiming Software .......................................................................................................... 7

3.2 Force Acquisition system .............................................................................................................. 8

3.2.1 Load cell ................................................................................................................................ 8

3.2.2 Signal Conditioning ............................................................................................................... 8

3.2.3 Data Acquisition .................................................................................................................... 9

3.2.4 WinDAQ Waveform browser ................................................................................................ 9

3.3 Difficulties encountered and solutions ....................................................................................... 10

3.3.1 Time Acquisition system ..................................................................................................... 10

3.3.2 Force Acquisition System .................................................................................................... 11

4. IMFAST – The integrated system ........................................................................................................ 12

Features .............................................................................................................................................. 12

4.1 User Level Functionality of the Integrated System ..................................................................... 14

5. Hardware Used ................................................................................................................................... 15

5.1 Time Acquisition system ............................................................................................................. 15

SignalTEC™ Timing lights ..................................................................................................................... 15

5.2 Force Acquisition System ............................................................................................................ 18

5.2.1 MLP500 Load Cell ................................................................................................................ 18

5.2.2 TMO1 Signal Conditioner .................................................................................................... 20

5.2.3 DI‐148 Data acquisition device ........................................................................................... 20

5.2.4 Starting Block ...................................................................................................................... 21

6. Software used ..................................................................................................................................... 22

6.1 LabVIEW™ 8.5 ............................................................................................................................. 22

6.2 Bluesoleil ™ ................................................................................................................................. 22


Mechatronics Final Year Project | M.M.Danushka R Marasinghe 19778252 P a g e | iv

6.3 WINDAQ DI148 driver ................................................................................................................. 22

7. Block Diagram Explanation ................................................................................................................. 23

7.1 Time Acquisition System ............................................................................................................. 23

7.1.1 Serial Ports .......................................................................................................................... 23

7.1.2 Serial Port open ................................................................................................................... 24

7.1.3 Serial port Read and Write .................................................................................................. 24

7.1.4 Serial Port Close .................................................................................................................. 25

7.1.5 Time Calculation .................................................................................................................. 26

7.1.6 Controls ............................................................................................................................... 26

7.1.7 Stopping Criteria ................................................................................................................. 27

7.1.8 Acceleration & Velocity Calculations .................................................................................. 27

7.2 Force Acquisition System ............................................................................................................ 28

7.2.1 Configuration ...................................................................................................................... 28

7.2.2 Data Acquisition .................................................................................................................. 28

7.2.3 Gunshot Sound .................................................................................................................... 30

7.3 File Creation ................................................................................................................................ 30

7.4 File Read & Comparison .............................................................................................................. 31

7.5 Variables ...................................................................................................................................... 32

8. Results ................................................................................................................................................. 33

8.1 Explanation of the front panel .................................................................................................... 33

8.1.1 Main tab .............................................................................................................................. 33

8.1.2 Settings Tab ......................................................................................................................... 34

8.1.3 Real‐Time Tab ..................................................................................................................... 35

8.1.4 Offline Tab ........................................................................................................................... 36

8.1.5 Comparison Tab .................................................................................................................. 38

8.1.6 Other Pop‐Up Menus .......................................................................................................... 41

9. Comparison and Justification .............................................................................................................. 43

9.1 Comparison with the Existing Software. ..................................................................................... 43

9.1.1 IMFAST and SMARTiming ................................................................................................. 43

9.1.2 IMFAST and WinDAQ .......................................................................................................... 43

9.2 Time justification ......................................................................................................................... 44

9.3 Force Justification ....................................................................................................................... 45


Mechatronics Final Year Project | M.M.Danushka R Marasinghe 19778252 P a g e | v

10. Future Work & Recommendations ................................................................................................. 46

11. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 47

12. References ...................................................................................................................................... 48

List of Appendices

1. Datasheets

1.1. SignalTEC™ Timing Light data sheet

1.2. MLP500 Load Cell Data sheet

1.3. TM0‐1 Signal Conditioner Data Sheet

1.4. DI148 Data Acquisition Data sheet

2. Block Diagram

3. Generated Excel File

4. Other Appendices

4.1. DI148 COM port identification procedure

4.2. Data Acquisition in LabVIEW using ActiveX controls

4.3. IAAF Standards


Mechatronics Final Year Project | M.M.Danushka R Marasinghe 19778252 P a g e | vi

List of Figures

Figure 1 ‐ Overview of the Time Acquisition System .................................................................................... 6

Figure 2 ‐ SMARTiming Main Window .......................................................................................................... 7

Figure 3 ‐ Overview of the Force Acquisition System ................................................................................... 8

Figure 4 ‐ Signal Conditioning ....................................................................................................................... 8

Figure 5 ‐ WinDAQ Waveform Browser ........................................................................................................ 9

Figure 6 ‐ Serial Port monitor ...................................................................................................................... 10

Figure 7 ‐ Integrated System Overview ....................................................................................................... 12

Figure 8 ‐ Sensor unit ‐ SignalTEC timing system ........................................................................................ 15

Figure 9 ‐ LED & the sensor – Timing Lights ................................................................................................ 16

Figure 10 ‐ Reflectors ‐ SignalTEC timing system ........................................................................................ 16

Figure 11 ‐ Tripod for SignalTEC timing lights ............................................................................................. 17

Figure 12 ‐ Bluetooth Dongle ...................................................................................................................... 17

Figure 13 ‐ Power Adapter for the timing lights ......................................................................................... 17

Figure 14 ‐ MLP500 Load Cell & attachment to the starting block ............................................................. 18

Figure 15 ‐ Load Cell calibration .................................................................................................................. 19

Figure 16 ‐ TMO‐1 Signal Conditioner external view .................................................................................. 20

Figure 17 ‐ TMO‐1 Signal Conditioner internal View .................................................................................. 20

Figure 18 ‐ DI148 DAQ Device ..................................................................................................................... 21

Figure 19 ‐ Starting Block ............................................................................................................................ 21

Figure 20 ‐ BlueSoleil Main Window ........................................................................................................... 22

Figure 21 ‐ Serial Port OPEN ........................................................................................................................ 24

Figure 22 ‐ Serial port read and Write ........................................................................................................ 25

Figure 23 ‐ Check Scenario .......................................................................................................................... 25

Figure 24 ‐ Serial Port Close ........................................................................................................................ 25

Figure 25 ‐ store the time ........................................................................................................................... 26

Figure 26 ‐ Gate Control & Check ............................................................................................................... 26

Figure 27 ‐ Stopping Criteria ....................................................................................................................... 27

Figure 28 ‐ Acceleration & Velocity Calculations ........................................................................................ 27

Figure 29 ‐ ActiveX Control for DI‐148 ........................................................................................................ 28

Figure 30 ‐ DI148 Configuration .................................................................................................................. 28

Figure 31 ‐ Force Acquisition System .......................................................................................................... 29

Figure 32 ‐ Iteration to time conversion & Delay ....................................................................................... 29

Figure 33 ‐ Gun shot sound ......................................................................................................................... 30

Figure 34 ‐ Folder creation .......................................................................................................................... 30

Figure 35 ‐ File Read .................................................................................................................................... 31

Figure 36 – Comparison of Attributes ......................................................................................................... 31

Figure 37 ‐ Variables to as Controls and Displays ....................................................................................... 32

Figure 38 ‐ Tab Control ............................................................................................................................... 32

Figure 39 ‐ Main tab .................................................................................................................................... 33

Figure 40‐ Settings Tab................................................................................................................................ 34


Mechatronics Final Year Project | M.M.Danushka R Marasinghe 19778252 P a g e | vii

Figure 41 ‐ Real‐time Data Acquisition tab ................................................................................................. 35

Figure 42 ‐ Offline View Tab ‐ Force data ................................................................................................... 36

Figure 43 ‐ Offline View Tab ‐ Velocity and Acceleration ........................................................................... 37

Figure 44 ‐ Graphical Representation of the graphs ................................................................................... 37

Figure 45 ‐ Comparison Tab ‐ Force Data .................................................................................................... 38

Figure 46 ‐ Comparison tab ‐ Velocity Data ................................................................................................ 39

Figure 47 ‐ Graphical Representation of the Graphs .................................................................................. 39

Figure 48 ‐ Comparison Tab ‐ Acceleration Data ........................................................................................ 40

Figure 49 ‐ User Prompt .............................................................................................................................. 41

Figure 50 ‐ Invalid Distance Error ................................................................................................................ 41

Figure 51 ‐ COM port errors ........................................................................................................................ 41

Figure 52 ‐ File Save prompt ....................................................................................................................... 42

Figure 53 ‐ Load cell comparison graph ...................................................................................................... 45

List of Tables

Table 1‐ Serial port Readings ...................................................................................................................... 11

Table 2 ‐ User Level Functionality of the Integrated System ...................................................................... 14

Table 3 ‐ Load cell calibration (Voltage Vs Force) ....................................................................................... 19

Table 4 ‐ Time Comparison ......................................................................................................................... 44

Table 5 ‐ Load Cell Comparison Data .......................................................................................................... 45


Mechatronics Final Year Project | M.M.Danushka R Marasinghe 19778252 P a g e | 1

1. Introduction “On you Marks.... Get Set”.... is the standard pre starting sequence of sprinting. The start of a sprint

race is that part of the race from the firing of the gun in order to depart athlete from the starting

blocks[1]. During sprinting several factors decide the winning or losing of the race. During sprinting

several factors decide the winning or losing of the race. Among them, speed of the athlete is

fundamental. On the other hand proficiency of starting has a significant influence on the performance

[2] . Based on prior research work carried out in sprinting, it is observed that the faster starts apply more

force than the slower stat by pushing off the starting blocks[1]. The athlete should apply the maximum

force at the optimal time in order to increase the efficiency of a start [1].

The force asserted at the start point has a significant impact on the performance of the sprinter. It is

known that high leg stiffness is needed for the faster running speeds[3]. The acceleration in the start

takes place over the first 30m of the distance, during which the athlete reaches around 90 – 95% of the

maximum speed[2]

The best athlete can be defined as the one who has an uniform performance during the entire

competition maintaining his high level[4]. Therefore it is important for the athletes and coaches to

perform evaluations on both sprint starting forces and acquired initial speeds.

The impact of technology on sports has produced several products that help the coaches and athletes to

analyze each technique. For example, RFID(Radio Frequency Identification) Sports Timing System[5] is a

system capable of collecting timing data using Ti‐RFID™ technology, eTIMER40 Professional Sports

Timing System[6] uses wireless timing gates to provide precise timing data. FinishLynx[[7] is a system

that uses RFID system to measure the reaction time and with an add‐on it can be modified to record

time. Starting blocks with a force transducer is the system mostly used to analyze starting force. These

systems provide individual data and do not offer the relationship between starting forces and speed.

Another shortcoming is the high investment on the equipments. The co‐partner of this project, the

Sports Biomechanics centre at National Sports Institute (NSI) in Malaysia also uses separate systems to

analyze these parameters.

The prospective solution is to develop a low cost integrated system. This initiative influenced to the birth

of ‘IMFAST’ – ‘Integrated Motion and Force Acquisition System for Tracking’ the presented as the end

product in this thesis.

The Integrated system uses an Instrumented Starting block with a Load cell to analyze the starting

forces. Since the use of optical timing gates may provide a convenient and quick accessible source of

information on running speed[8], the SignalTEC™ timing light system is used to measure the time taken

to travel a specified distance. This time measurement is later converted to velocity and acceleration by

taking the derivatives.

LabVIEW™ is the main software used to program and to operate the system. The integration, creation

of the GUI with maximum user friendliness, displaying useful data, setting performance parameters are

some of the features that controlled using the LabVIEW software.



1.1 Literature Review Various researchers in the world have studied and developed various methods to track sprinting

movements. Following literature review briefly outlines the methods used by key publications related

to this work.

Sprint Start Instrumentation[9]

R.E.Gander, Senior Member IEEE, J.D.McClements, L.K.Sanderson, B.A.Rostad, K.E.Josephson, and

A.J.Pratt

The research paper discusses about a prototype instrument that has been developed to measure the

forces generated on the starting blocks and the speed of a sprinter. The integrated system uses a

specially designed strain gauge, force transducer to measure the force. The measured force data is then

resolved into horizontal and vertical components for analysis purposes.

The speed was measured using a Doppler microwave technique (Commonly known as the Radar Gun).

As indicated in the research paper, four different strategies were adopted since the performance of the

Doppler microwave system was more difficult to verify with the complicated nature of the signal

received from a sprinting athlete.

The advantage of the system is that the both speed and force profiles can be displayed immediately on

the screen of a computer for feedback to the coach and athlete.

SpeedMed: Device for measuring velocity in Track Sports[4]

Natalia Sanchez Aldana, JulianaVelasquez Gomez, Juliana Villa Bedoya, Juan Manuel Marin Correa

The publication is about a development of an inexpensive and portable device capable of measuring

times and speeds in track sports that provide useful information to study performance.

The timing system was implemented using photocells. A PIC microcontroller was programmed to

measure the time between the interruptions of two laser beams which lighten the surfaces of

photocells. The microcontroller was programmed to compute the velocities for given distances. The

values were then displayed on a LCD (Liquid Crystal Display).



Jump Kinetic Determinants of Sprint Acceleration Performance from Starting Blocks in Male

Sprinters[10]

Peter S Maulder, Elizabeth J Bradshaw and Justin Keogh

The publication tries to identify the jump kinetic determinants of sprint acceleration performance from a

block start. Ten national level sprinters were used to the experiment. For the sprint session each athlete

completed their own individual warm‐up and performed 10m sprints from a block start. For jumping

session five types of jump assessments were performed. They are Squat Jump (SJ), Countermovement

Jump (CMJ), Continuous Straight legged Jump (SLJ), single leg hop for distance and single leg triple hop

for distance.

Swift timing lights (Swift Performance, University of Southern Cross, Australia) were used to record the

time an athlete takes from start to the 10m line. A microphone attached to a wooden start clapper was

connected to the timing light handset, which triggered when the required sound threshold broken.

Finishing time was taken when the double beam of lights were broken. A portable Kistler Quattro force

plate (Kristler, Switzerland) operating at 500Hz was used to assess the force. Both data were collected

individually and used for calculations.

Lap Counter System for Multiple Runners[11]

Patent no US2006/0217232 A1, Inventers: Kondrat, James Walter; Miars, Chad Lewis

The above patent publication consists of a system that uses RIFD tags to count the lap times of multiple

runners. This system automatically counts and times one or more runners during a session. The system

contains a passive or active RFID transponder tag that is worn by the runner. An antenna incorporated

to a receiver located adjacent to the track picks up the signals emitted from the tag. Tags are encoded

with information unique to the runners for easy identification.

The system can be used both indoor and outdoor and the investment is less compared to other similar

methods. The RFID tag will provide minimal hassle to the runner as the device is very small and it does

not need power.

Comparison of Laser Video Techniques for determining Displacement and Velocity during running. [8]

Andrew J Harrison, Randall L Jensen

The purpose of the research was to compare the reliability of a laser system with the reliability of a

video based kinematic analysis in measuring displacement and velocity during running. Ten participants

completed the test.

A laser measurement device (LAVeg, Jenoptik) was used to obtain all the static and running trials. The

laser provides a linear distance measurement at a sampling frequency of 100Hz. Two fixed video

cameras (Panasonic DPH800 at 50Hz, Panasonic DVGRL9000 at 100Hz) were used to obtain the data.

LabVIEW program was used to analyze the video data.



In conclusion the research indicates that the laser distant measurement device produces valid and

reliable estimates of distance. The laser system is subject to high frequency noise but will be able to

obtain better results by using optimal data filtering or smoothing techniques.

Leg strength and stiffness as ability in 100m sprint running [12]

C. Bret, A.Rahmani, A.B.Dufour, I. Messonnier, J.R.Lacour

The purpose of the study was to determine the importance of leg strength and stiffness relative to 100m

sprint performance, mean speed on the three phases of the 100m race (30‐60‐100m) and the speed

difference between these phases. 19 national level sprinters were used as test subjects.

The performance on 100m was measured with an electronic timer (accuracy ±0.001sec) and

corresponding mean velocity was determined. All races were video recorded with two cameras (25Hz)

and positioned exactly at 30m and 60m. The cameras recorded the smoke from the starter’s shot and

then adjusted perpendicularly to the 30m and 60m lines. Marks placed on the floor and on the opposite

side of the track allowed locating the moment when the sprinter crossed the lines.

The force was calculated from the double time derivation of the load displacement signal recorded by

an optical encoder. The displacement signal was measured every 0.75mm and sampled at 200Hz. It was

stored on a PC (486DX2, 66MHz) via an electronic interface card equipped with a 12 bit counter (HP

HCTL‐2000, Palo Alto, California, USA) and digitally filtered with a 12Hz low‐pass Butterworth filter with

0 phase lag. This allowed determining the heaviest load lifted by the subject.

The paper suggests that more cameras would be needed for further investigations in order to determine

accurately the distance within which the maximal velocity would be reached.

The Biomechanics of Running [13]

Tom F. Novacheck

The paper discussed an overall analysis about the running gait and compared with walking and sprinting.

It states that the introduction of faster cameras and marker systems eliminated the need to manually

digitize frame after frame of video. The gait cycle is the basic unit of measurement in gait analysis, and it

defines as one foot comes in contact with the ground and ends when the same foot contacts the ground

again. Generally as speed increases further, initial contact changes from being on the hind foot to the

forefoot. This typically marks the distinction between running and sprinting.

The paper points out that advancement of facilities with the combination of adequate testing space,

three dimensional computerized data gathering and reduction, data acquisition speeds in the range of

150–240 Hz testing speeds, and the breadth of technical, engineering, and clinical knowledge to utilize

the equipment will contribute for the advancement of the biomechanics field. Further it indicates that

once new biomechanical knowledge such as electronic communication will augment the use of

animation, video, and live action to display data is gained, it is the responsibility of the research

community to present it to clinicians in an understandable manner.



2. Objectives

This Mechatronics Final Year Project is proposed in collaboration with Monash University and the

National Sports Institute of Malaysia (NSI). Therefore it is required to meet the common objectives of

both partners. The objectives are as follows.

Integrate both instrumented starting block and wireless timing lights to a single system.

Develop the user friendly GUI using LabVIEW™ to acquire data in real time.

To provide a single system able to determine the sprinters forces on the starting blocks and subsequent displacement down the sprint lane.

To provide such a system with a computer interface which allows a user to set up performance parameters for individual training or for use of new training programs.

To provide inputs to training of sprinters by setting up performance parameters of a sprinter, in order to guide the sprinter through the training session.

Provide the ability to compare two different sessions.



3. Concepts and Overview of the System. The IMFAST system consists of wireless timing lights and an instrumented starting block with a load cell.

The functionality and the theories behind each system are discussed in this section.

3.1 Time acquisition system

Figure 1 ‐ Overview of the Time Acquisition System

3.1.1 Timing Lights The retro‐reflective photoelectric sensor inside the timing lights activate when the sprinter passes

between the gate and the reflector unit.

3.1.1.1 Retroreflective photoelectric sensor Photoelectric sensor is a type of sensor consists of a transmitter and a receiver and it uses infrared

signals to detect the presence of an object. Retro‐reflective means that the receiver and the transmitter

are in a single sensor and a reflector will bounce the infrared signal from the transmitter to the receiver.

The presence of an object is detected when the signal is failed to reflect back to the receiver. This type

has a considerably high level of range compared to other types of photoelectric sensors.

3.1.2 Bluetooth™ Bluetooth is used as the communication medium between the PC and the timing lights. Bluetooth™ is a

wireless communication medium that creates a short range PAN (Personal Area Network) with more

than two devices. The power consumption is low compared to other wireless methods. Bluetooth™ has

two standards. The first one which is called Bluetooth 1.0, has a maximum transfer rate of 1Mbps while

the second version, Bluetooth 2.0 has up to 3Mbps.

• Photoelectric Sensor

• Reflector

Timing Lights

• Virtual Serial Port

Bluetooth• LabVIEW

PC



Bluetooth can connect up to 8 devices simultaneously. In order to avoid conflicts it uses a method

known as Spread Spectrum Frequency Hopping. In this technique, the Bluetooth enabled device will

transmit the signal in 79 individual, randomly chosen frequencies within a designated range that change

from one to another in a fraction of a second.

The project uses virtual serial port service available in Bluetooth™. The service uses RFCOMM protocol

and it is based on ETSI1 TS 07.10 specification[14]. The service imitates a common RS232 serial

communication profile. When connected the Bluetooth application provides a COM port for serial

communication.

3.1.3 SMARTiming Software SMARTiming is the software recommended by the manufacturer for the timing lights. This software is

capable of measuring precise timing information and the accuracy is certified by the manufacturer. It

can connect up to six timing gates for each run and has the ability to save obtained data.

Figure 2 ‐ SMARTiming Main Window

Figure 2 shows the main window of the software. This software has been used to compare with the

values obtained from the developed system. The comparison procedure is explained in section 9.1.1.

1 European Telecommunications Standards Institute



3.2 Force Acquisition system

Figure 3 ‐ Overview of the Force Acquisition System

3.2.1 Load cell Load cell is a transducer that coverts force into a measurable voltage values and being used to acquire

force data from the foot of the sprinter. The load cells normally sense the change in force using four

strain gauges in a Wheatstone bridge configuration. They can be used to measure both compression

and tension.

3.2.2 Signal Conditioning Signal conditioning can be defined as “To process the form or mode of a signal so as to make it intelligible to, or compatible with, a given device, including such manipulation as pulse shaping, pulse clipping, compensating, digitizing, and linearizing”[15].

Figure 4 ‐ Signal Conditioning

•Vary to the force magnitude

Load Cell

•Amplify the Signal

Signal Conditioner •Acquire

Data to PC

DAQ

•LabVIEWTM

PC

Amplified Signal



The output from the load cell is typically in milivolts. As shown in Figure 4, signal conditioning is used to

amplify this signal to a readable voltage value.

3.2.3 Data Acquisition Data acquisition can be defined as “the sampling of the real world to generate data that can be

manipulated by a computer”[16]. Data acquisition, commonly known as DAQ is essential to convert the

data to computer readable format. A computer is used to display, analyze and store the converted data.

DAQ is usually a hardware component that can be connected to the computer via a communication port

such as USB, serial, Ethernet or wireless. The output from the sensor or the signal conditioner is

connected to the input of the DAQ device. The DAQ devices provide flexibility to the users as they

consist of multiplexers, timers, DACs, TTL and the parameters of these attributes can be controlled using

the computer.

3.2.4 WinDAQ Waveform browser WinDAQ waveform browser is the manufacturer recommended software for the Data Acquisition

device.

Figure 5 ‐ WinDAQ Waveform Browser

As shown in Figure 5, the values are displayed in volts. A calibration has been used to convert these

voltage values to corresponding force values. This procedure is explained in section 0.



3.3 Difficulties encountered and solutions This section is focused on the difficulties encountered during the integration of two sub systems.

3.3.1 Time Acquisition system There have been several drawbacks incurred during the integration of the time acquisition system. They

are as follows,

1. LabVIEW™ software communicates only with the Microsoft™ Bluetooth driver and does

not read the Bluetooth driver of the timing lights.

2. A method is not available to read the data received from the timing lights.

3. There are no technical details available for the timing lights.

Solutions 1. Possibilities have been investigated since the Microsoft™ Bluetooth driver is not compatible

with the timing lights. The solution is to use the BlueSoleil™ software to create the bridge

between hardware and LabVIEW™. The functionality of the software is explained in section

6.2 below.

2. The “Advanced Serial Port Monitor” software is used to investigate the type of data

transferred through the Bluetooth serial ports.

Figure 6 ‐ Serial Port monitor

After several investigations two scenarios have been identified that later used to

communicate with the timing lights. The Table 1 explains the information sent, information

received and the purpose of the two methods.

Sent Signal

Received Signal



Sent Received Purpose

Character “Z” is sent through the serial port

Character ‘Z” is received if the gate is connected properly.

This scenario is used to check the connectivity of the timing lights

Character “S” is sent through the serial port

Random Characters are received when the gates are activated by an object.

The time of reading the received character is used to calculate the elapsed time.

Table 1‐ Serial port Readings

3.3.2 Force Acquisition System The force acquisition system also had several drawbacks when trying to integrate with LabVIEW.

1. The Load Cell does not have proper Calibration data.

2. The Data Acquisition device does not directly programmable in LabVIEW.

Solutions 1. A manual calibration procedure has been used to obtain the relationship between the voltage

values and the corresponding force data. Further explained in section 0.

2. The WinDAQ™ driver and ActiveX controls for LabVIEW™ are used to build a platform on

LabVIEW™ to communicate with the Data Acquisition device. Further explanation has done in

section 7.2.



4. IMFAST – The integrated system The integrated system is known as the “Integrated Motion and Force Acquisition System for Tracking”

(IMFAST).

Features Features available in the IMFAST are as follows,

The system is capable of acquiring data in real‐time from the force acquisition system and the

time acquisition system.

The operator has the freedom to select the number of timing lights the can be used for each

session.

Both systems can begin data collection by pressing a single START button.

The operator has the ability to generate a Gun‐Shot sound by press of a button.

The parameters are displayed in graphs and on a graphical representation on the GUI for user

friendly analysis.

The collected data can be saved in an “.xls2” file. The file is stored inside a Folder created under the Athlete name.

The comparison feature enables to analyze all the attributes of two different saved sessions.

Figure 7 ‐ Integrated System Overview

As illustrated in Figure 7, Force and time are measured from the sprinter. These two parameters are

then processed in two parallel routes. In the Force measuring process initially force applied on the

starting block is measured using the Load Cell, and then the signal is amplified using a signal conditioner

followed by the conversation of the amplified signal to computer readable data to feed into the

computer using the Data acquisition device. In the other process, time taken by the sprinter to pass a

specified distance is measured using the timing lights and the collected data is sent to the computer

through Bluetooth. The distance of the timing lights depend on the placement and the number of timing

lights used for the session.

2 .xls ‐ Most commonly used spreadsheet file format invented by Microsoft Excel™



The information from the above explained two routes are acquired using the developed GUI in LabVIEW.

All the collected attributes of can be analyzed and saved to a ;xls file. These saved sessions can be

reloaded to compare all the parameters.

The integrated system works as a soft real‐time system. A soft real‐time system are typically used where

there is some issue of concurrent access and the need to keep a number of connected systems up to

date with changing situations.



4.1 User Level Functionality of the Integrated System

Table 2 ‐ User Level Functionality of the Integrated System



5. Hardware Used The section below explains about the finalized hardware components of the project. The hardware can

be divided into two main categories.

Time acquisition system.

Force acquisition system.

5.1 Time Acquisition system

SignalTEC™ Timing lights Main component used in this category is the SignalTEC™ Wireless timing system with the model

number OGTS‐WLS. Datasheet is attached in appendix 1.1. The system works wirelessly using

Bluetooth™ as the communication medium. The default system consists of six timing light sets. Each set

contains a Sensor unit and a reflector.

Sensor unit The sensor unit is the main component in the timing light system. It is responsible to send the data via

Bluetooth™ when the sensors are activated

Figure 8 ‐ Sensor unit ‐ SignalTEC timing system

As shown in the Figure 8, the unit has two optical photoelectric retro reflective sensors and an antenna

to maintain the connectivity via Bluetooth™. Sensors activate when the reflected wave is obstructed by

an object. The unit is programmed in such a way that both the sensors must be activated at the same

time in order to process a signal. Processing of unnecessary signals can be avoided by this feature. An

LED turns on when a sensor is activated. Figure 9 illustrates this scenario.

Antenna

Optical Sensors



Figure 9 ‐ LED & the sensor – Timing Lights

The antenna ensures a clear and a strong signal at long ranges .The unit is powered by a rechargeable

battery. The battery can be charged by plugging in the power adaptor to the socket at the back of the

unit.

According to the manufacture specifications the unit has a maximum range of 200m at an accuracy of

0.001sec.

Reflector The reflectors are placed in line with the sensor unit to ensure that the signal from the transmitter

sensor if reelected to reach the receiver sensor.

Figure 10 ‐ Reflectors ‐ SignalTEC timing system

The material of the reflectors allows the sensor unit to successfully operate at a range of 2m which is

more than the IAAF3 approved width of a track of 0.90m. (Official dimensions are attached in appendix

4.3).

3 IAAF – International Association of Athletics Federation

Reflector

LED Switched on

Sensor



Tripod Tripods are used to stabilize the sensor unit and the reflector in position.

Figure 11 ‐ Tripod for SignalTEC timing lights

These are equipped with horizontal and vertical alignment adjustments.

Bluetooth Dongle The Bluetooth dongle is used to communicate with the sensor unit. The dongle has a long range

capability and connect to the computer via USB 2.0 port.

Figure 12 ‐ Bluetooth Dongle

Power Adapter The power adapter is used to recharge the batteries of the sensor unit.

Figure 13 ‐ Power Adapter for the timing lights

The unit is a regulated power supply with an output of 12V and 1000mA.



5.2 Force Acquisition System The force acquisition system consists of several hardware components that are used to acquire and

display the force data.

5.2.1 MLP500 Load Cell MLP500 Load cell is used to obtain the values related to the force exerted by the foot of the athlete. It is

manufactured by Transducer Techniques and designed to withstand high amount of tension and

compression. Capacity of the unit is 500lbs (~2500N), that is more than the maximum force expected

from the foot of the sprinter. The data sheet is attached in appendix 1.2 for further reference.

Figure 14 ‐ MLP500 Load Cell & attachment to the starting block

As shown in Figure 14, a special bracket has been mounted to the load cell in order to attach to the

starting block. The output of the load cell is in voltage values, and a calibration procedure has been

implemented to convert them to relevant force values.

Load Cell Calibration The load cell converts the force values applied on it to applicable voltage values. It is essential to convert

these voltage values back to corresponding force values to obtain useful data to coaches and athletes.

The manufacturer of the MLP500 Load cell usually provides a calibration sheet specially configured for

the each load cell. Unfortunately the documentation is not available. Therefore, it is necessary to

manually perform a calibration procedure.

The calibration process is focused on the compression forces applying on the load cell. A study on the

forces revealed that the largest forces are applied on the rear block, reaching up to 100kg in a maximal

effort, compared with up to 70kg maximum forces applied to the front block[2]. Therefore, a simple

calibration process has been used to obtain the relationship between voltage and force.

Special

Bracket

MLP500

Load Cell

Starting

Block



The load cell is dismantled from the foot block and reoriented at 90⁰ as shown in Figure 15. This setting

is used to make certain that the total force applied is acting on the load cell. In other words it is used to

increase the accuracy. The corresponding voltage values have been noted for increasing and decreasing

instances of loads from 0N – 170N in 20N increments.

Figure 15 ‐ Load Cell calibration

The data is recorded in both WinDAQ™ and LabVIEW for better accuracy. The Voltage vs. Force graph

has been plotted from the average values.

Table 3 ‐ Load cell calibration (Voltage Vs Force)

As shown in Table 3 the relationship between Voltage and Force is,

26.188 631.19

Rearranging the Equation

. .

This relationship is implemented in LabVIEW™ to convert the values in real time. Procedure is further

explained in Section 7.2.2.

‐2

‐1.5

‐1

‐0.5

0

0 50 100 150 200

Voltage(V)

Force (N)

Voltage vs Force

Voltage

Linear (Voltage)

Loads

Load Cell



5.2.2 TMO1 Signal Conditioner The primary use of the signal conditioner is to convert a signal that may be difficult to read conventional

instrumentation into a more easily readable format4. In other words the purpose of using the signal

conditioner is to amplify the voltage signal from the load cell to more readable values.

TM0‐1 load cell signal conditioner is manufactured by the Transducer Techniques (same manufacturer of

the load cell) and designed to provide dedicated conditioning for load sensor. Data sheet is attached in

appendix 1.3.

Figure 16 ‐ TMO‐1 Signal Conditioner external view

Figure 17 ‐ TMO‐1 Signal Conditioner internal View

The signal conditioner has to be powered with a 12V power supply. The coaxial Cable is used to connect

the signal conditioner to the Data acquisition device.

5.2.3 DI148 Data acquisition device The purpose of the Data acquisition device is to convert and process the analog voltage data to

computer readable digital data. The apparatus used is DI‐148 Data acquisition device from the DataQ

instruments with the features such as 10bit resolution and a sampling rate up to 14,400 Hz. The

datasheet is attached in appendix 1.4

4 http://www.omega.com/SignalConditioners.html

Coaxial Cable to

the DAQ

Connection

from the Load

Cell

Power

Input 12V



Figure 18 ‐ DI148 DAQ Device

The DAQ device is packed in an external casing. It has two channel inputs with Coaxial cable input and

the slot to connect the USB cable. The power for the DAQ is provided with the USB cable. Channel 1 has

been configured as the communication channel for the program.

There are several post procedures that needed to be done in order to use the device in LabVIEW™. The

detailed explanation is in section 7.2.

5.2.4 Starting Block An instrumented starting block is used to provide the starting action of the athlete. The load cell is

attached to one block of the unit.

Figure 19 ‐ Starting Block

DI148 DAQ

USB to the

PC

Coaxial Cable

from the Signal

Conditioning

Channel

Selectors

Load Cell Foot Block



6. Software used

6.1 LabVIEW™ 8.5 LabVIEW 8.5 is the main software that is used to integrate both force acquisition system and time

acquisition system to build the motion tracking system with the GUI5.

LabVIEW stands for Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench. It is a platform and a

development environment for a visual programming language from National Instruments. It is a

graphical programming environment that allows users to obtain information from the outside world and

manipulate data, and display results through a user friendly interface. The easy programming capability

and the flexibility in virtual instrumentation is the main reason to choose this software for the project.

The programming code section is known as the VI.

6.2 Bluesoleil ™6 Bluesoleil is software developed by IVT cooperation that has the capability to use the Bluetooth™

connectivity of a Personal Computer/Laptop to wirelessly communicate with certain services of the

Bluetooth enabled devices. The user friendly GUI provides the user to easily select and connect to the

desired services.

Figure 20 ‐ BlueSoleil Main Window

As shown in Figure 20, the window displays the connected hardware. The COM port numbers can be

obtained by viewing the properties of the desired device.

6.3 WINDAQ DI148 driver WindaQ DI148 driver is used to create the working platform for LabVIEW to communicate with the DAQ

device. This is installed with the WinDAQ data acquisition software provided with the device.

The driver will provide a COM port number depending on the USB port DAQ is connected. The step by

step description of the procedure to identify to correct COM port number is attached in appendix 4.1

5 GUI – Graphical User Interface 6 http://www.bluesoleil.com/products/



7. Block Diagram Explanation

The block diagram is the heart of the system that contains the programming codes created using NI

LabVIEW 8.5. Following section explains the key settings and methods followed in programming to

enable the system works flawlessly. Complete prints of these block diagrams are attached in appendix 2.

The program is divided into five main processes. These processes run concurrently in order to minimize

the processing time and resources.

1. Time Acquisition System.

2. Force Acquisition System.

3. File creation.

4. File Read & Comparison.

5. Variables.

There are two pre‐requisite softwares that need to be installed on the computer in order to run the

program smoothly.

1. BlueSoleil™ ‐ used to obtain the serial port numbers to run the Time Acquisition system.

2. WinDAQ™ ‐ provides the drivers for the DI148 DAQ device to run in LabVIEW™.

7.1 Time Acquisition System Time acquisition system deals with the wireless timing gates. Created program is in such a way that the

user has the freedom to select minimum of 2 timing gates up to a maximum of 6 gates.

7.1.1 Serial Ports Timings lights connect to LabVIEW using virtual serial ports. LabVIEW uses VISA7 architecture to connect

and communicate with the gates. The serial ports are created using the BlueSoleil™ software and a

separate Serial Port (Known as COM port) is assigned to each timing gate. In other words, there are six

different port numbers for six gates.

7 VISA is a standard I/O API for instrumentation programming



7.1.2 Serial Port open The first step of communicating with serial port is to configure and open the port.

Figure 21 ‐ Serial Port OPEN

Figure 21 illustrates the serial port open VI and the explanation of each component is as below.

1. VISA Configure Serial port. This initializes the serial port specified by VISA resource name

to the specified settings.

2. Timeout is set to 50 seconds in order to provide maximum connected time.

3. VISA resource name is the port number where the Virtual serial port is connected to.

The number begins with COM**.

4. Baud Rate – The timing gates connect only at the baud rate of 4800 bps.

5. Parity is set to None.

6. Stop bits is set to 1.0

7. Flow control is set to None.

8. VISA set I/O buffer size – A receive and transmit buffer size of 48 bytes is set in order to

avoid the VISA flush error[17].

7.1.3 Serial port Read and Write The second step of communicating with serial port is the Write and Read VI. It also follows the VISA

architecture. A delay of 5ms has been included in between write and read commands in order to avoid

data loss.

2

3

4

5

6

7

18



Figure 22 ‐ Serial port read and Write

Read and write are used in two scenarios. The First scenario is to calculate time. The program is

illustrated in the Figure 22. In this case, character “S” is sent using the Write to port VI. Timing gates

send a response whenever the reflected signal from the sensors in the timing gates is blocked. The Read

from Port VI reads 3 bytes.

Figure 23 ‐ Check Scenario

The second scenario is used to check the connectivity of the gates. As shown in Figure 23, the program

sends Character “Z” through the serial port. If the receiving signal includes character “Z” it means that

the gate is connected. This situation is used to turn on a LED to indicate the user that the gate is active.

7.1.4 Serial Port Close The last step of serial communication is the Serial port close.

Figure 24 ‐ Serial Port Close

The serial port close is a must for every port open to avoid data conflicts that can result in incorrect

timing information.

Tick Count



7.1.5 Time Calculation Tick Count VI is used to compute the time calculation. This VI returns the run time in milliseconds. It is

activated when the serial port reads a value more than 2 bytes. Same method is used to calculate the

time value in the next gate. Finally the difference of the two timer value is used to calculate the elapsed

time between adjacent gates.

Figure 25 ‐ store the time

As shown in Figure 25 the calculated time values are fed through a shift register to avoid loss of data.

The output value from the shift register is then converted to seconds before storing to the variable.

7.1.6 Controls

Figure 26 ‐ Gate Control & Check

Figure 26 illustrates two user controls namely ‘No of Gates’ and ‘Check’ that control the execution of

time acquisition section.

‘No of Gates’ Controller is connected to a case structure. A case structure is activated depending on the

user’s selection of the number of gates, so that only the required serial ports are open. For example,

there are 3 serial port connections if the value of the controller is three. This method is implemented to

avoid unnecessary use of program resources.

‘Check’ is a slide switch situated in the front panel that is used to verify the connectivity of the lights.

The ‘check Scenario’ of Figure 23 is activated with the switch.



7.1.7 Stopping Criteria A stopping criteria is created in order to stop the acquisition after all the timing data is captured.

Figure 27 ‐ Stopping Criteria

As shown in Figure 27, a true constant is activated when the last gate reads data. Last gate is the

maximum gate number selected by the user. For example if the user selected 4 gates to be used the last

gate is fourth. This true constant is wired to the for loop stop control. A LED is used to indicate the user

that the data is acquired.

7.1.8 Acceleration & Velocity Calculations Acceleration and Velocity calculations are processed outside the acquisition program to make sure that

the time acquisition runs smoothly. Time and the Distance are the only values obtained from the main

time acquisition section.

Figure 28 ‐ Acceleration & Velocity Calculations

As shown in Figure 28. The Acceleration & Velocity calculations have been done based on the time and

distance parameters obtained from each gate pair. These calculations are then displayed in separate

graphs for further analysis. The Graphs are displayed in the front panel as shown in Figure 43.

True

Constant

For loop stop

control

LED



7.2 Force Acquisition System The force acquisition system deals with the Load cell. DI‐148 is used as the data acquisition device.

Further details are explained in section 5.2.3 in this report.

.

Figure 29 ‐ ActiveX Control for DI‐148

The DI‐148 does not provide a driver for LabVIEW™. The alternative to communicate with LabVIEW™ is

to use ActiveX controls. This procedure uses the WindaQ control which allows data acquired by

WINDAQ® Acquisition software to be simultaneously made available to LabVIEW[18]. The step‐by‐

step procedure provided by DataQ Instrument is attached in the appendix 4.2.

7.2.1 Configuration

Figure 30 ‐ DI148 Configuration

‘Property nodes’ have been used to select and assign property values to the ActiveX control. The main

configuration is to select the ‘DeviceID’. It should be written in a specified format. For example, the

correct device ID for a DI‐148U connected to COM port 4 with a baud rate of 9600 is “COM4 148 9600”.

The’ EventPoint’ Property is set to acquire data points at when 20 data points have been gathered.

7.2.2 Data Acquisition ‘GetData’ Property value has been used to acquire data from the ActiveX control. The values are in

Variant data type. Variant data do not conform to a specific data type and can contain attributes[19]



Figure 31 ‐ Force Acquisition System

As illustrated in Figure 31, The Variant data are converted to LabVIEW™ Data type. There is a possible

error that can occur if the COM port has not properly configured. The system is programmed to notify

the user the above miss‐configuration by means of an error message.

Obtained data are the voltage values acquired from the load cell. These data is then converted to useful

force data using the values obtained from the load cell calibration. The load Cell calibration procedure

will be explained in section 5.2.1 of the report. Two graphs have been plotted each for real‐time

acquisition and offline mode as further explained in section 8.1

The acquisition program runs inside a for loop that will terminate after 100 iterations.

Figure 32 ‐ Iteration to time conversion & Delay

The iteration scale is multiplied by a scalar value (as shown in Figure 32) in order to convert the

iterations to corresponding time values. After the conversion the force acquisition system runs for 13

seconds. This duration is sufficient for a single sprint start procedure.

A delay of 120ms has been introduced for each iteration. This is required to synchronize the Variant data

acquisition and Variant to LabVIEW™ data conversion.

Obtain

Variant Data

Convert to

LabVIEW data Calibration

adjustment



7.2.3 Gunshot Sound A sound of the ‘Gunshot’ has been introduced to the system in order to allow the coaches or the users

to initiate the sound to sprinters to start running. By this means the operator can analyze the time of the

sound and the instance of the maximum force.

Figure 33 ‐ Gun shot sound

As shown in Figure 33, the section is activated with the press of the button on the front panel. The

sound file is in .wav format. The file path for the sound file is auto generated as long as the file is in the

same folder as the main VI.

7.3 File Creation Acceleration, Distance, Force, Time, Velocity and Athletic Details are saved to a Microsoft Excel file in .xls

format. The saved files are very useful for post analysis of the athlete training as it contains all the useful

information acquired from each session.

First of all the data that needed to be written is converted to strings and stored in an Array. It is

arranged in such a way that all the data is in a proper order. A sample file is attached in the appendix 3.

Figure 34 ‐ Folder creation

Figure 34 shows the block diagram of creating a folder under player’s name. The program is created to

check for duplicate names before creating a folder. Further explanation of File save is in section 0 below.



7.4 File Read & Comparison Another feature in the software is that two sets of saved files can be read and then compare each

attributes.

Figure 35 ‐ File Read

Figure 35 shows the VI that has used to read and display the contents in the excel file. All the values are

converted from strings to relevant formats. For example acceleration data is converted to array to

display in a graph.

Figure 36 – Comparison of Attributes

Curser

movement Fix

Attributes set on

the graphical view



The Figure 36 corresponds to the parameters used to compare two saved sessions. Left side property

nodes at the left explain the code used to fix the cursors of the comparison graphs to move at the same

time. Rights side code explains the attributes that displayed on the graphical representation (Refer to

Figure 47 in Section 8.1.5 for front panel view). These values change with the movement of the cursor.

7.5 Variables

Figure 37 ‐ Variables to as Controls and Displays

Figure 37 illustrates the variables used as controls and indicators of the various acquired and processed

data. Property nodes and local variables of the above variables have been used to change the properties

and also to pass the values all over the program.

Figure 38 ‐ Tab Control

A Tab Control is generated when Tabs are used on the front panel. The process of the each Tab can be

individually programmed by wiring a case structure to the tab control.



8. Results

8.1 Explanation of the front panel

8.1.1 Main tab

Figure 39 ‐ Main tab



8.1.2 Settings Tab

Figure 40‐ Settings Tab

The Settings Tab has several settings that required to be selected before starting the data acquisition.

The user can select the number of timing gates to be used for the session by turning the knob.

The next step is to select the COM port numbers for the timing gates. This number can be

obtained from the Bluesoleil™ software window. The tabs are highlighted depending on the

number of gates selected.

The COM port number for the force acquisition system has to be entered. This number can be

obtained from the device manager in windows. Step by Step procedure to identify the COM port

number for DAQ device is attached in appendix 4.1.

The user should enter the distance between each gate into the controls. The measurement is in

meters. The minimum entry value is 0.2m.

The window on the right is to check whether the selected gates are triggered and connected. A

green LED will turn on if the gates are successfully configured.

Gate selection

knob

Selectors of COM

port number for

Timing Gates

Distance selection

between gates

Selector of COM

port number for

force system

Gate status

indicators



8.1.3 RealTime Tab

Figure 41 ‐ Real‐time Data Acquisition tab

When switching from the Settings Tab to the Real‐time Tab the user will be prompted to enter the

Player details. The popup menu is shown in Figure 49.

The Real‐time Tab is used to acquire data. Once the start button is pressed, the Force Acquisition system

initiates obtaining data followed by the time acquisition system. The force, velocity and acceleration

data are displayed graphically in real‐time.

This panel also has the capability of providing a Gun‐Shot sound by pressing the gunshot‐sound button.

The Green LED turns on when the system completes capturing both force and timing data.

Force Data

in N

Button to

provide Gun‐

Shot Sound

Velocity Data

Acceleration

Data

Time

between

each gate



8.1.4 Offline Tab The Offline tab is used to display and analyze data acquired during the previous process.

The player details and the file path are displayed on the top of the Tab.

This Tab is divided into two sub parts namely, Force and Motion for the viewing convenience.

Force

Figure 42 ‐ Offline View Tab ‐ Force data

Force tab displays the acquired force data in Newton. The values on the graphs can be analyzed using a

cursor.

Maximum force incurred, corresponding time and force value of the cursor position are the information

displayed on the right side of the window

File path

Player Details

Cursor

Max force

& the time

Force value

Cursor position



Motion

Figure 43 ‐ Offline View Tab ‐ Velocity and Acceleration

The Motion tab indicates the average velocity and the acceleration of the sprinter.

Figure 44 ‐ Graphical Representation of the graphs

Data in the Figure 44 changes with the cursor movement of the graph.

Gate Number



8.1.5 Comparison Tab In this section, the user can load two different files in order to analyze and compare each attribute of

the player. This tab is also divided into three sub categories for viewing convenience.

Force

Figure 45 ‐ Comparison Tab ‐ Force Data

Tab in Figure 45 displays the force data of the two saved sessions. In addition, it is possible to analyze

each graph independently using the cursors.

Player info

session 1

Player info

session 2



Velocity

Figure 46 ‐ Comparison tab ‐ Velocity Data

The velocity Tab displays the velocity data of the two sessions that are loaded. The cursor of the first

graph can be moved and the cursor on the second graph moves accordingly so that the displayed values

are of the same gate position.

Figure 47 ‐ Graphical Representation of the Graphs

All the values displayed in the figure correspond to the position of the cursor. The higher velocity value

is indicated in “Green” color while the lower in “Red”.



Acceleration

Figure 48 ‐ Comparison Tab ‐ Acceleration Data

The acceleration tab provides a similar functionality to the velocity tab. It displays the acceleration data

of the two loaded sessions to be compared.



8.1.6 Other PopUp Menus

Athelete Details Menu

Figure 49 ‐ User Prompt

If there are no errors, above menu pops up when the user click the real‐time tab. The information entered are saved into the excel file.

Error Codes

Figure 50 ‐ Invalid Distance Error

This error id displayed if the user has not entered the distances between timing gates.

Figure 51 ‐ COM port errors

These errors pop up if the user enterers the wrong COM port values



File save

Figure 52 ‐ File Save prompt

The user is prompted to choose whether to save the data to an .xls file. If selected Yes, the data is saved

and the file path is displayed. The file name consists of the date and the session number and it is saved

in a folder created with the name of the athlete.

The default file path is set to ‘C:\IMFAST\Data\Athelete_Name\’. This purpose is to reduce any conflicts

in file saving since all the computers contain the C drive.

C:\IMFAST\Data\Danushka\Session_13Sep08.xls

Folder name under

athlete name

Session ID and the

Date



9. Comparison and Justification

9.1 Comparison with the Existing Software. Both Time acquisition system and Force acquisition system initially included with manufacturer provided

software. These are compared with the integrated software for the pros and cons.

9.1.1 IMFAST and SMARTiming The SMARTiming software is the default software for the timing gates. It is capable of acquiring data for

Sectional Test Setup, Multiple Lane Setup and Shuttle Run Setup. A graphical illustration of the above

setups is attached in appendix 1.1. As for the cons, the software does not have the feature to enter and

save athlete information. Also it provides only time information, thus the user has to calculate velocity

and acceleration separately. The distance setting of the timing lights is limited to multiples of 5. The

collected data is saved in files with an extension of .ST1 format. This format has to be manually opened

by Microsoft Excel™. The existing software does not provide any feature to analyze and compare saved

data. Another drawback is that the software is unstable and tends to close by itself in any case of error.

All the limitations of SMARTiming software are considered in IMFAST system to increase the user

friendliness. The system automatically prompts the user to enter the Athlete information. The useful

information such as the time, average velocity and the average acceleration are displayed in a single

window. The distance setting is enhanced for a range of 0.2m to 200m. The data is saved in “.xls”

format file under a folder in the name of the player. In addition, IMFAST software includes a separate

tab to analyze and compare previously obtained data sets. The system is optimized to use in Shuttle run

setup.

9.1.2 IMFAST and WinDAQ WinDAQ is the software used in the force acquisition device. The main incompatibility is that it is only

capable of displaying voltage variance. Due to this the user has to manually calibrate to convert the

values to useful force data.

The calibration for the IMFAST system has been completed as explained in Section 5.2.1 and hard coded

into the program. As a result the user can view the corresponding force values directly on the graph.

Maximum force is determined and displayed on the GUI and the scroll feature is enabled to further

analyze each segment of the force acquisition. Sound of a Gunshot is added as an extra feature so that

the user can generate the start sound from the program itself.



9.2 Time justification The time values acquired from the IMFAST program has to be validated with the real values. The existing

SMARTiming software is used to for this purpose under the assumption that the commercially available

software provides accurate readings.

The timing lights are placed with 2m distance between each other.

The same test subject is used for the entire session.

The running is conducted and values were obtained using both IMFAST software and the

SMARTiming software.

Five sets of data are collected for each software and the average value is calculated for better

accuracy.

The setup has few limitations. Since the data collection is conducted in two different sessions it is

assumed that test subject performs equally in all 10 running activities.

Session No

Distance Gate 1&2 Gate 2 &3

SMARTiming IMFAST Difference Error % SMARTiming IMFAST Difference Error %

1 3 1.03 1.02 ‐0.01 0.87 0.78 0.95 0.17 21.58

2 3 1.10 1.05 ‐0.06 5.34 0.83 0.89 0.06 7.26

3 3 1.01 1.14 0.13 13.29 0.83 0.82 ‐0.01 1.69

4 3 1.26 1.17 ‐0.09 7.14 0.95 0.90 ‐0.04 4.44

5 3 1.11 1.04 ‐0.07 6.32 0.87 0.83 ‐0.05 5.28

Average 3 1.10 1.05 ‐0.06 6.59 0.85 0.88 0.03 3.49

Table 4 ‐ Time Comparison

As shown in Table 4, the Average error between Gate 1 and 2 is 6.59% and between Gate 2 and 3 is

3.40%. The time difference between the values obtained from each software is less than 0.06 seconds.

The comparison above has sufficient evidence to conclude that the time values obtained from the

IMFAST system correspond to the real world values.



9.3 Force Justification

The forces applied to the load cell are assessed in order to confirm whether the values represent the

real force values. The load cell is set up similar to the calibration setup explained in section 5.2.1. The

loads are applied with 20N increments over the range of 0N to 170N.

Actual Force (N)

Load Cell Reading (N)

0 0.000

20 21.052

40 41.960

60 61.803

80 81.539

100 101.631

120 119.631

150 152.117

170 169.611 Table 5 ‐ Load Cell Comparison Data

Figure 53 ‐ Load cell comparison graph

Data in Table 5 and Figure 53 clearly shows the linear relationship between load cell and actual load.

The non linearity error for this data is 1.4%

0.00020.00040.00060.00080.000100.000120.000140.000160.000180.000

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 150 170

Actual Load

(N)

Load Cell Reading (N)

Load Cell Reading vs Actual Load



10. Future Work & Recommendations

The Integrated Motion tracking system developed satisfies the objectives imposed by this final year

project. However, there are several improvements that can be implemented to the system that would

increase the user friendliness as well as the accuracy of the data.

1. The program can be enhanced to show the time of the gun shot sound on the force acquisition

graph. This can be useful to evaluate the reaction time of the player.

2. Presently the system is bound to a maximum of 6 timing lights. The program can be improved to

increase the number of lights. Which is in turn will increase the resolution of the data resulting

more accurate information of the activity.

3. The performance of the timing light system can be analyzed more deeply using different

methods to validate the result with real values. Methods such as constant velocity, constant

acceleration, comparison with other systems[9] etc.

4. It is also possible to investigate the possibility of using other wireless mediums that has more

connectivity range to communicate with the timing lights instead of Bluetooth™.

5. Presently the force transducer and the data acquisition system have a wired connection to the

PC. It can be programmed to acquire data wirelessly through the Wi‐Fi data acquisition in

LabVIEW 8.6[20].

6. It is possible to design a foot block that could be adjusted for position and angle. Presently the

angle adjustment of the foot block is restricted with the attachment of the force transducer. The

angle adjustment will provide more convenient starting position for the sprinters.

7. The current force system is calibrated to measure the horizontal forces acting on the foot block. It is also possible to investigate about the vertical forces acting on the transducer. This measurement can be used to obtain more precise force profile with the resultant angle of the acting force[9] etc.

8. Another Load cell can be attached to the remaining foot block so force exerted by both feet can be analyzed.



11. Conclusion

The integrated system uses a SignalTEC™ timing lights system to acquire time data and a MLP500 load

cell to acquire force data. LabVIEW™ has been used to develop the software to acquire corresponding

data in real‐time and analyze in a user friendly GUI. The system can operate with maximum of six timing

lights and one load cell attached to a foot block. IMFAST system can generate a sound of a ‘Gun shot’ to

indicate the starting signal to the sprinter.

The integrated system is initiated by a click of a single button. After the real‐time data acquisition, the

system displays the acquired force values, Max force, Time, Distance, Average velocity and Average

acceleration in the GUI. All acquired data are saved in a file under a folder created by the athlete name.

Another feature in the software is the user can compare and analyze data from two previously saved

sessions.

The values obtained from both time and force systems were compared with the existing software to

validate with the real readings. The average error in the time acquisition system when compared to the

existing software is 4.30% and the average time difference is 0.06s. This system is capable of acquiring

data with a precision of 0.001s. Load cell has been calibrated to convert the voltage values to force

values. It is then compared with the applied load values and the displayed values. the data shows a

linear relationship with a non‐linearity error of 1.4%. The report also discusses several

recommendations that could enhance the functionality and user friendliness of the system.

In conclusion, it is feasible to conclude that the Integrated Motion and Force Acquisition System for

Tracking (IMFAST) has been successfully developed to satisfy the objectives of the project.



12. References [1] M. Lynch (2003), "Sprint Starting " [Online]. Available:

http://www.lollylegs.com/training/Starting.aspx Last accessed: [2] E. Ozolin, "The Technique of the Sprint Start." [3] S. Chelly and C. Denis, "Leg Power and Hoping stiffness: relationships with Sprint running

Performance," Med Sci Sports Exerc, vol. 33, pp. 326‐333, 2001. [4] N. S. Aldana, J. Gomez, J. V. Bedoya, and J. M. M. Correa, "SpeedMed: Device for measuring

velocity in Track Sports," Revista Engenieria Biomedica, vol. Mayo 2007, pp. 33‐37. [5] (2008), "Electro‐Com RFID solutions of SPORTS TIMING," [Online]. Available:

http://www.electrocom.com.au/rfid_sportstiming1.htm. Last accessed: 9th April 2008 [6] ATHNETIX (2001), "eTIMER40 ‐ Professional Sports Timing System," [Online]. Available:

http://www.athnetix.com/Forms/etimer40.htm. Last accessed: [7] L. S. Developers "FinishLynx," [Online]. Available: http://www.finishlynx.com/. Last accessed:

25th May [8] A. Harrison, Jensen, Randall, "A Comparison of Laser and Video Techniques for Determining

Displacement and Velocity During Running " Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, vol. 9, p. 12, 2005.

[9] R.E.Gander, J.D.McClements, L.K.Sanderson, B.A.Rostad, K.E.Josephson, and A.J.Pratt, "Sprint Start Instrumentation," IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 43, Aug 1994 1994.

[10] E. J. B. a. J. K. Peter S Maulder, "Jump Kinetic Determinants of Sprint Acceleration Performance from Starting Blocks in Male Sprinters," Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, vol. 5, 01 June 2006 2006.

[11] C. L. M. James Walter Kondrat, "Lap Counter System for Multiple Runners." vol. US 2006/0217232 A1, P. A. Publication, Ed. United Stated, 2006.

[12] A. R. C. Bret, A.B.Dufour, I. Messonnier, J.R.Lacour, "Leg strength and stiffness as ability in 100m sprint running," Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, vol. 42, 2002.

[13] T. F. Novacheck, "The biomechanics of running," Gait and Posture vol. 7, p. 19, 1998. [14] Wikipedia "Bluetooth Serial Port Profile," [Online]. Available:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_profile#Serial_Port_Profile_.28SPP.29. Last accessed: 19 Sep 2008

[15] "Weed Instrument Co. Inc Glossary of Terms ‐ Signal conditioning," [Online]. Available: http://weedinstrument.com/info_central/glossary/s.html. Last accessed: 18 Sep 2008

[16] "Nation Master Encyclopedia ‐ Data acquisition," [Online]. Available: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Data‐acquisition. Last accessed: 18 Sep 2008

[17] N. Instruments "Error BFFF003E Occurs after a VISA Read/Write," [Online]. Available: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/60DDFED7EFEFE7188625705700750821?OpenDocument. Last accessed: 14th September

[18] I. S. Popescu, "Data Acquisition Using LabVIEW and DATAQ Instruments’ ActiveX Controls," DataQ instruments.

[19] "LabVIEW™ Help," National Instruments, 2007. [20] N. Instruments "NI LabVIEW 8.6," [Online]. Available: http://www.ni.com/labview86/. Last

accessed: 25th Sep 2008

Appendix 1.1 SignalTEC™ Timing Light data sheet

SignalTEC™ Wireless Optical Gate Timing System

sectional test setup

Optical Gate Timing System uses the optical-electronic and computer technologies to easily capture timings automatically.It is widely applies in physical fitness tests, sport researches and trainings, such as short distance dashes, hurdle races, broad jumps and triple jumps which compute precise timing of the athletes.Furthermore, it can be setup and use indoor as well as outdoor environment.With the wireless technology system, setup time for acquisition is greatly reduced.

multiple lane setup

Features

Computerized data acquisition Random placement of gates Single-lane mode up to 7 segment timings Simultaneously capture up to 7 test lanes Shuttle run mode : up to 3 lanes Wireless interface Real time display of capture data External trigger Selectable test lane Portable

Shuttle run setup

Model OGTS-WLS

General Specifications

Accuracy 0.001 secMax acquisition range 200 mMax number of gates 7Max number of lane acquire simultaneous 7Interface WirelessWireless technology Bluetooth Acquisition device Laptop/Desktop Weight 1.5kgDimensions 428x64x32mm

Laptop requirement

Windows XP Home RAM > 128MB SVGA resolution 1280x768 USB2.0

Appendix 1.2 MLP500 Load Cell Data sheet

Appendix 1.3 TM0‐1 Signal Conditioner Data Sheet

OPERATORS MANUAL

TM0-1

AMPLIFIER / CONDITIONERMODULE

42480 RIO NEDO, TEMECULA, CA 92590 (909) 719-3965 FAX (909) 719-3900

E-mail: [email protected]: http://www.ttloadcells.com

TransducerTechniques

E-mail: [email protected]: http://www.ttloadcells.com

TransducerTechniques R

DESCRIPTION

The TM0-1 Module provides low cost dedicated conditioning for one bridge type load or pressure sensor. The unit can be placed near the sensor for high level signal transmission. Several units can be powered from a common supply. Balance and span potentiometers are low tempco metal film for long term stability and good resolution.

SET UP PROCEDURE METHOD 1 Shunt calibration with TTI transducers 1. Connect transducer to the 5 pin terminal block as shown in Fig. 2. 2. Connect a digital voltmeter to the 4 pin terminal block as shown in Fig. 2.

3. Connect 12 VDC power supply to the 4 pin terminal block on pins 1 and 2 as shown in Fig.2. 4. Allow 15 minutes warm up. 5. With zero load applied to the transducer, rotate balance potent iometer towards + or -

in order to obtain 0.000 on the digital voltmeter. 6. Refer to the sample calib ration certificate Fig.1 , Example 1 (typical to the calibration certificate supplied with TTI transducers. Multiply the percent of load value (PCT LOAD) for a 87.325 Kohms resistor by the desired full scale voltage output. Note that +/- 8 VDC is the maximum output voltage range.

Example: 8 VDC x 50.2% = 4.016 VDC.

7. Depress calibration button (calibration button to remain depressed through out step 7). Adjust the gain potentiometer to display the engineering units calculated in step 6,

Example 1 (4.016 VDC). Release calibration button. 8. Repeat step 5 and 7 if necessary.

METHOD 2 Using a known load (Dead weight calibration) 1. Follow method 1, steps 1 thru 4. 2. Apply a known load (dead weight) to the transducer. 3. Adjust the gain potentiometer to display engineering unit equivalent to known load (dead weight). 4. Remove known load (dead weight) and readjust balance potentiometer, if necessary.

1

<<< CERTIFICATE OF CALIBRATION >>> SERIAL NUMBER: SAMPLE CERTIFICATE DATE OF CALIBRATION: 11/11/1993SENSOR MODEL: HSW-20K DATE OF RECALIBRATION: 11/11/1994JOB NUMBER: 0 TECHNICIAN: AE TENSION MV/V MV/V LOAD INC. DEC. LBS. 0 0 0 10000 1.0026 1.0031 20000 2.0051 NON-LINEARITY .03 PCT FS NON-REPEATABILITY .02 PCT FS HYSTERESIS .03 PCT FS << SHUNT CALIBRATION >> PCT LOAD SIGNAL SHUNT SHUNT LOAD LBS MV/V K OHMS PINS 50.2 10034.4 1.0060 87.325 (-E,-S) 100.3 20068.8 2.0120 43.575 (-E,-S) << DIGITAL PANEL METER MODEL DPM-2 SCALE FACTOR >> DPM-2 SCALE FACTOR .0000 * CALIBRATION COMPUTED FROM THREE (3) RUNS INCREASING AND DECREASING. * TRACEABLE TO NIST TEST # 57914 * CALIBRATION PERFORMED AT 10 VDC * MAXIMUM BRIDGE EXCITATION 12 VDC WIRING COLOR CODE =================== RED +EXCITATION BLK -EXCITATION GRN +SIGNAL WHT -SIGN

Fig. 1Fig. 1

Example 1Example 1

22

3

Full Wheatstone BridgeTransducer

12 VDC Power In

Analog Output0- +/- 8 VDC

Bench Top V.O.M.Millivolt MeterX-Y PlotterChart RecorderA/D - Computer

Push ButtonShunt Cal

Balance Pot

Power Supply / Analog Output4 Pin Terminal Block

1: + 12 VDC2: Power Ground3: Analog Ground4: Analog Output

Fig. 2

Load CellForce SensorTorque Sensor

Pressure Transducer

Transducer Input5 Pin Terminal Block

1 2 3 4 5

Gain Pot

TransducerTM0-1

1 + Excitation (Red)2 - Signal (White)3 + Signal (Green)4 - Excitation (Black)5 + Shield

4

III. TROUBLESHOOTING

SYMPTOM / PROBLEM ACTION

Negative analog output voltage Switch wire position 2 and 3 OR 1 and 4 on 5 pin terminal. Analog output is saturated One (or more) of the transducer wires is (are) disconnected. Check wire continuity. Check 5 pins terminal connections. Refer to Fig. 2

55

IV. SPECIFICATIONS

Amplifier Section

Gain: 75 to 1000 Input Sensitivity: 1mV/V minimum for 8V output Output Voltage: 0 to +/-8VDC (linear to 9.5VDC) Output Current: 0 to 10mA Nonlinearity: 0.01% maximum Compliance: 0.1% plus vs. minus full scale Stability: +/-1% for 24 hours Tempco: 0.01% full scale/C Noise and Ripple: Less than 5mV P-P at gain = 1000 Filter Type: 2 Poles Butterworth Frequency Response: DC to 220 Hz (2.2, 22, 2200 Hz available in lots of 10, no charge)

Bridge Section

Excitation Voltage: 8VDC +/-0.25V Sensor Resistance: 120 Ohms minimum 1000 Ohms maximum Balance Range: +/-30% of output (350 Ohms bridge) General

Weight: Approx. 2 ounces Size: 2.25 x 2.50 x .80 inches Mounting: Corner standoffs, 4-40 thread Input / Output: Via screw terminals Operating Temp: 0 to 70 C Power Required: 12 VDC +/-0.5 VDC at 65mA

WARRANTY / REPAIR POLICY

Limited Warranty on Products

Any of our products which, under normal operating conditions, proves defective in material or in workmanship within one (1) year from the date of shipment by Transducer Techniques, will be repaired or replaced free of charge provided that you obtain a return material authorization from Transducer Techniques and send the defective product, transportation charges prepaid with notice of the defect, and establish that the product has been properly installed, maintained, and operated within the limits of rated and normal usage. Replacement product will be shipped F.O.B. our plant. The terms of this warranty do not extend to any product or part thereof which, under normal usage, has an inherently shorter useful life than one year. The replacement warranty detailed here is the Buyer's exclusive remedy, and will satisfy all obligations of Transducer Techniques, whether based on contract, negligence, or otherwise. Transducer Techniques is not responsible for any incidental or consequential loss or damage which might result from a failure of any Transducer Techniques product. This express warranty is made in lieu of any and all other warranties, express or implied, including implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for particular purpose. Any unauthorized disassembly or attempt to repair voids this warranty.

Obtaining Service Under Warranty

Advance authorization is required prior to the return to Transducer Techniques. Before returning the items either write to the Repair Department c/o Transducer Techniques, 42480 Rio Nedo, Temecula, CA 92590, or call (909) 719-3965 with: 1) a part number; 2) a serial number for the defective product; 3) a technical description of the defect; 4) a no-charge purchase order number (so products can be returned to you correctly); and, 5) ship to and bill to addresses. Shipment to Transducer Techniques shall be at Buyer's expense and repaired, or replacement items will be shipped F.O.B. our plant in Temecula, CA. Non-verified problems or defects may be subject to a $75 evaluation charge. Please return the original calibration data with the unit.

Obtaining Non-Warranty Service

Advance authorization is required prior to the return to Transducer Techniques. Before returning the items, either write to the Repair Department c/o Transducer Techniques, 42480 Rio Nedo, Temecula, CA 92590, or call (909) 719-3965 with: 1) a model number; 2) a serial number for the defective product; 3) a technical description of the malfunction; 4) a purchase order number to cover Transducer Techniques' repair cost; and, 5) ship to and bill to addresses. After the product is evaluated by Transducer Techniques, we will contact you to provide the estimated repair costs before proceeding. The minimum evaluation charge is $75. Shipment to Transducer Techniques shall be at Buyer's expense and repaired items will be shipped to you F.O.B. our plant in Temecula, CA. Please return the original calibration data with the unit.

Repair Warranty

All repairs of Transducer Techniques' products are warranted for a period of 90 days from the date of shipment. This warranty applies only to those items which were found defective and repaired; it does not apply to products in which no defect was found and returned as is, or merely recalibrated. Out of warranty products may not be capable of being returned to the exact original specifications or dimensions.

FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT, CALL (909)719-3965 / FAX (909)719-3900

6

MADE IN U.S.A. SEP/01

TM

Force/TorqueLoad Cells

Sensors (800) 344-3965(909) 719-3965 FAX (909) 719-3900

Appendix 1.4 DI148 Data Acquisition Data sheet

Easy to Connect and UseConnects to any local laptop or desktop PC. Built-in excitation for up to two string pots. Two, built-in, 8 position screw terminal connectors allow easy and secure access to all signal I/O connections without the need for extra options.

Wide Sample Throughput RangeThroughput ranges from sub-Hertz to over 14,400 Hertz allow the DI-148 to connect to a wide range of both static and dynamic signals.

CompactSmall size—66L × 66W × 28H mm (2.6L × 2.6W × 1.1H inches)—allows the DI-148 to fit comfortably in crowd-ed instrumentation cabinets, desktops, and other tight locations.

Self Powered AdvantageAll DI-148 instruments derive their power directly from the host PC eliminating the need for an external power adaptor and connections—perfect for use in automotive and other portable environments where power is unavailable.

Built-In, Bidirectional PortA built-in bidirectional port allows pro-grammable discrete inputs and outputs for control.Free Data Acquisition Software Our WINDAQ/Lite data acquisition software offers real time display and disk streaming for the Windows envi-ronment. Their real time display can operate in a smooth scroll or triggered sweep mode of operation, and can be scaled into any unit of measure. Event markers with comments allow you to annotate your data acquisition session with descriptive information as you’re recording to disk.Raise your productivity to new heights with WINDAQ’s unique multitask-ing feature. Record waveform data to disk in the background while running any combination of programs in the foreground — even WINDAQ Playback software to review and analyze the waveform data as it’s being stored!WINDAQ/Lite recording and play-back software is provided free with every DI-148 purchase. WINDAQ/Lite recording software is limited to 240 Hz sample rate when recording to disk. The extra cost WINDAQ/Pro High Speed option allows you to record at rates up to the speed of the instrument.

Low Cost, Compact Data Acquisition Starter Kit

Designed Specifically for use with String Pots

Convenient USB Interface2 String Pot Inputs plus 2

±10V Analog inputsSix Bi-directional TTL

Ports for General Purpose Control

10 Bit ResolutionUp to 14,400 Hz Sample

Rate

DI-148U-SP

Features

DATAQ Instruments, Inc. • 241 Springside Drive • Akron, Ohio 44333 • Tel: 330-668-1444 • Email: [email protected] • www.dataq.com

Model DI-148U-SP is similar to the general purpose model DI-148U, but is designed to connect directly to as many as two string pots for displacement measurements. Two general purpose inputs are also supported. When used with string pots, model DI-148U-SP provides a complete solution, with a built-in, stable excitation supply that is exposed for each string pot channel. Like the DI-148U, the DI-148U-SP supports a channel scan list, high sample rate throughput, and a USB interface. These features combine to produce a robust instrument that can be applied to nearly any data acquisition situation where pre amplified signals need to be acquired to a PC, and where displacement measurements using string pots need to be made. Rounding out the products are six bidirectional TTL ports that may be used for gen-eral purpose control Sample rates may range from sub Hertz, to 14,400 Hz.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.dataq.com

SP1

SP2

CH3

CH4

GeneralPurposeAnalog In

Field SideScrew

Terminal

String Pot (SP) Resistance ≥ 5KΩExcitation = 2.43 Nom.General Purpose Analog In = 10VFS

To ADC2.4 Vref

46.4K

200K60.4K 330pf

2.4 Vref

46.4K

200K60.4K 330pf

2.4 Vref

Specifications

Ordering GuideDescription Order Number

DI-148U-SP Starter KitModified DI-148U designed to accept two string pot inputs and two general purpose inputs.

DI-148U-SP

DATAQ, the DATAQ logo, and WinDaq are registered trademarks of DATAQ Instruments, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2005 DATAQ Instruments, Inc.The information on this data sheet is subject to change without notice.

241 Springside DriveAkron, Ohio 44333

Phone: 330-668-1444Fax: 330-666-5434

www.dataq.com

Analog InputsNumber of Channels: 2 String Pot; 2 General Purpose

Channel Configuration: Single-EndedMeasurement range: String Pot Channels: 2.4VFS

General Purpose Channels: ±10VAccuracy: 0.25% of FSR

Resolution: String Pot Channels: ±7.4mVGeneral Purpose Channels: ±19.5mV

Input Impedance: 200KΩInput bias current: 50µA for a 10V input, single channel

Max. normal mode voltage: 40 Volts peak to peakChannel-to-channel crosstalk

rejection: -60dbGain temperature coefficient: 100ppm/°C

Offset temperature coefficient: .5µV/°CDigital filtering: Over-sampling, average

Output Voltage (SP): 2.43 typical

A/D CharacteristicsType: Successive approximation

Resolution: 10-bitMonotonicity: ±2LSB

Conversion Time: 70µs

CalibrationCalibration cycle: One year

Calibration method: Digital calibration with scale and offset constant.

Scanning CharacteristicsMax. throughput sample rate: 14,400Min. throughput sample rate: 0.0137334 Hz

Max. scan list size: 6 entriesSample buffer size: 2kb

Digital I/OChannels: 6 bi-directional ports

Output voltage levels: Min. “1” 3V @ 2.5mA sourcingMax. “0” 0.4V @ 2.5mA sinking

Output current: Max. source, -2.5 mAMax. sink, 2.5mA

Input voltage levels: Min. required “1” 2VMax allowed “0” 0.8V

CalibrationCalibration cycle: One year

Calibration method: Digital calibration with scale and offset constant.

GeneralInput connectors: Two eight position terminal blocks

Operating Environment: 0°C to 70°CEnclosure: Molded ABS plastic.

Dimensions: 2.6L × 2.6W × 1.1D inches66L × 66W × 28D mm.

Weight: 3 oz. (85 gr.)Power Requirements: 80mA max. @ 5 VDC. No external power

required. Power derived from communica-tions cable.

Data Acquisition Product Links(click on text to jump to page)

Data Acquisition | Data Logger | Chart Recorder | Thermocouple | Oscilloscope

DI-148U-SP Analog Input Diagram



http://www.dataq.com/data-logger/data-logger.html

http://www.dataq.com/c_cr

http://www.dataq.com/products/hardware/di1000tc.htm

http://www.dataq.com/products/hardware/oscilloscope.htm

Appendix 2.0 Block Diagram

IMFAST LabVIEW™ Block Diagram Mechatronics Final Year Project 2008

1 Overview of the Vi


2 Variables and Initial Settings


3 Time Acquisition System Same procedure is implemented for different timing light configurations

3.1 Six Timing Gates to calculate the time


3.2 Six Timing Gates to calculate the time (Continued)


3.3 Six Timing Gates to Check the Connectivity of the gates


3.4 Six Timing Gates to Check the Connectivity of the gates (Continued)


4 Force Acquisition System

4.1 Hold the program in until the start key is pressed


4.2 Initialization


4.3 Acquisition Start


4.4 Data Acquisition, Sound Generation and Plot


4.5 Acquisition Stop


4.6 Port Close


5 Parameter Calculation


6 User Prompt User prompt to enter user information


6.1 System Time


6.2 Save the user details to a String


6.3 Error notification menus

Error Notifications menus if the user didn’t enter the COM port values and the distances between timing lights.


7 File Save

7.1 Build a string of the data to be saved


7.2 Open the folder under Player Name


7.3 Save the array of data to the file File is Name is created under the session name and the data with “.xls” format


8 File Read

The same Vi is used to read two separate files


9 Tab Controls

9.1 Settings Tab


9.2 RealTime Tab


9.3 Offline Tab


9.4 Comparison Tab

Set the color &

Values with the

cursor movement

of the Vel/Acc

graphs

Appendix 3.0 Generated Excel File

User Details Name:Mervin Date:9/25/2008 5:28:47 PM

Height:180.000000 Weight:65.000000

Session:Reun 1

Notes:Run 1

Force Values in N 51 51 51 47 49 10 13 10

Time between each gate 0.28 0.43 0 0 0

Distance between each gate 2 2 0 0 0

Acceleration 0 25.5102 10.81666 NaN NaN NaN

Velocity 0 7.142857 4.651163 NaN NaN NaN

11 133 136 142 201 201 196 4 6 6 6 197 208

Appendix 4.1 DI148 COM port identification procedure

IMFAST Report Appendix 4.1 DI148 COM port identification procedure

DI148 COM port identification procedure

Step 1

Right click on the My Computer Icon to access the System Properties.


Step 2

Select Device Manager in the Hardware sub tab


Step 3

Select the Ports (COM & LPT) menu to identify the COM port number in DATAQ DI148-U

Appendix 4.2 Data Acquisition in LabVIEW using

ActiveX controls

Product Links: Data Acquisition | Data Logger | Chart Recorder | Thermocouple | Oscilloscope 1

Data Acquisition Using LabVIEW and DATAQ Instruments’ ActiveX Controls

By Ioan S. PopescuDATAQ Instruments

LabVIEW is a popular programming environment for many data acquisition applications. DATAQ Instruments hardware products may be programmed under LabVIEW by applying our ActiveX software tools. This application note describes a step-by-step procedure you can use to access any DATAQ Instruments ActiveX control from LabVIEW. This procedure uses the WinDaq control which allows data acquired by WINDAQ® Acquisition software to be simultaneously made available to LabVIEW.

1. Open a new LabVIEW project (this is usually the default when LabVIEW starts up).2. Select the Sequence Structure:

The sequence structure forces the diagrams to execute in a particular order and separate the diagram into logical execution blocks. In this example, the sequence structure will be used to “start” the WinDaq control before it is used.


http://www.dataq.com/index.html


http://www.dataq.com/c_cr/index.htm



Data Acquisition Using LabVIEW and ActiveX Controls

2 Product Links: Data Acquisition | Data Logger | Chart Recorder | Thermocouple | Oscilloscope

3. Insert the selected sequence structure into the Diagram window:

The Diagram window is the source code of the project. The diagram drawn in this window will determine what gets executed, in what order, etc. This is the “behind-the-scenes” work that runs the Front Panel.








4. Insert an ActiveX Container into the Front Panel:

The Front Panel is what will become the User Interface. The ActiveX container is necessary to insert an ActiveX control into LabVIEW. ActiveX controls work on the basis of server-client relationships. Refer to the “Introduction to ActiveX” secondary topic in the LabVIEW online help documentation for a description of how LabVIEW works with ActiveX controls. This section can be found by searching for “ActiveX, introduction” in the index.

5. Right-click the container and select Insert ActiveX Object….








6. Scroll to find WinDaq Control select it, and click OK.

This will give you a list of all currently available ActiveX controls on the system.

7. In the Diagram window, right-click the newly created control, select Show then Label to dis-play what it is.

This will make it easier to identify what the object/picture represents.








8. Click the Wiring tool in the Tools toolbox.

The wiring tool can be used to create “paths” that are to be followed during the execution of the program. These paths tell LabVIEW to take information from one object and send it to another object.

9. Connect the WinDaq Control to the Sequence.

This will make the WinDaq control available to all frames within the sequence.

10. In the Front Panel, insert a Horizontal Slide from the Controls toolbox.

The horizontal slide will be used to select the channel to “watch” (i.e., the channel from which data will be read and displayed onscreen).








11. In the Tools toolbox, click on the Operate Value tool.

This tool allows you to change some of the object’s properties. This tool is used at runtime to operate the controls in the Front Panel.

12. Now change the slider’s values from 1 to 2. Then, right-click and change the Representation to I16 (Word).

To change the values, click on them and type in new values. The representation is changed to I16(Word) because that is the underlying integer type that most closely matches the WinDaq control’s property that will be used to determine the channel. The data types used by a specific property or method can be found in the ActiveX Controls Help file provided on the DATAQ website.








13. Insert a Digital Indicator.

This indicator will only display information to the user, not allow them to change it. This indicator will display the total number of channels.

14. Insert another Digital Indicator. This indicator will display the actual data coming from the WinDaq control.

15. Right-click on each control and label them as follows:

After clicking Label, start typing to set the label.








16. In the Diagram window on the Functions toolbox, click Communication then ActiveX then Invoke Node.

An Invoke Node is an object that calls a method from an ActiveX control. It allows you to give it any data it may need to pass to the method as well as return the results of the method call.

17. Insert the object inside the sequence and connect a wire from the WinDaq Control (connected to the sequence using the black square on the sequence) to the Reference point of the Invoke Node.

This will allow the Invoke Node to “know” what methods are available, what data needs to be sent, and what data will be returned.








18. Right-click the Invoke Node and select the Start method.

The Start method tells the WinDaq control to start acquiring data.

19. Right-click the Sequence, then click Add Frame After.








This will add a separate “block” to draw diagrams which will execute after the previous frame.

20. Insert a Property Node inside the Sequence and connect it to the WinDaq Control with a wire.

21. Use the Arrow tool to move the Channel Count object inside the Sequence frame.








22. Right-click the Property Node and select the ChannelCount property.

The ChannelCount property returns the total number of channels available to read data from.

23. Right-click the Channel Count object and change its Representation to I16.








24. Right-click the Channel Selected object and create an Attribute Node.

An Attribute Node is “connected” to its parent object and allows you to change the parent’s properties when the program is running.

25. Move this node inside the sequence. Right-click it and change its property to Maximum.








26. Using the Wiring tool, create wires to connect the objects inside the sequence as follows:

The Attribute Node sets the maximum value of the Channel Selected object. This in turn will prevent the user from trying to read data from a channel that is out-of-bounds. The Channel Count indicator will also display the total number of channels.

27. Add another frame after this one to the sequence.28. Insert a While Loop inside the sequence.

Since events are not supported in the version of LabVIEW this example was created with, a while loop will be used to continuously ask for data from the WinDaq ActiveX control.








29. Insert an Invoke Node object into the while loop. Move the Channel Selected object and Data object into the while loop.

By moving the objects inside the while loop, they will be executed (along with any other steps inside) with every “round” of the while loop.

30. Create a wire to connect the Invoke Node to the WinDaq Control. Then, right-click it and select the GetScaledData method.








The GetScaledData method will be used to get the data from WinDaq in calibrated engineering units as specified in the software. Refer to the ActiveX Controls Help file for further information on properties and methods of the ActiveX controls.

31. Insert a Decrement object to decrement the signal from the Channel Selected object to the Data object and connect it as follows:

The Channel Selected object will allow the user to select a channel (1 through Maximum). The object will return the user’s selection, but the actual channel is one less because the WinDaq control enumerates the channels zero-based (starting with zero rather than 1).








32. Connect the Channel Selected object and the Data object as follows:

This will allow the Channel Selected to select which channel to get data from and the data returned by GetScaledData will be displayed in the Data indicator.

33. Insert a Boolean Constant, set it to true using the Operate Value tool by clicking on the object after it is inserted, and connect it to the Conditional Terminal of the while loop.

This will cause the while loop to run forever or until the program is forcefully stopped by clicking the Stop button. Normally, a Boolean control is used here so that the program may finish properly.

34. Add another frame, after this one, to the Sequence.








35. Insert an Invoke Node object in the sequence and connect it to the WinDaq Control. Change its method to Stop.

This method tells the WinDaq control to stop acquiring data. This will not be executed as it should because the while loop will never terminate to get to this step. When the program is forcefully stopped, it doesn’t go on to this frame.

36. Start WinDaq as usual, then go back to LabVIEW, in the Front Panel, and run the project.

You should see the Data indicator displaying the same data as the WinDaq acquisition software. Changing the channel using the Channel Selected object will show the data for that channel.






Appendix 4.3 IAAF Standards

TRACK MARKINGS

Width of all marks: 0.05m

Colour Symbol Size m, Position Stage EventMarkingPlan Area

OVAL TRACK

White Full track width Finish All events A

Full lane width ST 200m A

Curve (full track width) ST 1000m, 3000m, 5000m A1 mile A1500m C

White with green inset Full lane width, 0.30 in the middle ST 800m, 4x800m=ZM 4x200m 2nd athletes A

White with blue* inset Full lane width, 0.30 in the middle ST 400m, 4x400m A

White with yellow inset Full lane width, 0.30 in the middle ST 4x200m A

Blue* 0.60 in the middle ZE For Relay races or parts of races not run in lanes

10m after finish line, parallel to finish line e.g. 4x400m 2nd, 3rd, 4th athletes Ain lanes 2 to 5 A

10m before finish line in lanes 2 to 6 ZS

Yellow** 0.80 from inner line, hook in 45°, outside 0.15 ZE 4x200m 2nd athletes

Yellow** 0.80 from inner line, hook in 45°, outside 0.15 ZS 4x200m 2nd athletes

Green Curve, lanes 2 to 6 Breakline 400m, 4x400m B800m, 4x200m, 4x800m D

STRAIGHT TRACK

White Full track width Finish All events

1.17 (full lane width) ST 50m60m

* For blue coloured tracks, red should be used** Blue in lane 1

200m STANDARD INDOOR TRACK

KEYST StartZE End of take-over zone (10m after ZM)ZM Middle of take-over zoneZS Start of take-over zone (10m before ZM)

CONSTRUCTION MEASUREMENTS* m

Construction radius of curve (including the raised kerb on inside of track) 17.200

Radius of measurement line (line of running) in lane 1 (0.30m outside raised kerb) 17.496

Inclination angle of banking 10.000°

Distance between centres of constant banked bends 44.990

Length of each straight section 35.688

Length of each ascending / descending section on construction line (kerb line) 19.750

Length of each ascending / descending section along line of running 20.012

Length of each quarter of constant banked bend on construction line (kerb line) 11.939

Length of each quarter of constant banked bend along line of running 12.144

Length of track on construction line (kerb line) 198.132

Length of track along line of running 200.000

Width of lanes - oval (including 0.05m on outside) 0.900

Width of lanes - infield straight (including 0.05m on the right side) 1.220

With the exception of lane 1, all lanes are measured 0.20m out from the outer edge of the inner line.

All race distances are measured in a clockwise direction from the edge of the finish line nearerto the start to the edge of the appropriate line farther from the finish.

Marking of start, relay and hurdle positions:With measuring tape on straights and, ascending & descending parts of the track only;with theodolite on the constant inclination bends according to thecentre angles of the nominal arc segments.

Marking with measuring tape on bends only as a backup method:E.g. checking, correcting and supplementing.In each lane, always measure from the start (A,C) or end (B,D) of the arc.

* See full details in 8.2 and 8.3

Lane staggers in m, measurement line distance 0.20m from lane line (Width of lanes 0.90)

Distance Marking Bendson Line of Plan Run in Lane 2 Lane 3 Lane 4 Lane 5 Lane 6Running Area Lanes

200 A 2 4,983 10,589 16,198 21,809 27,423

400, 4x400 A 1 4,992 10.630 16,293 21,981 27,695

800 A 1 2.500 5,335 8,194 11,077 13,984

4x200 A 3 7.483 15.924 24.392 32.885 41.406

HURDLE POSITIONS

Distance from Distance DistanceNumber of Start Line between from Last

Colour Symbol Size m, Position Event Hurdles to First Hurdles m Hurdles toHurdles m Finish Line m

Yellow 0.05x0.10 both sides 60m H Women 5 13.00 8.50 13.00

Blue* 0.05x0.10 both sides 60m H Men 5 13.72 9.14 9.72

Orange 0.05x0.10 both sides 50m H Women 4 13.00 8.50 11.50

Green 0.05x0.10 both sides 50m H Men 4 13.72 9.14 8.86

* For blue coloured tracks, red should be used

© IAAF 2008

Figure 8.3.6c - Marking plan for the IAAF 200m Standard Indoor Track

SCALE - 1:250

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