1. FLIGHT DATA RECORDER FOR THE AMERICAN FOOTBALL Mechanical Engineering Final Project Masters of Engineering Chris J. Nowak

2. Project Introduction Why Put something like this… in something like that?

3. Background Information • Accelerometer • ADXL250 • +/- 50g Sensitivity • Microcontroller • PIC16F876 • 20Mhz • 5 Internal A/D converters • Flash Programmable • SEEPROM • AT25640 • Memory Device that can store 4096 bytes of data • SPI interface

4. Accelerometer Information • ADXL250 • +/- 50g Sensitivity • Analog Output • 0.39g Resolution as Configured • Can be increased by scaling the total range • 8-bit Data Points

5. Microcontroller Information • PIC16F876 • Programmed in PicBasic Pro

6. Electronics “Plan – A” • 1 Microcontroller – PIC 16F877 • 4 Accelerometers – ADXL202, ADXL210, ADXL250 • 8 x 128k SRAM Memory Accelerometers SRAM Microcontroller

7. Electronics “Plan – B” Microcontroller • 4 Identical Modules • 1 Microcontroller – PIC16C717 • 1 Accelerometer – ADXL250 • 2 32k SEEPROM Memory Chips • Simple Modular Design • Poor Selection of Microprocessor SEEPROM Accelerometer

8. Microcontroller Accelerometers SEEPROMs Final Electronics Layout • 2 Identical Modules • 1 Microcontroller - PIC16F876 • 2 Accelerometers – ADXL250 • 4 SEEPROM Memory Chips – AT25640

9. Installation in the Football • Plan A used a modified hard plastic “Football Phone” • Plan B was abandon prior to packaging • Plan C used a modified “Nerf” football

10. Test Matrix • Collect a 1g baseline data set by holding the ball so the X, Y, and Z axis were each subjected in turn to the Earth’s gravity • Throw football in a tight spiral • Lob football in and end-over-end tumble

11. Test Results • Baseline Data

12. Test Results • Forward Pass

13. Test Results • End-Over-End Tumble

14. Design Recommendations • Improve PC-Football Serial Interface • Reduce the weight of the electronics by using more surface mount components • Reduce size/weight of batteries or find alternative power source • Add additional EEPROM chips to increase sample rate • Scale accelerometers to +/- 15 G’s

15. Flight Data Recorder for the American Football ANYQUESTIONS??