Tyre pressure monitoring with LabVIEW

[loewesh]

Hello everybody,

I am working on the data acquisition of the dynamometer of my university with a cRIO 9074. I need advice on how to acquire the tyre pressure. I have read about using sensors that send the data by RF, but I think this is not the best way for our case since I don't have background working with RF and, as far as I have seen, it would be necessari to acquire an expensive RF receiver (although budget is not a big problem).

Anybody has an idea on what way can I follow?

Thank you very much in advance.

[RavensFan]

Unfortunately, the nature of tires is that they rotate.  So doing anything with wire means they would pretty quickly get twisted up!

They do make slip rings for getting wired signals onto and off of rotating parts.  But they are very special and to buy something commercial means you'd have to do a lot of customization to your wheels.  I would not recommend going that route.

Look for "wireless telemetry".  There are several vendors out there.  Nothing will be dirt cheap, but that is really the only way you can do it.  Or look at the tire pressure sensors in cars and see if you can work with the RF receiver that works with them.

[deceased]

I think Schrader make the RF type ones used on many vehilcles, maybe you could get in touch with them and see if they can help.

RF doesnt necessarily mean more difficult to interface.

You dont need to know about QAM constellation diagrams to watch cable TV.

[RTSLVU]

As everyone else has eluded to you are going to have to use some form of RF. 

I would look for off the shelf sensor/receiver combos that have a receiver that uses a common computer interface (like USB serial) and communication specifications that can be used with NI-VISA. 

EDIT: Chances are being automotive you are going to be limited to a CAN bus interface, but NI makes some relatively inexpensive USB-CAN interfaces. 

[proland1121]

There exist a wide selection of aftermarket "external TPMS" (tire pressure monitor system) available for purchase... google to the rescue.  They typically just screw-on to the valve stem.  These are designed to transmit data over Bluetooth or RF depending on the product.  You should easily be able to locate a product for less than $150. 

Make sure you select one with a receiver option that can be tied into your application.  While a bluetooth product with an iPhone app may seem nice, it would be a little more difficult to interface with your LabVIEW application.

[robinirwin]

Hello,

Konrad-Technologies (a NI partner) provide a low cost TPMS non-signaling test solution if it is any use to you?

https://www.konrad-technologies.com/en/products/hardware/embedded-systems/rf-communications-test-sys...

We have frequency coverage from 70 MHz to 6 GHz and a Modulation Toolkit which you could use to demodulate signals.

Regards,

Robin

[robinirwin]

By way of update to old post, we now have a PXIe module for BT / Wifi often used for TPMS testing:

PXIe-506 RF Communications Module

Robin