Ok, I’ve found another change that I’m including in this BIM thing. In addition to the sound being issued, I’m going to put in a parallel yellow LED to be flashed as well. Then I should be able to reinforce the condition when the optune TTF field generation isn’t able to run. And I got to demo the device on the Adafruit show and tell episode last night. Check’em out at 

http://youtu.be/uTlJCNBCIMI (my specific part starts at 9m0s)

http://youtu.be/bq2-eUhbxD0 (the reference to my part starts at 12m50s)

The one thing I was not good at was being exactly on track regarding the condition this device is helping out with. The device gets turned on by applying power – either direct, or by battery, both plug into the same port on the computer controller. There is also a power switch on the side of the computer controller. AND of course there is the TTF switch which engages the good fields too help stop tumor/cancer cell growth. If the power is applied, but the TTF switch isn’t turned on there is what appears to be a 10 minute alarm that does already go off. If the power isn’t applied, then of course there isn’t any alarm except for this BIM thing. That condition is the one that messes me up, as I don’t always check the lights to ensure the systems online. After 2 months it started to feel more like a common part of my outfit, and I didn’t treat it as special. The other part is the external power block that can be used when I’m sitting (at night, on a car trip, at work — anytime I’m trying to save battery life). The block has a controller and adapter in one section, and a 3 prong electrical wire that plugs into the adaptor and the wall. That 3 prong line can be bumped out of position accidentally – and because the power is cut off to the optune device the service isn’t doing anything. And because it’s a “cut off” not a “start up” there was no warning sound about it getting cut off. And yes, I’ve had at least 2 multi-hour situations as a result in the past 3 months. This BIM device runs on a separate power (the other battery) it tells me that the main power got kicked off! So that’s the biggest gain of this detector. In talking with other users, they too have run into this, so it’s possible others are going to want to do something like this as well.

So the features I wanted was the internal/external rechargeable battery setup to keep running as the battery channel moved between them. And of course I wanted a sound to let me know that the TTF setting was not running. If it was expected then the alert wasn’t a problem, just reinforced. I had some of the clear pen containers that I found seemed to hold the device, and while its “squished” in, I can run the USB charge cable out the bottom of the tube, and attach an on/off switch to the other end. The on/off switch just allows me to tell the device to stop monitoring. Yes, I could turn that off, then forget to turn it back on, and then loose power downstream for the optune and be back in square one – but I think it may not be a problem. The body of the device contains:

– Arduino Pro Mini (368) [adafruit ID:2377] $9.95

– power boost switch between internal/external battery [adafruit ID:1944] $14.95

– 150mAh battery for internal use [adafruit ID:1317] $5.95

– color sensor device [adafruit ID:1334] $7.95

– piezo speaker [adafruit ID:160] $1.50

– on/off switch [adafruit ID:1683] $1.95

– USB/microA USB cable (hooks internally on one end, the other end is to hook up to charge/recharge) [adafruit ID:592] $2.95

(That’s $45.20 before shipping & taxes)

I’m also looking for a way to describe the wiring that I’m using as well. The wires are threaded, not solid, and fairly narrow. I need to twist the ends and solder the tips to feed them through the solder points on the boards. And in some cases have multiple wires going to the same hole, so the wires are twisted together, inserted and soldered in place. I do have some older connection cable for the breadboards that I’ve been using, but am looking for a consistent wire I can use to make creating these more predictable timewise 🙂

 

The case is a pen tube from Woodcraft that has the bottom cut out to allow the USB cord through, and the cap that is cut to allow the on/off switch to be mounted. The other item to keep track of is that I use a USB “recharger” to keep the internal battery charged, but allows it to easily be disconnected and plugged into another source to recharge itself.