DSP Medical Development Kit

[sundus abrar]

hello,i am doing a project that involves collecting ECG signals and transferring them to a remote server via GPRS. i looked up dsp kits for the ECG collection and their processing (analog to digital conversion,amplification etc) and found TMS320C5515 DSP Medical Development Kit. But its price is around 415$. can anyone suggest a cheaper alternative?i could simply use ECG sensors and then perform amplification,filtration and analog to digital conversion through circuits but that would increase the scope of my project.

is there a better way to do all of above mentioned processes without much complexity?i would really appreciate some help in this matter.thankyou.

 

[alperuslu]

You can consider to use beagleboard or leopardboard they are cheap and they has low power consumption but C55x series are the lowest power dsps. You can buy medical sensors externally.

 

[sundus abrar]

thank you for your response,i searched around for beagle board,but cant find any good tutorial.i have no idea how to use it for my project i.e. collecting data and forwarding to a MC..i guess i am going to stick with digital sensors,like a digital thermometer or software simulators just for proof of concept ..do you think you could recommend which one would be better?and do you know of any medical device that can be easily integrated to a MC via PC.the other alternative would be to use a simulator,extract the output and (somehow) feed it to the MC.

 

[alperuslu]

If you dont want to deal with ECG electrodes you can buy ECG front end integrated circuits such as TI's ADS1298. You can collect this analog front end circuit's output by using MCU.

 

[sundus abrar]

ok,so this IC collects analog ecg signals and amplifies them itself?from what i read,it can detect if the ECG electrodes aren't properly attached to the patient,so it has to be used with the electrodes right?and they also mention an ADS1298 evaluation kit for engineering applications.can i get the functionality without the kit?

this is what i think i will have to do: connect this ADS1298 along with the electrodes to the patient to collect data,transfer its output to the MC for analog-to-digital conversion and then forward to the remote location through GPRS module.is this right?please correct me where i am wrong. another thing i wanted to ask, the website mentions its price as "The ADS1298 is sampling and will be priced at $23.95 in 1000-piece lots" what does this 1000-piece lots mean?

i really appreciate all your help!thank you

 

[alperuslu]

It means that the price $23.95 per IC if you give an order 1000 quantity. Since texas instruments is manufacturer they may not sell their components for 1 quantity. You can search this IC on internet e.g farnell.com for single order i am sure that you can find it.

This IC amplifies input electrode signal then converts analog amplified signal to digital signal. It has on-chip SPI support that means that it can send analog to digital converted signals via Serial Peripheral Interface.

This IC can not detect if electrodes are not properly connected to human body. Detection is accomplished by MCU. If some of electrodes are not properly connected for example you can use led to inform user. http://cnx.org/content/m18957/latest/ At this website there is an algorithm of Abnormality Detection. You can implement this algorithm with MCU.

SPI is the most common communication protocol and you can handle this type of communication using MCU that has SPI support too. After taking the converted & processed values into MCU you can use ethernet protocol or bluetooth protocol etc. to send datas to your GPRS transmitter.



I hope this will help you

Best Regards,
ALPER USLU

 

[sundus abrar]

thanks allot!i have no issues about the bulk quantities that TI sells,my institution is doing all the purchases.i just needed to make sure my budget is within the allocated range.i will now get onto working with this IC and how to interface it with the MC.
once again,thank you!you have been a great help

 

[alperuslu]

You are welcome may it be easy.

Best Regards,
ALPER USLU

 

[viggi1000]

hey guys i want to know how i can get a ECG on a leopard board? it has no analog inputs to my knowledge
is there any alternative ADC like ADS1298 to be used on a IC? also i want to know if it is possible to have filters done in sosftware


P.S if possible just tell me how i can connect my leads to leopard board so that i can program in labview?