First arduino project: data collection with a SEN-14001

Sensors IMU & Motion
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The more I read the more I realize how much I am biting off in one chunk for a first project from the ground up.

The background:

I have a* locomotive that is controlled by an arduino nano speaking to a motor controller and a bunch of other functions. Horn, bell, volt & amp meters, speed sensor, temp sensors… that was set up and programmed by someone else.

I also have a 9DoF Razor IMU M0 (SEN-14001) that I want to use as data collection for this locomotive. So at 1 second intervals I want to record the throttle setting (0 to 5 volt analog signal) the voltage and amperage output from the motors (30 amp hall effect sensors) and the grade and curvature of the track (this is where the IMU comes in.)

My plan is to get a second nano to read the signals from the controller . I figure I can simplify the controller’s program and send that to the IMU to be recorded to the SD card.

The question:

As this is my first project of this sort since fortran 20 years ago. I need to have someone to give me the “LMGTFY” terms so I can learn how to program the IMU to do what I want: 1) record data once a second, 2) take and store external data along with the IMU data. So far everything I have found is basic (plug into USB port) or way over my head. Any suggestions of projects to look at / do to step up the ladder towards my goal?

  • There are six locomotives total that use the same exact control system, hence a desire to not modify mine. I may want to move the data recorder to another locomotive.
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Hi Railroad Modeler,

The best way I can think of doing this would be to modify the 9DoF Razor firmware to accept a serial input of the throttle and motor data being read by your Nano and then log that data to the SD Card. You can connect a serial output from the Nano to the 9DoF Razor’s input but you will need to shift the logic between the two since the Nano runs at 5V and the Razor runs at 3.3V. Something like the [Bi-Directional Logic Level Converter could work but depending on how fast you need to send the data, you may want to switch to something like the [SparkFun Voltage-Level Translator Breakout instead.

We do not have any tutorials that would cover this specifically outside of the [9DoF Razor Hookup Guide but you might want to either poke around the Arduino Forums or search around on a tutorials site like [Instructables for user-made tutorials for the 9DoF Razor.

I hope this helps you get started with this project!](https://www.instructables.com/)](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/9dof-razor-imu-m0-hookup-guide)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11771)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12009)