I'm moving from a conceptual stage to a proof-of-concept stage on a
project, and am looking for assistance on pda's to do so.
I have a data source that consists of 4 (and possibly 6 down the road)
independent switches. I'm not an engineer, so the best way I can
describe it is a set of 4 buttons, each of which is connected to a
light bulb and a battery power source. When you hold down the button,
the corresponding light bulb lights up and remains lit until you let
go of the button. So you can have anywhere from zero to 4 bulbs lit
at any given time, and they will constantly be changing (going on and
off).
Given that as background, I'm looking for a pda that I can connect to
the above setup. As a simplified example, I'd like to have the screen
read the numbers 1 through 4 and a Yes or No on each line signifying
whether the corresponding light is lit/button is currently depressed.
As a result, I need an input into the pda other than by using stylus.
Once it's in the pda, I'm hoping to learn to write some code (C++ or
VB?) to do some analysis of the input streams. I'm not inclined to go
the IR route, since that requires the PDA to be held against the IR
source from the above apparatus (unless there's a remote IR sensor
that I can attach via a wire to the pda), I'd like to be able to move
the pda around and not have to locate it on the floor with the
apparatus. Bluetooth would probably work, but given 4 constant
streams of data, can bluetooth handle that?
I believe I will have the engineering talent available to work out the
implementation of the above, once I know what type of pda to use.
My question then is, what are the available types of inputs I can find
on today's pda's that might work (obviously, the traditional stylus
won't work)? Bluetooth? an audio jack? Are there jacks specific to
the keyboards that are available that I could reverse-engineer a plug
from? I'd like a list of the different types of inputs available,
with an example or two of pda's that have those types of inputs.
Things like color screens, cellular compatibility, etc are essentially
irrelevant for my purposes, this would not be a general use pda.
Basic recommendations on suitability for the above would be greatly
appreciated. PalmOS vs WindowsCE I'm indifferent on, except if
developing the software application for the above would be easier on
one versus the other.
I suspect I'll probably have several followup questions such as
programming languages best suited to develop the pda application, etc,
so please let me know if there are other areas you think I should be
pursuing or problems with the above that I might not be seeing.
Thanks! |
