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A project log for CastMinder - The Cast and Splint Monitoring System

The CastMinder system can detect complications in orthopedic casts and splints while healing patients faster and with less pain.

alexAlex 08/25/2016 at 19:340 Comments

The CastMinder Bluetooth system currently relies on the Lightblue Bean as the primary Bluetooth chip and microcontroller. The Bean is great at saving battery, but it can only go so far on a coin cell. A CR2032 lasts about a month and a half with optimized Bluetooth settings. I could decrease the packet transmission time to get it to last a bit longer, but that would be at the expense of real-time data analytics. An easy solution is to include a bigger battery. I've gotten my device to last upwards of 3 months on bigger coin cells.

My RF24 system is much more power efficient as it uses a lower-power radio to communicate, and doesn't advertise as frequently. This system can last almost half a year on a single CR2032 battery.

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