Hi sanquine,
I replied earlier this morning about the same thing that Melanie did but for some reason it didn't get posted.
Stop for a minute and re-read what you have posted here. You want to know when a sleep walker gets up and starts walking around. You are wanting to put sensors on the patients shoes or slippers. Like Melanie stated, most sleep walkers just get up and start walking. I think you are over complicating things here.
I think all you need are a couple of pressure mats placed on each side of the bed connected to a simple sounder circuit or even something like a 555 timer. You could even put an opening sensor on the door into the patient's room with a pressure pad inside the door and using a 555 timer, when the patient steps on the mat it enables the 555 timer to operate as soon as the door is opened. This configuration would not sound if the door is opened first such as when the nurse comes in to check on the patient. If you are hell bent on using a PIC then something like the 12F chips could be used instead of the 555 timer. Yea I remember from one of your posts that you need to use a 18F452 but they gave you an 16F877A. Well you can use that in place of the 555 or 12F PIC. Fancy up the project once you have the basics working by adding flashing lights outside the patient' s room or have a LCD display with alerting beeper at the nurse's station display something like "Mr Smith is sleep walking again!"
What you are asking for or being asked to do isn't difficult to do, but to put sensors on a patient's shoes is a big waste of time.
I have in the past two years provided numerous solutions for my biggest security client. The last project was for unassisted apartment dwellers on this retirement campus that are in the beginning stages of dementia but not quite ready for the full assistance package. The apartments already have alarm dialers for the emergency cords and smoke detectors. We put together a PIC controlled clock that enables a wireless door transmitter between 10pm and 7am. If the person leaves during these hours, then security personnel go and check on them. While one person is responding, another person is monitoring the 4 main exits on the video system to see if they leave the building before help arrives. The PIC controlled clock is not affected by the spring and fall time change and needs a new backup battery every 5 years. Works great and all we need the patient to do is walk out the door. No shoes? No problem.
Take your project in small steps then build it up to the grand finale!
Sure hope this helps you in some way.
By the way, I noticed that you wanted to do your project in assembly. This forum is for people using PICBasic and PICBasic Pro. You might want to look over the software most of us use here and switch to this because your developement time will be alot shorter.
Good luck!
BobK
Originally Posted by Melanie
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