So, to the non-quoted replies,, about the fixed programming and pin configuration vs. potential programability. ,,,
I have attached some low res pics of the pins. There is a row of pins that did indeed connect to the button pad, there is a few other jacks for connecting to the power supply and motor controller, and then a sensor for the rider (heart-rate I believe, one of those magnetic ones). ,, There IS however, another set of pins, which you can see on the pic. These pins are bent over and were not connected to anything inside the machine. (I took it apart myself, and there was no plugs or wires). I think these pins might have a serial data pin and clock pin, much like many other devices. (boards? devices?? what do you call pcb mounted equipment?? ) I have a radio-shack clock kit with a similar 5 pins, although the labels are different the kit explicity states that the pin row is for a user to reprogram the microcontroller. (the clock is basically only an ic,, pic16f690. the kit pcb has 5 labels to the pins, clk, dat, gnd, vcc, mclr. ,,, There are 5 pins and a microcontroller on the lcd pcb, you can see one large square,, this is a p89v51rd2fa, then there are also two smaller squares, both ram. (both d1510000c1). everything else is some sort of timing or transfer, I think. The board has at least one PWM output, which controls the speed of the treadmill. , the majority of the pins are probably just button inputs,, but if the device can be reprogrammed, perhaps the pins can be configured as outputs as well.
I got a Raspberry Pi just today,, and was thinking with all those pin headers, the raspberry pi might be the easiest computer to hook up to the board to see if there is any way to:::
-download the programming that is already on the device. I probably can't make heads or tails out of it,, but I've been reading that doing so should net me a program in the C language, which I could then try to study and learn from .
-try to get some specs from the device,, can it hold arduino programming?? can it be programmed to not only display some minor information,, but run a sensor(s) or actuator(s) as well?? ,, perhaps I can turn it in to a sort of ninja display for my raspberry pi?? (well,,, dream on,, but sensor information might be possible,, maybe like a little radar?? )))
-program the device for some series of hobby experiments.
Obviously I'm anxious to just go plugging in,, and I have a long way to go on my learning curve of the raspberry pi,,, but as my first inclination upon looking up the ic's on the card was "hey,, that's a microcontroller ,, now that I'm playing with this arduino I feel like that might be something I could interact with"",, then I would think there must be plenty of people thinking exactly the same thing! well, how cool would it be to go around pulling microcontrollers out of trash and recovering them into working toys?
Power_Broker:
Must be a permanent magnet DC motor. Nice find!
LCD Screen:
Quick Q: There isn't, by any chance, a connection via USB to the screen (not likely, but I thought I'd ask)?
If so, you might be able to use a USB sniffer to determine the protocol. If not, you could look up the part numbers of the IC chips on the PCB and figure out what they do. That'll give you a good overview of the system and how it all meshes, albeit without the specific protocols. Also, you could contact the manufacturer of the treadmill and see if they can tell you how to interface with it. Lastly, look around for connectors on the PCB and see if any of the pins are labeled similar to the following: "SPI", "I2C", "SDA", "SCL", "MOSI", "MISO", "CS", "UART", "TX", "RX", "RS-232", or anything like that. Post your findings. Also, can you post detailed close ups of the PCB to the left of the screen, right of the screen, and the back of the PCB?
. Spinning the end with my hands reads 3 + volts and lights an led, hooking it to my DC power supply spins it. It's .5 horsepower at 108 CDC continuous. SICK! I always wanted something that works like that. It could drive a small buggy.
