Arduino Pedometer

Problem: So my nutritionist (doesn’t everyone have a nutritionist) suggested I should increase my exercise which primarily consists of walking my dog. She even gave me a chart of activities and calories burned. Here’s an example.
http://www.nutristrategy.com/caloriesburned.htm
Well, being a LAZY OLD GEEK, I decided to monitor my walking electronically.

Solution: It was a “long and winding road” but here’s the finished product. It’s not very elegant but it does the job. The Arduino attaches to the pedometer which counts my steps and records steps plus temperature and humidity and time to the SD card.

Parts List:
USB Freeduino kit
(Arduino-clone) $22.50
HSM-20G Temp-RH $9 (Closeout)
AdaFruit Datalogger $19.50
Adafruit 6 AA
Battery holder $5.00
Pedometer $1 (Dollar Store)
SD Card $6

Prices US dollars December 2010

The total is about $63. Yes, it’s costly but the Arduino stuff can be used for other projects.

Tools:
Soldering tools
DMM Recommended

Step 1 Selecting Parts

I recently built an Arduino with LCD to measure temperature and humidity while taking our walks.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Nokia-LCD-Sensors/

Problem: I decided to extend this concept. The problem with using the LCD is that it’s not easy to use or see, especially when wrestling with my big dog, Marcus.

Solution: Recently I received an Adafruit datalogger kit for my birthday.
http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17_21&products_id=243
See picture. This Adafruit kit is well designed and uses quality parts. As with all Adafruit products, the assembly instructions are excellent. For a LAZY OLD GEEK I really appreciate the quality of the PCB which makes soldering and unsoldering easy. Another nice feature is the real time clock with battery. Highly recommended.

I used an Adafruit 6 AA Battery holder because it will work with rechargeable batteries. It is a lot bigger and heavier than a 9Volt holder, however.
http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=38&products_id=248

For logging data, you need an SD card. Adafruit recommends 2gB or less and not SDHC.

The Arduino-clone, Freeduino and the temperature-humidity sensor are the same ones used in the previous Instructable.

Problem: How to monitor walking. My first idea was to use the GPS, I have.
http://www.instructables.com/id/GPS-for-Lazy-Old-Geeks/
Well this GPS has a USB output. I tried various methods/schemes to interface this with my Arduino but had no success. Also my experience with my GPS is that it is not that accurate for short distances. It would probably work if our walks were long straight distances but walking with Marcus is very convoluted. He follows his nose and we encounter a lot of rabbit and field mice smells. And he is big, so I mostly follow.

Solution: I decided a pedometer was a better solution. It’s pretty easy to interface and keeps track of steps. My pedometer was a gift but our dollar store sells pedometers that will probably work as well as the one I used.

I connected the sensors with telephone wire.