Car Black Box
Event Data Recorder (EDR)




Home Page







Introduction
Block diagram
MCU
SENSORs

DATA STORAGE
Communication GSM, GPRS, etc
Vehicle's localization

Update the firmware on Car Black Box
For more information contact your local SILICA FAE







Introduction


What Is EDR or Car Black Box ?

An event data recorder (EDR) or Car Black Box is a device installed in some automobiles, trucks, etc, to record information related to vehicle crashes or accidents.
In modern diesel trucks, EDRs are triggered by electronically sensed problems in the engine (often called faults), or a sudden change in wheel speed.
One or more of these conditions may occur because of an accident.
Information from these devices can be collected after a crash and analyzed to help determine what the vehicles were doing before, during and after the crash or event.
The term generally refers to a simple, tamper-proof, read-write memory device, similar to the "black box" found on airplanes (as opposed to the tape recorders and video cameras common in police vehicles and many commercial trucks).


(source: Wikipedia)

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Block diagram

A complete block diagram is shown below.



The minimum Car Black Box diagram si
shown below.



Clearly, apart the two solutions mentioned above, there are other intermediate solutions that meet specific requirements of the insurance companies.
In this page we give some reference of the possible STM chips that are used in the Car Black Box.


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MCU


There are the possibility to use different level of MCU (from 8 to 32bit).
The MCU depend if the Car Black Box is low level or high level.
Below there are a list of possible solution using STM MCU.

STM8Sxxx
- 8bit MCU
STM8Lxxx - 8bit MCU Ultra Low Power
STM32Lxxx - 32bit MCU CORTEX-M3 Ultra Low Power STM32F0xx - 32bit MCU CORTEX-M0 Low Power
coming soon (end of February 2012)
STM32F10x - 32bit MCU CORTEX-M3 STM32F2xx - 32bit MCU high performance CORTEX-M3, (HW encryption and CCD camera interface)
STM32F4xx - 32bit MCU CORTEX-M4, (HW encryption and CCD camera interface) STM32Wxx - 32bit MCU CORTEX-M3 + transceiver at 2,4Ghz

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SENSORs


For a complete analysis of what happens to a vehicle would monitor the following parameters:
Vehicle speed
Braking status
Force of impact
Engine speed
Steering input
Airbag deployment
Safety-belt usage
Image sensors
Some of the above information can be found by interfacing the electronics of the vehicle, others are acquire with the installation of new sensors.
 


Accelerometer

The minimum requirement of a car black box is the Accelerometer taht you find here.

Gyroscopes

Microphone

Temperature sensors are here.

CCD sensor
Capture images allows a better understanding of what happened before, during and after the accident.
STMicroelectonics offers a large range of CMOS image sensors and advanced image signal processors (ISP).
This products are available only for big volumes.

In general the STM MEMS sensors are here.


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DATA STORAGE


For saving the data is possible use the SD Card or the EEPROM.
The SD Card interface is easy to use but it has some limits in Automotive Applications (temperature and data retention).
EEPROM solution is more professional, you see here the STM EEPROM.


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Communication GSM, GPRS, etc


In STM portfolio there are not solutions for this area.

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Vehicle's Localization

Built-in GPS chip precisely locates the vehicle’s location and marks it on the recorded video. This allows the precise location of any accidents or events to be recorded, and provides driving location on a Google Map during video playback. Exact vehicle speed information is also displayed.
The STM GPS Solutions is here.

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Update the firmware on Car Black Box

For Update the firmware on Car Black Box there are different possibility:
SERIAL
USB
SD Card
GSM, GPRS, etc
RF-I2C Dual Interface EEPROM that is innovative product of STM. For more information look here.