[HH] Xray Hacking

[Tom Metro]

Rod Holum wrote:
> We have [an x-ray] device we built 
> http://couleetechlink.com/new2/pano-box

Is this a repackaging of an off-the-shelf x-ray unit?


> And we were looking for ways to bypass the need for a PC and go with a
> Raspberry PI or Arduino but the connectors and image process is normally
> done on a windows software. 

Is the setup dependent on proprietary drivers or image formats
controlled by the x-ray manufacturer? Is that why you are locked to Windows?


> It would be nice if we could have the device connect back to our
> home base and upload the images securely. 

What is the ideal setup that you envision? Having the x-ray unit act as
an appliance, that captures the image and uploads it, then the end-user
views and manages the images via a web interface from any office PC?
(That would imply a subscription service.)

Are customers going to be tolerant of an x-ray machine that can't be
used if the network connection is down? Will the embedded device spool
images? How will it give feedback to the user of its state? LCD screen?
Maybe a small touch screen? (http://www.adafruit.com/products/335)

Have you looked at reverse engineering what the x-ray outputs? What
interface does it use to connect to the PC? Serial? USB?

If you could figure out how to capture the image data, even if still in
a proprietary format, you could run it through a generic compression
algorithm on your embedded controller, and upload it, then feed the data
into a VM running the manufacturer's software in Windows. (As with most
Windows software, you'll likely need to get creative when you try and
automate it.)

On the other hand, if the Windows software interacts with the x-ray
machine, then you've got more protocol you'll need to reverse engineer
and emulate on your embedded controller.


> ..a Raspberry PI or Arduino...

This is likely a high-cost, low volume application, where it wouldn't
make sense to expend extra effort to try and squeeze what you want to do
into an Arduino. You'd want something at least as capable as a Raspberry
Pi, if not simply using a Mini-ITX PC architecture board. I don't think
going from a $35 board to a $150 board (w/RAM, CPU, power supply) is
going to matter in this application, yet it will speed your development
time.

 -Tom