Week 17 Review Posted Wednesday, May 5, 2004 by Bill

Final report is done, along with ECE 477. Thanks for allowing so precious little time to study for finals.

Well, this is that last goodbye. See you in the future!!

Total for Week: 12 hr
Total for Semester: 174.0 hr

May 4, 2004 Posted Wednesday, May 5, 2004 by Bill
The webpage is finalized and the final report is done...take a gander if you don't believe me:
Final Report.
ECE Senior Design Report.

Time Spent: 5 hr

May 3, 2004 Posted Monday, May 3, 2004 by Bill
Met with Phil and Ego to work on final paper. I took charge of entering homeworks into final paper document. I also did several sections including updating the schematic to accomodate the final PLD change. This can be found here: Final Schematic.

I also updated the website.

Time Spent: 6 hr

May 2, 2004 Posted Sunday, May 2, 2004 by Bill
Worked on preparing old homeworks for final paper.

Time Spent: 1 hr

Week 16 Review Posted Sunday, May 2, 2004 by Bill
This week we finished the project and presented it to the instructors and to the EE 270 class.

Total for Week: 13.5 hr
Total for Semester: 162.0 hr

April 30, 2004 Posted Sunday, May 2, 2004 by Bill
Met with team to prepare for presentation for the 270 group. We had DiPFI ready for a live demonstration, but decided after the first three groups had gone that time would not allow it. This presentation also went well.

I also cleaned up the group account while we waited for Phil to get his router for the presentation.

Time Spent: 3 hr

April 29, 2004 Posted Sunday, May 2, 2004 by Bill
Got a call from Phil who wanted to speed up the image transfer a bit. He was having problems getting the Rabbit to communicate with the Epson. I came in and prodded a little and it worked!! I still think there is a bad solder joint at the clock. On the plus side, Phil has cut down the transmission speed by a half by sending only the necessary pixel values. Thus, the only bottleneck left for speed is through hardware.

Time Spent: 1 hr

April 28, 2004 Posted Saturday, May 1, 2004 by Bill
Had final presentation today. It went fantastic!! Drinks all around!!

Here is the presentation:
Final Presentation.

Time Spent: 1 hr

April 27, 2004 Posted Saturday, May 1, 2004 by Bill
I went in and glued the pushbuttons to the case. Jeff came in and finished attaching them to the board.

I finished the last slides while Phil and Jeff videotaped the final project. We kept getting a network error and our image transmission would cease and we had to restart the video three or four times. We found out that another group in the lab was using the same IP address so anytime they tried to connect ours would fail and vice versa. It's always something!!

We finalized the video and went to Jeff's place to digitize it. While we waited, we ran through the presentation.

Afterwards, Jegede and I went to the computer lab and I printed out the schematic in modules, while he finished his slides. I then finalized the presentation and printed out/stapled the copies for tomorrow's presentation and shipped the completed powerpoint to Jeff so that he could add the video.

Here is a picture of DiPFI, the Digital Picture Frame Interface!!



Look at that beautiful, hand-crafted plexi-glass casing!!
Time Spent: 6 hr

April 26, 2004 Posted Saturday, May 1, 2004 by Bill
Today, I finished transferring the template of our old slides to the updated template I created yesterday. I then went through Phil and Ego's slides from the midterm presentation and formatted them so they look pretty. I divided each person's slides into seperate files and sent them out so that they could update them for time easily without messing with the slides I already have done. They can also then send me their new slides and I can just put them into the presentation.

I created new slides for my Patent Analysis homework and went shopping and bought a hinge for the case. I tried to find nuts to screw the pushbuttons to the case but couldn't find any that fit. Guess we're gonna need more glue!!

Time Spent: 2.5 hr

Week 15 Review Posted Sunday, April 25, 2004 by Bill
Fried Rabbit.
Got two more.
Worked on board.
Got to score.

Soldered.
Test.
Huge
Success!!

Total for Week: 18.0 hr
Total for Semester: 148.5 hr

April 25, 2004 Posted Sunday, April 25, 2004 by Bill
Met today to begin casing work. Jeff manned the drill while Phil, Jegede, and I began scoring and cutting plexiglass with the exacto knive and hacksaw. We decided to etch out the side panels so that the board would slide in and hover in the middle. The pod was becoming clustered though, so I quit with the casing and began work on the presentation slides, helping out as needed with the casing. I got the general template for the presentation done and I also began updating the midterm presentation to suit the time restrictions.

Time Spent: 5 hr

April 24, 2004 Posted Sunday, April 25, 2004 by Bill
Came a half hour late to find the PROJECT WAS WORKING!! All that was wrong last night was that the clock pin had come loose. Once it was fixed, the picture displayed looked better than expected. There was some memory mapping issues with the DRAM chip, as the top of the screen appears at the bottom. Other than that, the image was perfect. The image loads VERY slowly, but this was expected because of the PLD hack. We all were very excited and we videotaped the result immediately.

Ego and I decided we would go to Menard's and begin looking for materials to case the board and make it look pretty. We first stopped by Radio Shack to look for adapter plugs for the 9V wall wart that I bought. They didn't have any polarized connectors, so we exnayed the idea. We went to Best Buy and Circuit City to look for RJ-45 connectors because our Ethernet is too far to the inside of the board to reach with casing. We found a dual plug that can be attached to the case and then connect it with a small Ethernet cable inside to the Rabbit module. We then went to Menard's and bought an exacto knife, some plexiglass, some wood, some sandpaper, and some epoxy. Hopefully, we can concoct some sort of presentable case with these materials.



Time Spent: 6 hr

April 23, 2004 Posted Sunday, April 25, 2004 by Bill
After skipping most of 382, I came into the lab around 2:45 to talk with John before he left for the weekend. I was concerned that the new Rabbit would be fried if I put it into the headers, so I we discussed the circumstances surrounding the aforementioned tragedy. I'm pretty sure that we "hot-swapped" the Rabbit on/off the board in the excitement of being so close to having the project completed.

Anyway, I hooked up the board and monitored the current being output to the 3.3V digital circuit and it only read 10 mA. When I placed the dead Rabbit into the header I got a reading of ~70 mA. I'm pretty sure this value will increase tremendously with a functional Rabbit and PLDs that are actually doing something.

Phil brought the new Rabbit at around 6:15 and we programmed the Rabbit with the webserver software and placed the Rabbit on the board. The device behaved as expected and we quickly videotaped the outcome of transferring image data to the Rabbit via Ethernet. We successfully transmitted an image and then used the Rabbit's onboard webserver that Phil made to view the image that was stored.

After videotaping, we decided to try to output an image to the VGA display. I set up the circuit and Phil compiled the main function and we ran it. Unfortunately, the Epson registers all had values of 0. This, of course, is a failure. I had already stayed longer than I had planned, and since I was the only one who was comfortable with messing with the board...we called it a night.

Time Spent: 5 hr

April 22, 2004 Posted Thursday, April 22, 2004 by Bill
Came into the lab to make sure there was 3.3V at the Rabbit header. I forgot to check yesterday. Found everything as expected and I tried to talk to the Rabbit one last time. Result: NO RABBIT DETECTED!! Wouldn't it be nice if dead people told you they were dead? Yeah...less confusion.

Checked with Jegede to make sure Rabbit was ordered. It was...thanks.
I decided to order the RCM 3010 which has ~100 kb buffer left after software so that in worse case scenario, we fry another Rabbit, but still have one Rabbit to give to Chuck. Phil and I checked and the largest 640 * 480 JPEG(JPEG is only stored for the webserver) is <100kb.

Time Spent: 2 hr

April 21, 2004 Posted Thursday, April 22, 2004 by Bill
Had progress briefing today but nothing new discussed. Afterwards, I helped Phil debug and write code for reading .ppm files, scaling from 8 bits to 5 bits, and sending it to the Rabbit. Had to leave for class before finishing, but we are close and plan on meeting again this afternoon.

At home, I began thinking about the scaling. Before, we had used an equation from Jeff's old homework code from a previous class. The equation was:

Pixel_Val_New = Pixel_Val_Old * 2^8 / 2^5

After thinking about it, I realized that this is backwards and was the cause of error. The new should be:

Pixel_Val_New = Pixel_Val_Old / 2^8 * 2^5

When we met, Phil had made the change at home and I began setting up the board. Everything looked good except a ground header pin on the Rabbit core module was bent and broke when put down on the board header. I cut the header for the Rabbit pin off and soldered a wire to the GND pad and then just connected the Rabbit to the evaluation board, after grounding the wire, to see if everything was still ok. It worked fine so we put the Rabbit to our board and powered up. Results: NO RABBIT DETECTED!!!. We then placed the Rabbit back on the eval board. Result: NO RABBIT DETECTED!! We placed another group's Rabbit on the eval board and connected so our Rabbit is fried. Have no idea how this happened, Phil and Ego seem to think the Rabbit has been acting up more and more lately during programming. So I guess it just happened. My suggestion from now on is not taking the Rabbit off our board once we fit it in the header because it is a snug fit and difficult to remove. I requested Jegede to order a new Rabbit since he has not ordered anything yet this semester. Phil's Rabbit will be in Friday, so there's not much left to until we get it.

I did examine all the components and there is a steady 3.3V across all parts and none get hot so I assume everything else is fine. Silly Rabbit, fun is for freshmen!!

Time Spent: 5 hr

April 20, 2004 Posted Thursday, April 22, 2004 by Bill
Began and finished my part of user manual.

Time Spent: 1 hr

April 19, 2004 Posted Thursday, April 22, 2004 by Bill
Came in to meet the guys and noticed that our board was out/set up already but Jeff was nowhere to be seen. Worked with Jegede and Phil to divy the User Manual. I am responsible for the marketing-like introduction which I plan to have a little fun with. Jeff came in with good news: the Epson worked!! It seems that the footprints were not right on the NPN transistor supplying the current reference. I re-examined the spec sheets more closely and surmised that the pins listed are D,S, and G which I mistakenly assumed were the NPN equivalents...E, C, and B. For all of you out there, the SOT-23 NPN 2n2222 transistors have pin-outs as follows:

                    C
   ÚÄÄÄÄÄÁÁÄÄÄÄÄ¿
   ³                                    ³
   ³                                    ³
   ÀÄÂÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÂÄÙ
           B               E

Live it, love it, LEARN!! Anyway, once this problem was resolved the board worked!! (I suspected that the IREF was the problem.) Big thanks to John for finding those pinouts. We will definately look more carefully next layout. (I used a pre-exsisting part in OrCAD...so I'm not sure why they were wrong to begin with!!) My advice...be cautious and don't assume ANYTHING!!

Anyway, the display did not initially worked like Jeff expected, and he said that the VGA connector was bad (it looked bad but it did the trick!!). Therefore, I removed it from the board and he brought a box from home that switches between VGA ports. He cut out a connector and he soldered to the board while I held the wire in the holes with pliers. We reconnected it and the image data was still not displayed. As we were thinking about possible problems Jeff pushed on the DRAM while the board was on and, poof, we had a colored screen (this was what was supposed to happen as he merely wrote a color to the screen with each button press). Jeff heated the DRAM solder and pushed it on the board so the connection was better and this completely fixed the problem.

Phil brought a video camera and we videotaped as many outcomes as possible. That way, if our board blows up, we have something. May still not be enough but it's something. The image takes several minutes to refresh unfortunately, but that's the price you pay for hacked addressing.

Time Spent: 4 hr

Week 14 Review Posted Thursday, April 22, 2004 by Bill
Worked with Jeff on Epson using logic analyzer to facilitate in successfully debugging Epson problems.

Total for Week: 24.5 hr
Total for Semester: 130.5 hr

April 17, 2004 Posted Monday, April 19, 2004 by Bill
Today we were able to read to and write from the Epson registers. It took some work and some fancy bitwise operations, but we finally had the Epson initialization working. Unfortunately, still no VGA outputs. I attempted to prototype the Epson current reference but was unable to get the expected 4.6mA output that the Epson manual says we should get. Jeff will talk to the TA on Monday to see if there is something that we are overlooking.

Unfortunately, we suffered our first tragedy today, as the digital 3.3V LDO regulator failed, outputting the input 9 V to the digital circuitry. After smoteing the Rabbit and DRAM, we were worried that the Epson and PLDs would also be fried. Fortunately this was not the case. After soldering a new DRAM on the board and just using the power supply to supply the 3.3V, we had the board up and running again. According to TI, my 3.3V regulators that I ordered should be in Monday, which is good since we have no more.

The VGA signal is present but its really small, so its time to get that figured out.

Time Spent: 8 hr

April 16, 2004 Posted Monday, April 19, 2004 by Bill
Came in to help Jeff debug problems related to the Epson. Chuck had the Epson on the board so we are ready to roll with it. Once making sure the Epson was powered, we began searching the lab for TLA cables. We viewed the PLD output on the logic analyzer and determined that the PLDs were latching the correct address. We then devised a way to view the data bus from the rabbit and put the debug headers to good use. After several hours of viewing the incorrect data bus output, we determined that the error was that the logic analyzer probe was broken. Yeahhh, go hardware!! At 4:30, we left knowing that the correct address and data were being sent to the Epson, but the Epson was not responding like we'd hope.

Time Spent: 9 hr

April 15, 2004 Posted Thursday, April 15, 2004 by Bill
Came in after 207 students finished their lab practical (those were the days!!). Examined board and found the guys soldered the pushbuttons on so I can only assume the software works. I finished seperating the VGA connector from the old video card it was on. Unfortunately, the leads are all loose or broken off, so I fear the VGA connector will be fly wired. Jeff arrived and after examining the connector with the board, we determined that the pins on the board are mirrored and thus fly-wiring is absolutely required. (2 hours)

After 400 lecture, I came back in and took the casing off of the VGA connector and soldered wire to the proper pins. They are color coded and the color scheme is:
Green = Horizontal, Vertical Sync
Red = RGB Inputs
Black = GND

I then began soldering the DRAM chip to the board. Click here for the datasheet. I first soldered three corners (pin 1, 20, 21) and then began moving up from 21-30. It appears to me that pins 28 and 29 on the DRAM (!UCAS and !LCAS) go to the opposite pins on the Epson. I will make a note and have someone else confirm this.

There is also a via next the silk screen text U12 on the PCB that is over a trace. I can't tell if the trace is supposed to go into the via. It looks as though this is the case but I will ask Jeff about it because he has the layout on his home computer and has yet to put it in the group account.

I finished soldering the DRAM chip and ohmed-out all traces. Other than the aforementioned issues, this process took a little time but was fun nonetheless. The board now needs one more PLD and the Epson and it will be propagated. Should begin testing soon!!

It's 7:30, and I haven't eaten today so I am going to call it a night.

Time Spent: 6 hr

April 13, 2004 Posted Tuesday, April 13, 2004 by Bill
Phil and I met to implement the newly soldered IR component on the PCB. I examined the traces to make sure it was soldered appropriately and then loaded the IR software into the rabbit. We powered the board and applied button presses to the IR and we viewed the correct responses on the server. We then obtained a three-lead pushbutton switch, ohmed out the leads to determine which two leads correspond to the button press and cut the other. I soldered the resistor and Phil wanted to solder the button. I ohmed out these newly added components and the we tested the button push but did not view the desired response. We were then basically pushed out of the pod by another group and did not have time to figure out this issue. We will come back to it this week.

Time Spent: 1.5 hr

March 31, 2004 Posted Thursday, April 8, 2004 by Bill
Had progress briefings. Jeff and Phil had dispute over appropriate method to program software, especially with regards to costatements. I don't think that fighting about is the most efficient thing to do and I made the suggestion that we should generate some kind of standard so that everyone isn't fighting over whose code is better.
Oh well, such is life.

Time Spent: 0.5 hr

March 28, 2004 Posted Saturday, April 3, 2004 by Bill
As I was studying for my 264 exam, I got a phone call from an upset Jeff who was attempting to solder the power components onto the board. It seems the Rabbit headers were misnumbered on the PCB and we have to reorder. This is quite a set back as the new board probably won't be in for awhile. While we have the chance, I suggested we change the digital 3.3V power regulator to a 1 A regulator instead of the 500 mA regulator we have now. We also will adjust the Epson pads to make them a little bigger.

I spent some time replacing the lost regulators and finding 1 A regulators with the same footprint. I ordered them from Texas Instruments and they should be in before the PCB. The footprints are the same, but the pin outs are different. I sent Jeff these pin outs so that he could modify them.

The datasheets for the new regulator can be found here:

1A LDO Voltage Regulator.

Time Spent: 1.0 hr

Week 13 Review Posted Saturday, April 3, 2004 by Bill
Got new board. Did more but forget so won't include. Ordered new voltage regulators.
Total for Week: 1.0 hr
Total for Semester: 106.0 hr



Week 12 Review

Board was resubmitted. Did more but forget. So won't include. Now we wait. Updated website.
Total for Week: 1.0 hr
Total for Semester: 105.0 hr



Week 11 Review
I finished the Patent Liability Analysis and found several patents which require further review.

Milestones:
- finished Patent Liability Analysis
- PCB came in
- discovered Epson pads off line with respect to the pins

Total for Week: 6.0 hr
Total for Semester: 104.0 hr

March 25, 2004 Posted Saturday, April 3, 2004 by Bill
Discovered PCB was in. On first impression, it is bigger than I expected. Jeff and I placed parts on the board to make sure footprints match up. Everything seems fine except for the Epson. Jeff made the Epson pads the same size as the pins, when in fact they could have been made a little bigger. As such, the pins don't line up directly to the pads, making that contact even smaller. We are not sure how this will affect the performance of the Epson, but we it can't be good for sure.

Also, submitted Hw 8: Patent Liability Analysis.

Time Spent: 1.0 hr

March 24, 2004 Posted Saturday, April 3, 2004 by Bill
Had meeting today. We are all very frustrated with the fact that the Epson is next to impossible to prototype. As of right now, we are waiting for PCB to come in. Hopefully, it will be in tomorrow so that we can begin soldering. I have a test tonight and a number of things due tomorrow and a test on Monday so I need to focus on other things until then.

Time Spent: 1.0 hr

March 23, 2004 Posted Saturday, April 3, 2004 by Bill
I finished the Patent Liability Analysis today. It can be viewed here: Patent Liability Analysis. I found doing this paper that we are only infringing on the Digital Photo Receiver. This isn't a literal infringement, per se...but it is close. However, because our product is an improvement on this product, as it forgoes any expensive receiver, we may be able to market it nonetheless without any infringement.


Time Spent: 4.0 hr

Week 10 Review Posted Saturday, April 3, 2004 by Bill

I began the Patent Liability Analysis and found several patents which require further review.

Milestones:
- not much...Spring Break, you know.
- began homework 8.

Total for Week: 6.0 hr
Total for Semester: 98.0 hr

March 20, 2004 Posted Saturday, April 3, 2004 by Bill
I began working on the patent paper. After further perusal of the patents listed yesterday, it seems patent 6,442,573 describes a product that performs a very similar function to the digital picture box that we are designing. This device is now on the market at www.ceiva.com.

Similar features include:
-central repository that collects images
-receiver that updates its internal photo collection by dialing
a local number which accesses this repository and downloads
picutures labeled to match the receiver's signature. This is
similar to the ethernet connection our device uses to download the
images stored on the PC. The patent also lists the ethernet as
another possible network connection that this device could use in
the future.
-patent even mentions the phrase "Digital Picture Box", however
their DPB is the GUI interface their device maintains for the
user to configure the receiver

Differences:
-device contains an LCD display monitor, while ours is a low-cost
version that cuts out this expensive feature.
-device resides on a network while ours is for private use only

I've started the paper and it should be done early next week.

Time Spent: 2.5 hr

March 19, 2004 Posted Saturday, March 27, 2004 by Bill
It's Sring Break!! But I need to start my Patent Searching. Searced United States Patent and Trademark Office and found the following patents that I believe are substantially similar to some of our functions.

They are:

6,442,573
6,167,469
6,111,586
6,058,428
6,037,989

Will begin paper tomorrow.

Time Spent: 3.5 hr

Week 9 Review Posted Saturday, March 27, 2004 by Bill
Jeff finished layout and submitted it. I'm very leary about the success of this project. The Epson is just posing way to many issues. In hindsight, I think we should have found a better chip, but there was no telling just by looking that this would be this much of a problem. Oh well, can you say SPRING BREAK?!!!

Milestones:
- submitted layout
- parts arrived


Total for Week: 9.0 hr
Total for Semester: 92.0 hr

March 11, 2004 Posted Saturday, March 27, 2004 by Bill
Parts came in today. Helped maks sure these footprints matched the ones Jeff made in the layout. Seems Jeff autorouted much of the board, and it looks to me that we have analog traces and digital traces next to each other. Hope this doesn't mess it up too much, but there's not much we can do now.

Time Spent: 3.0 hr

March 10, 2004 Posted Saturday, March 27, 2004 by Bill
Had project consultation hours. I enquired about layout questions. The first question was on trace size as the Epson pins are so small that only 6 mil traces will work. They said 6 mil traces will be ok, but we should make them as short as possible because the longer they are the the higher the resistance, which would decrease the voltage we would expect at the pins. This will be a major issue which we must take into consideration. I also found out how to change the default trace size across the entire layout. Gave Jeff this info.

After the meeting, I started routing the analog portion of the layout while Jeff was in class. First of all, let me say that I HATE, HATE, HATE this program. Why is it that I can be working on the routing, and then the program will decide that I didn't like what I did the last hour and erase the entire board and clear the last saved revision? This happens way too much. Anyway, I finished the routing I was working on, but it is kind of ugly.

Left for awhile and then met the guys in the lab for more layout. Took turns working on the layout, Jeff doing most of the work. I don't think Jeff is happy with our work so I think I'm done helping.
He's got a ways to go.

Time Spent: 6.0 hr

Week 8 Review Posted Saturday, March 27, 2004 by Bill
This week was mostly spent preparing for, completing, and reviewing design reviews. We began layout and it looks as though Jeff will be spending some time with this homework. Will try to help out as much as possible, but next week will be a busy one with other classes.

Milestones:
- Had design review
- started Layout
- ordered majority of parts

Total for Week: 11.0 hr
Total for Semester: 83.0 hr

March 6, 2004 Posted Saturday, March 27, 2004 by Bill
Met with group to begin layout. Jeff began inputing footprints to layout while I found datasheets, footprints, and parts to order. I placed an order with Digi-Key for all of our parts (except power supply, switches, and LEDs). We made the decision not to use the larger PLDs, because they would be a PAIN IN THE NECK!!


Time Spent: 5.5 hr

March 2, 2004 Posted Tuesday, March 2, 2004 by Bill
Had design review today. I feel it went well...everyone presented well.
Enquired of Dr. Meyer after class about PLD timing concerns and he suggested using one larger Altera PLD that would take the place of the three small ones.

I did some research and found the MAX 7000 family of in-system programmable devices that would meet the specifications required. I emailed link for group to check out. Hopefully, we can get one ordered this week. We can also talk to Chuck to find out if he has any lying around.

Other suggestions from the design review include placing a ~15k pull up resistor out of the Sharp receiver data out. This might have caused the issues we saw when first protoyping the circuit as the pin was left floating.

PLD info link:
MAX 7000 Family References


Time Spent: 1.5 hr

March 1, 2004 Posted Monday, March 1, 2004 by Bill
Met to finsish design review powerpoint presentation and practice.
Will need to practice my part a little at home. Jeff is going to print out schematic transparency and Ego is going to print out powerpoints to disperse tomorrow. We will be meeting again at 2:00 pm tomorrow in senior design lab to practice again.

Links:
Design Review Powerpoint


Time Spent: 4.0 hr

Week 7 Review Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
I will say...this was the toughest week of my college career. All my classes culminated to this week, but I survived and we are progressing. This next week will be commited to first, presenting our progress at the design review, and second, making sure that the schematic meets all timing issues and power considerations. If it does, Jeff should be good to go on the board layout.

Milestones:
- finished Homework 6: Schematic and Narrative
- lab notebook up to date
- acquired IR receiver and decoder
- IR remote module prototyped
- sampled various needed parts which will ship Monday

Total for Week: 32.0 hr
Total for Semester: 72.0 hr

February 29, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Again its a nice day, nicer than yesterday...but I'm too busy making up for not posting my lab notebook sooner. Just sitting on the couch with my laptop staring outside at all the people frolicing in the delightful weather. Just kidding, there's no one out back...but I can dream, can't I?

Anyway, my notebook is up to date, and it only took 6 hours!!

Met with Jeff, Phil, and Jegede to work out kinks in the schematic. Jeff started powerpoint intro on top of Phil's section. Jegede was adding his and then will send it to me to finish.

While I was there, I set up the remote system really quick and tested for functionality with my remote from home. Amazingly, it worked!! We have a module protoryped!! Unfortunately, it didn't work perfectly. The decoder pins toggled as expected due to the corresponding button presses, but the pins also toggled on their own every once in awhile. One thing I forgot to do was ground the casing on the IR receiver, so I'm not sure if this might fix that. I will try it tomorrow.

Time Spent: 8.0 hr

February 28, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
The weekend is here, and thank goodness. This has been the worst week since I began here at Purdue 5 years ago. I thought about enjoying the nice weather, but instead we are meeting in the senior design lab in the middle of the day...que idiots!!


Met with Jegede and Phil to discuss design review. We decided to each put our homework into a Powerpoint presentation and then we would meet again tomorrow. I sampled some voltage regulators from Texas Instruments. They ship Monday. I also sampled a few NPN transistors for our Graphics Controller current reference pin, some high-conductance diodes, and some inverter chips from Fairchild Semiconductor. I will post the documents when they come in.

I also began the task of updating my notebook using Newspro. This is going to take awhile.

Lesson for the day: Procrastination is NOT the answer!! (I sound like an after school special.

Time Spent: 4.5 hr

February 26, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Finished Schematic and Narrative. This was a very long assignment and I am just glad to have it finished (and by finished I mean just started :) since we will most likely adjust it often in the next week). We plan to meet again on Saturday to prepare for the design review...ughhh!!

Homework Links:
Homework 6: Schematic
Homework 6: Narrative

Time Spent: 1.5 hr

February 25, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Finished schematic and began narrative. I still have ?'s as to whether this will all work timing wise. We may need to come up with a different method for the PLDs because Phil ?'s whether we can do the text overlay without being able to access all address bits at once. I am still confused on the clock issues and the I/O pins. We have been under the assumption that Parallel Port A is unusable, but I can't find it anywhere in the documentation. It can be used to access the address pins inside the Rabbit, which will be good for debugging purposes, but once all the main programming is implemented, I feel we could use it as general I/O for the LEDs and onboard pushbuttons, as they shouldn't be hard to debug.

In the progress briefing today, it was suggested that there were decoding chips specifically for Sony remotes. Although I thought that I've searched pretty extensively, I was able to find one in about 5 minutes at Reynolds Electronics.

The decoder works specifically for Sony remotes. It will accept input directly from the IR Receiver and can recognize button pushes 0-9, channel+-, volume+-. When one of these buttons is pressed, the decoder toggles a corresponding output pin which could be recognized by the Rabbit. It was 8 dollars but should save a lot of time.

Unfortunately, the chip runs at 5 VDC. Therefore, I was forced to add a third Low Dropout Voltage Regulator. We chose to operate the system at 9 VDC unregulated voltage, and then drop down to two 3.3 V powers and one 5 V power. We used two 3.3 V powers because the Epson has a digital-to-analog converter that requires a seperate analog power and ground from the digital circuits.

I accomodated all of these changes into the schematic.

Time Spent: 8.0 hr

February 24, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Finished with my exams and now its time to crack down and finish the schematic.

I called Sharp's distributor in Carmel, IN and the gentleman told me I might be able to find more about decoding Sony's protocol from the techsupport guy at Arrow. He gave me the number but the man was not in the office this week. He also told me that I could look into sampling the IR detector that I wanted from various distributors (Arrow, Digi-Key, Avnet, etc.) I called the numbers he gave me and had no luck sampling. I went ahead and ordered three of the Sharp IR Receivers from Arrow for $0.75 apiece. They should be in this week.

The schematic is going all right, it is taking a lot of time, though. I hope that I can get all of the stuff done before Thursday. I don't forsee much sleep in the next few days.

Time Spent: 10.0 hr

Week 6 Review Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Had a test Thursday and will have another big one on Monday. Then 1 paper due next Thursday along with Schematic and Narrative and a homework for another class. Should be the toughest week yet.

Milestones:
- acquired Rabbit 3000 Development Board
- submitted Homework 5
- added Newspro to the website
- talked to the evil beings at Sony
- acquired Rabbit 3000 Core Module
- began Homework 6: Schematic and Narrative

Total for Week: 15.0 hr
Total for Semester: 40.0 hr

February 22, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Worked on schematic much of the day.

Jeff and I met to go over schematic details because I am still unsure of how the PLDs fit in.

I discovered after doing a design check that many of the parts that I used from a sample schematic on the Epson Graphics Controller website did not work because I didn't have them created in my library. So I spent much effort to create these parts but things seem to be getting easier the more I do it.

I think that I have the schematic about 50% done now. Thanks to Jeff for meeting with me and helping me create some parts.

Time Spent: 6.0 hr

February 21, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Group met to begin discussions for the schematic. Because we are at a lack for pins, Jeff has devised a PLD plan that will multiplex the address and data bus from the Rabbit onto 13 Rabbit pins (including mode bits).

I also updated the notebooks section of the website. Jeff and I installed Newspro as a means to update our notebooks easily. I just created a template and added a SSI that automatically updates the webpage when I add a "news" item to my notebook. It will require some time to update all my notebook items.

Time Spent: 2.0 hr

February 20, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Called Sony's Customer Help to see if I could acquire internal documentation on their remote protocol. Needless to say, they were less than helpful and everyone I talked to linked me to the user manual for the RM-EZ2 model, which DOES ME NO GOOD!!

Thought for the day: Doesn't it seem to you that Big Corporations such as Sony, though entirely necessary in a global economy such as the one we have here in the United States, suck!!


Time Spent: 1.0 hr - on the phone, listening to a recording telling me how awesome Sony is.

February 18, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Discussed packaging specs in progress briefings. We also checked out Rabbit 3000 Development board from Chuck in senior design lab. Phil will be in charge of it and will begin learning how to program it.

I also decided we would go with the infrared remote module. After doing more research with the Linx modules I discovered that Linx did not actually distribute their own products, and so their catalog prices were wrong. The Digi-Key price is more inflated with respect to the catalog and thus, an RF module would cost around $30+ for all parts (antennae, connector, keyfob, receiver/decoder). The module would also require current on the order of a few mA, whereas the Sharp detector only requires 200 uA. The IR module will only cost around $18+ including cheap Sony remote (which we will just use one of our own). Spent time looking through IR datasheets posted yesterday.


Homework Links:
Homework 5: Packaging Specifications

Time Spent: 1.0 hr

February 17, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
It looks as though we can get by running all components at 3.3VDC. I have been researching infrared remote possibilities.

I have found Sharp receivers that operate at 3.3V and seem relatively easy to use.

I spent some time learning about various IR remote protocols, including Sony's protocol at ePanaorama.net . This is a very good IR resource.

I also found an IR decoder/encoder which I was able to sample online at Microchip.com . After looking more at it, I discovered it is for IRDA communications and thus is probably too advanced for our needs. Will need to keep looking or I will have to do the decoding on the Rabbit . I will also add the link to the Epson Graphics Controller .


Our group has decided to use the Rabbit 3000 Core Module which has a 29.4 MHz internal clock and 44 I/O pins and ethernet capabilities. It runs at 3.3 V and is the best Rabbit choice for our project.

Datasheet Links:
MCP2120 IRDA Encoder/Decoder
Sharp Detector Data Sheet
Sharp Detector Specification Sheet
Rabbit 3000 Core Module User Manual
Epson Graphics Controller Manual


Time Spent: 5.0 hr

Week 5 Review Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
My Grandmother went into the hospital this week and so I have been back and forth from home and have not been able do much. I will try to make up for this later.

Milestones:
- acquired graphics controller
- submitted homework 4

Homework Links:
Homework 4: Constraint Analysis


Total for Week: 3.0 hr
Total for Semester: 25.0 hr

February 11, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Had progress briefings today. We have found an Epson Graphics Controller. It looks fairly large, and we are going to have to make sure that we have enough pins on the Rabbit. Went over Phil's Constraint Analysis. I have been searching and searching for a decent IR keyfob. I voiced my concern this morning and Gil suggested just using a Sony TV remote and only use the buttons we need. Well, duh!! Of course. This opens up the IR possibility more. Will do some online searching for IR detectors and decoders.

We have also come to the conclusion that this project will be very difficult to prototype. We need to get a Rabbit soon and begin working with it.


Time Spent: 3.0 hr

Week 4 Review Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Design Objectives:
- Interface a VGA graphics controller chip to a microcontroller
- Interface a VGA graphics controller chip with a standard VGA
display device
- Interface a microcontroller with Ethernet
- Interface a microcontroller with an IR remote
- Run the entire system using an inexpensive, commercially
available power supply
- Design a user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, thin, light-
weight, ergonomic case
- Write a user-friendly program to run on a PC to manage
transmitting data via Ethernet to the device as well as
ensuring proper image size and color depth

Project-Specific Success Criteria (list 5):
1. Ability to display graphical data on a VGA device
2. Ability to receive decoded JPEG image data via Ethernet
3. Ability to receive and interpret IR command signals from a
remote
4. Ability to generate text-overlay on VGA device
5. Ability to receive and decode signals from on-device
pushbuttons as well as drive LED’s ( power and data)


Milestones:
-finished Hw 3: Preliminary Project Proposal for Digital Picture
Frame
-changed success criteria
-webpage online

Total for Week: 3.5 hr
Total for Semester: 22.0 hr

February 4, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Met for progress briefing. Discussed and agreed upon changes to Design Proposal.

Made assignments for individual homeworks. They are:

Jegede - Packagin Design and Specs, Reliability and Safety Anlsys
Jeff - Board Layout, Social/Polit/Envirn Analysis
Phillip - Software and Narrative, Design Constraint Anlsys
Bill - Circuit Schematic and Narrative, Patent Liability Anlsys


Time Spent: 0.5 hr

February 3, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Group meeting today to discuss Homework 3: Final Design Proposal. We have given up on LCD component as well as finding a JPEG decoder to interface with the microcontroller. Therefore, we are going to do the decoding on the PC and send decoded data. We must find a new success criteria. One discussed criteria is to add text-overlay to the output. Finished Homework 3.

Homework Links:
Homework 3: Final Design Proposal

Time Spent: 2.0 hr

February 2, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Put homepage online. I plan on making it better later, but it will suffice for now.

Links:
ECE 477 Group 12 Homepage

Time Spent: 1.0 hr

Week 3 Review Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Current Design Objectives
- Interface an LCD display to a microcontroller
- Interface a microcontroller with Ethernet
- Interface microcontroller with IR remote
- Provide on-chip JPEG decoding to reduce bandwidth usage
- Interface microcontroller with on-board memory (~8 MB)
for image storage
- Run the entire system using an inexpensive, commercially
available power supply
- Design a user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, thin, light-
weight, ergonomic case
- Write a user-friendly program to run on a PC which would
take care of transmitting data via Ethernet to the device
as well as ensuring proper image size and color depth

Project-Specific Success Criteria (list 5):
1. Ability to display debugging information on the LCD
2. Ability to receive image data via Ethernet
3. Ability to receive and interpret IR signals from remote
4. Ability to successfully store all image data in on-board
memory
5. Ability to effectively decode the JPEG format


Milestones:
-finished Hw 1: Preliminary Project Proposal for Digital Picture Frame
-can not find inexpensive (<$200) LCD screens
-may change objective to "throw-out" LCD component

Total for Week: 12.0 hr
Total for Semester: 18.5 hr

February 1, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Worked out some details on the webpage. Started notebook.

Links:
Original Notebook

Time Spent: 0.5 hr

January 29, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Came in an finished up OrCAD homework. Turned in.

Homework Links:
Homework 2: HC12 Board Layout
Homework 2: Bill_of_Materials
Homework 2: Design Rules Check

Time Spent: 1.0 hr

January 28, 2004 Posted Sunday, February 29, 2004 by Bill
Had progress briefings today...went over idea for making "black box" a VGA supported device. That way, "Digital Picture Box" can be used to attach to an old monitor/LCD screen and we can ultimately test our product on any VGA monitor. This cuts down cost of project dramatically. We also discussed using some sort of prefabricated KeyFob remote to save time on the remote control portion of the project. I "google-d" for IR keyfobs but cannot find any. I found two sources of RF keyfobs right away. They are RF Soulutions and Linx Technologies
Linx Technologies. According to RF Solutions pricing manual, the cost for these Keyfobs is over $20, which is more than I am willing to spend. Again, Linx Technologies has good documentation on their products and they seem pretty reasonably priced.

I am leaning towards RF because then it would be unneccasary for our product to have line of sight, and thus it can be hidden away and still be reached remotely. Links to the keyfobs previously mentioned are listed below.

I also found a decoder/receiver at Linx that would work nicely with this remote. The data is sent as 10 address bits and then 8 data bits. The decoder/receiver has address inputs that are tied to a DIP switch. It compares the address coming from the antennae to the DIP address and if a match occurs, outputs the eight data bits to corresponding parrallel pins on the decoder which could be read directly by the Rabbit. Seems easy enough!!

Also, met with group to discuss Homework 2. Jeff discussed with us the schematic and we began on the board layout. I began around 3:30 in the afternoon and worked on it a good 2 hours until Phil and Ego showed up. We then went in shifts until one by one Phil and Ego became fed up. I become fed up myself at around 2:30 am and depart for the evening about 95% done with Layout.


Datasheets:
RF Soulutions Keyfob
Linx Technologies Keyfob
Linx Technologies Decoder/Receiver

Time Spent: 10.5 hr

Week 2 Review Posted Saturday, February 28, 2004 by Bill
Current Design Objectives
- Interface an LCD display to a microcontroller
- Interface a microcontroller with Ethernet
- Interface microcontroller with IR remote
- Provide on-chip JPEG decoding to reduce bandwidth usage
- Interface microcontroller with on-board memory (~8 MB)
for image storage
- Run the entire system using an inexpensive, commercially
available power supply
- Design a user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, thin, light-
weight, ergonomic case
- Write a user-friendly program to run on a PC which would
take care of transmitting data via Ethernet to the device
as well as ensuring proper image size and color depth

Project-Specific Success Criteria (list 5):
1. Ability to display debugging information on the LCD
2. Ability to receive image data via Ethernet
3. Ability to receive and interpret IR signals from remote
4. Ability to successfully store all image data in on-board
memory
5. Ability to effectively decode the JPEG format


Milestones:
-finished Hw 1: Preliminary Project Proposal for Digital Picture Frame
-can not find inexpensive (<$200) LCD screens
-may change objective to "throw-out" LCD component

Total for Week: 5.0 hr
Total for Semester: 6.5 hr

January 24, 2004 Posted Saturday, February 28, 2004 by Bill
Today I did more searching for LCD screens. I can not find anything less than $200 dollars, which exceeds what we are willing to spend. It seems that it would benefit us more to focus on the "black box" aspect of the project and not worry about the interfacing.

Time Spent: 0.5 hr

January 21, 2004 Posted Saturday, February 28, 2004 by Bill
Met with the advisors this morning for progress briefing. Declared problem of finding LCD screens. They gave us suggestion to try out Crystalfontz. I checked them out but all I could find was small LCDs that did not have the graphical capabilities we are looking for. I also did some tentative research on remote control possibilities. I don't know much about the two main possibilities (RF or IR) but I did find some good documentation on RF at Linx Technologies. They seem to offer cheap, easy means of implementing RF solutions.

Webpage Links:
  Crystalfontz
  Linx Technologies

Time Spent: 2.0 hr

January 20, 2004 Posted Saturday, February 28, 2004 by Bill
Today we met and discussed the project and worked on Homework 1. We have come to the decision to work on the Digital Picture Frame because the group believes the Automated Pill Dispenser does not fulfill enough requirements for a microcontroller-based project.

Project Outlines:
The Digital Picture frame will consisist of a "black box" that will interface with a graphical LCD display to output digital images stored on a PC. The box will have an ethernet port and it will also have the potential for wireless ethernet using 802.11b. We also plan on having some sort of remote interface which will be my responsibility. I also have assumed role of webmaster. Because of Ethernet capabilities, we will definately use some sort of Rabbit Microcontroller.

Main project concerns:
-Finding an inexpensive graphical LCD screen to display data.

Relevant Links:
Homework 1: Preliminary Project Proposal

Time Spent: 2.5 hr

Week 1 Review Posted Saturday, February 28, 2004 by Bill
-formed group
-discussed Automated Pill Dispenser, Digital Picture Frame
-leaning towards selecting Digital Picture Frame as device

Total for Week: 1.5 hr
Total for Semester: 1.5 hr

January 15, 2004 Posted Saturday, February 28, 2004 by Bill
Met after class and discussed project ideas. Discussed digital picture frame and my idea of automated pill dispenser. Seems rest of group is leaning towards digital picture frame.

Time Spent: 1.0 hours

January 13, 2004 Posted Saturday, February 28, 2004 by Bill
Had first class today!! Met with Jeff Turkstra, Phillip Boone, and Egomaron Jegede and formed group. We have decided to come up with project ideas that we will discuss next class period.

Time Spent: 0.5 hours