Resources: Hardware and Software

Senior Design Fall 2009

Microcontrollers
Useful for analog-digital
conversions, timing, counting pulses, serial communications, PWM, digital I/O, and much more! Code can be interrupt driven Possible applications
Perform an A-D conversion on a signal and send that data to a PC Control an LCD display Receive information from a RF ID reader Interpret signals from a numeric keypad
*Pictures from http://www.electronic-kits-and-projects.com

TI MSP430
Ultra low power Micro Free samples from TI (we have a university agreement
and can get samples and programmers) Free IDE based on eclipse with integrated debugging Free GCC compiler Many RTOS solutions available Hardware debugging makes finding problems in code easier Some development boards have integrated wireless ZigBee support eZ430-RF2500 Many Examples Very easy to use USB programmers/Debuggers

*Picture from http://www.ti.com/

ATMEL ATMEGA Microcontrollers

Many Different microcontrollers most
commonly used for projects are MEGA168/MEGA128 Powerful user community = Arduino project Many open source tools, hardware and libraries, entire tool chain runs on Linux/Windows/Mac Several simple serial boot loaders to load programs, programmers are easy to build Software USB support More limited hardware debugging *Picture from http://www.atmel.com/

Microchip PICs
Available in lab: PIC16F877A Many other types available to order Two excellent resources
PIC data sheet PICC Compiler Help

Receive two PICs for free Disadvantage: Closed

compiler/toolchain Newer PICs with crossbar can be difficult to setup pin functions
*Picture from http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/39582b.pdf

Tips for using Micros

Program in C Read all the documentation for the part!!!! Code in small steps Refer to code examples for help For digital I/O
Best first step is to make an LED blink

Development boards are a great way to get your

hardware running fast!

Be sure voltages are within permissible range Check if microcontroller can sink or source enough current

Other Microcontrollers
BASIC Stamp
Programmed using BASIC Can be used when high performance is not necessary

ARM (LPC, TI, etc)

Very Advanced toolchain, very powerful microcontrollers with a lot of features Hard to program the hardware
*Pictures from http://www.basicx.com/ and http://www.ti.com/

DSPs
TI TMS320C54x
Same DSPs as used in ECE 420 Programmable in assembly Simulink or C Useful for audio processing

TI TMS320C6713
Floating point DSP Useful for image and video processing

Cypress PSoC
GUI based programming

software Online Tutorials and Training M8C Processor Speeds to 24 MHz 32K Bytes Flash Program Storage 50,000 Erase/Write Cycles 2K Bytes SRAM Data Storage Many System Blocks for different Digital and Analog Operations Development Kits Available

XBee Radios

Low-power wireless sensor networks Zigbee/IEEE 802.15.4 compliant ISM 2.4 GHz wireless Serial interface (9600 to 115200) 10 uA sleep current 100 feet indoor range (may vary) Advanced features include toggling pins on remote radio, Over the air programming of features, and many integrated functions in the radio hardware (Series 2)

Other Radio Chips

Lynx
Simple wireless data transmitters and receivers Available in lab

Wifi and Bluetooth

Serial interface to microcontrollers One starting point for products www.sparkfun.com
* Pictures from http://www.linxtechnologies.com/ and www.sparkfun.com

FPGAs
We have several new NI FPGA boards Useful when very high speed calculations
are needed Power hungry Consider using a microcontroller first Great for projects which require a lot of recursive or parallel calculations

Board Layout Software

Eagle
Installed on lab computers Free download for board size < 4x3in x 2 layer Tutorial on class drive

Orcad
Installed on lab computers More complicated, lots of options

* Picture from kieran levin

Other Software
Simulators
ADS (for RF) Pspice PIC Simulator Graphical programming language Excellent for creating user interfaces and connecting with instruments Installed on all computers on left side Interact with instruments Capture pictures off of a scope

LabVIEW

Agilent VEE