Revision as of 17:53, 18 October 2011

Scott Stack - Design Notebook

Week of October 3rd:

briefly looked at vehicle platforms. We decided that we probably wanted to build our own vehicle platform so I looked for robotics kits that looked like they might make that task easy. Didn't find anything particularly interesting. Most robotics kits I looked at were expensive. It was also difficult to find something with just wheels and a body that would fit out needs...
Poster for VIP poster session was completed
Weekly meeting on Friday

  Total Time Spent:  ~1.5 hours

Week of October 10th:

looked at possible options for mounting a camera on board the car without interfacing it with the microcontroller. Found this as one possible option: http://foscam.us/foscam-fi8918w-wireless-ip-camera-11.html. (30 mins)
Attended weekly VIP meeting on Friday. Chose a development board to start prototyping with: Kiel MCBSTM32EXL (1 hour)

  Total Time Spent: ~ 1.5 hours

Week of October 17th:

TASK: Install Kiel ARM-MDK software onto a VIP computer to start experimenting with the chosen development board (Kiel MCBSTM32EXL )
looked at camera options. In particular this one: http://www.axis.com/products/cam_m1011w/index.htm and this one: http://foscam.us/foscam-fi8918w-wireless-ip-camera-11.html axis looks like it will be easier to interface with website. Also briefly looked at wireless transceivers suggested by Jason. decided RN-XV WiFly Module http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10822 might be a good choice to start with. Posted findings on the discussion page on Rhea (30 minutes)
Team Meeting (Tuesday)(2.5-3 hours):
- found potential parts to start prototyping with including a vehicle platform, wi-fi module, wireless camera to mount on vehicle, and proximity sensors/switches. see here for details on choices
- Wrote a simple example program and loaded it onto the target development board that printed out names onto the LCD screen.
- TASK: determine if the development board has A/D and D/A PWM ports because it is not obvious if those features are padded out on our development board. We had a very hard time finding documentation on how to use the general purpose IO as potential analog input/output. Needs to be done because we might have to find a new dev board if these features are not available.
Attended weekly VIP meeting. (1 hour)

  Total Time Spent: X.X

@@ Line 61: / Line 61: @@
 <li> looked at camera options. In particular this one: http://www.axis.com/products/cam_m1011w/index.htm and this one: http://foscam.us/foscam-fi8918w-wireless-ip-camera-11.html axis looks like it will be easier to interface with website. Also briefly looked at wireless transceivers suggested by Jason. decided RN-XV WiFly Module http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10822 might be a good choice to start with. Posted findings on the discussion page on Rhea  (30 minutes)</li>
+<li> <b>Team Meeting (Tuesday)(2.5-3 hours): </b>
+<ul>
+<li> found potential parts to start prototyping with including a vehicle platform, wi-fi module, wireless camera to mount on vehicle, and proximity sensors/switches. [https://www.projectrhea.org/rhea/index.php/LRVC_Oct18  see here for details on choices]</li>
+<li> Wrote a simple example program and loaded it onto the target development board that printed out names onto the LCD screen. </li>
+<li> <b> TASK:</b> determine if the development board has A/D and D/A PWM ports because it is not obvious if those features are padded out on our development board. We had a very hard time finding documentation on how to use the general purpose IO as potential analog input/output. Needs to be done because we might have to find a new dev board if these features are not available. </li>
+</ul>
 <li> Attended weekly VIP meeting. (1 hour) </li>