L.A.T.H.I.
The purpose of this blog is to update you about my progress on the project and as a base for interaction. So that I can collect your valuable feedbacks and feature enhancements. I am open to all suggestions and information. Kindly let me know your views on my progress.
Anticipating your Support,
My Website containing the Project Description and updates for the Documents:
pic32site
List are the Activities that I have done till now or are to be done on LATHI.
Task List (Activities to be Done):
1. Solder Speaker Driver make addon Board - Done
2. Add support for playback from SD card + DMA based Playback
3. Solder LCD wires - Done
4. Make LCD attachment for the IO to PIC32 - Done
5. Config IR Transmitter using OC - Done
6. Config IR Receiver using IC channel - Done
7. Put up more schematics - Done Finished All the Schematics & BOM
8. Solder ADS7846 and interface it to PIC32 - Done
9. Accelerometer Interfacing - Integration with new Board - Done
10. Voice playback Codec Interfacing- Done
11. SD-Card Interfacing - Done
12. Power Controller - Design board mount - Test & Deploy - Done
13. Make Debug IO Working - done
14. Make IR RX working with Higher Samples - done
15. Decide on the Storage Format for the IR Samples ARRAY - Stall
16. Make IR Rx Format Playable on the IR TX Module
17. GSM Modem API for SMS, INIT and MISSED-CALL - done
18. Interpert GPS Data and Enlist the Paramters for Configuration
19. Enhance Audio quality and Adapt MCHP Audio lib.
20. Port Graphics Driver for HX8347 in MCHP Graphics Lib - Done
21. LCD Touch Screen Functionality with ADS7846 - Not working
22. Try LCD Touch Screen Functionality with PIC32 ADC - Touch Screen Damaged
23. New LCD Driver ILI9325 porting & Touch Screen on PIC32 ADC - in Progress
Progress Reports:
18-Nov-2008,
Fortunately I was able to get a new touch screen for the display. I will update as soon as I get it working.
17-Nov-2008,
I was struggling for a few days to implement the LCD Driver and upgrade functionality for the Touch screen. But now I found the ADS7846 chip was damaged and my LCD's Touch screen was also damaged. So I have to move to a new LCD to make sure that I still have the touch scrren functionality. This might delay my progess alot but have to do it since it is one of the nessary functionality. Since it might be helpful so I have posted the driver for the HX8347 in the LCD Display thread.
9-Nov-2008,
Today I was able to make the LCD function using PutPixel and GetPixel functions. This is the fist step to making the Driver package integrate into the Microchip's Graphics lib. Have a look at my code.
2-Nov-2008,
Now my GSM module is fully functional. This is the Link to my Code.
Here is the link to the video.
31-Oct-2008,
Today I was able to make my SMS work from the software. There was a bug in the initialization of my GSM modem. Now it can send SMS and also give Missed Calls. I would be posting the API soon.
29-Oct-2008,
A BIG Thanks to Microchip for Giving me such an Opportunity.
And a Happy and Prosperous Deepawali to All !!
25-Oct-2008,
The Infrared Reception Module software is now operational. I have posted the Code on my website. I was able to successfully use the Input Capture module and interface the IR Receiver.
24-Oct-2008,
The Debug Communication IO codeis working. This would help me to develop software modules independently. I would also be able control the occurrence of the event for the particular software so that I don't have to do it in the actual Hardware.
Well now that everything has frozen I am still waiting for the D-Day when the results would be announced. This is one exam that I am allowed to take only once so the anxiety is growing.
Best of Luck to All!!
14-Oct-2008,
Now that the Design Freeze has commenced I wish for your support.
Please rate and vote my project.
Also let me know any flaws that you find or any additional features that can be implemented to make my design better.
12-Oct-2008,
Hi Everyone,
I am back from my vacation. I will try to post some better pictures showing the parts of my project today.
In all I have exprerienced lots of excitement and thrill in this contest. I find that so many creative Ideas get their seed thought this type of contests. Well the videos that are loaded by many of the contestants are Awsome and I congratulate them all. I am getting lots of new ideas to enhance my project further with the help of all the projects out here. I have to wait till the Phase II results. 
Best of luck to all the contestants,
Please let me know your views on my project - any suggestion and ideas .
And a Big thanks to
MICROCHIP
techinsights
Digi-Key
1-Oct-2008,
Completed all the stuff required for Phase II. I was in a hurry since I had to go to my native on the occasion of the Auspicious Durga Puja festival and would be coming back by 13th Oct. So I have published the new Video , Code and the Picture so that you can rate my design. I have not concentrated much on the Software side since I wanted to make the hardware alright(That's partly the reason why I don't have a jazzy demo). Next I would be working to make the Driver for the LCD and the Touch screen since its my first requirements considering I dont have any spare RS232 for debug. Also I would require to followup and get the final PCB so that I can do a more reliable hardware. However it is working fine already.
I have also reduced my BOM costs owing to change in the GPS to DeLorme and some minor reductions. So my final cost stays at $292.7 
.
Till then Please Vote my Design and rate its
performance.
22-Sep-2008,
I have uploaded the new Design with the GPS changed since I did't Receive my Parallax GPS I had to change it to RGPMS002 module and also added the SMA connector and the Antenna to the BOM just in case I require it. The Schematics have been updated with these changes. But the best part is I have managed to reduce $2 out of my BOM .
Now it totals up to $318.76.
20-Sep-2008,
I have been able to make the Power supply section work. I am now able to fully control what parts of my circuit are ON at a time. This was very essential considering the requirement to save battery in the Deep sleep mode. Here is a link to picture of the board (Without the Save Battery CR2032).
I have not opened my schematics since I wish to verify all fully before I post it out. I also had some trouble with the Mosfet IRF9530 since the footprint in the Eagle print was not correct. But now I have fixed that too. Just hope to start the GSM - Modem interfacing soon. I had some troubles with the board holding so I had to put rubber bands as you can see.
14-Sep-2008,
I have been able to finish my Full Schematics , Hardware Block Diagram , Software Block Diagram and the Final BOM so that I can concentrate more on riging up the stuff. These are posted on my project page. I will now go ahead with the full scale assembly of the board so that I can start on the Software development next. But there is still one thing that worries me is that I dont have my GPS unit yet so I am still at a gentle balence. At present I have hidden my schematics since I am still riging up the things but I will unlock it soon.
The Good part is the I am able to have the net cost of the project at $322.81
07-Sep-2008,
I have been able to make the LCD Interface. You can view the Video .
I will solder the ADS7846 Touch screen controller and post my next update soon.
03-Sep-2008,
I didnt make much of a progress since many of the things that I had procured havent reached me yet. But I never left hope. I started with a bit challenging part of Soldering the LCD. In process of waiting for the Op-Amps that I ordered for the Sound generation. Also I was able to make a base schematics. This was my attempt to break-ice on the documentation part. You can have a look at my project section. Link to a picture of my LCD with the Wires.
Hope that soon I would be able to finish up the rigup before I do the driver for it. I just pray to GOD that I get the other parts soon.
22-Aug-2008,
Today I received the Programming 32bit Microcontrollers in C book. I just can't wait to sweep throuh it. I would be a greate performance booster for me. And hope that I can post my updates faster. Thanks to Elisevier for the in time delivery.
21-Aug-2008,
I am now able to playback some sound from the PIC32. I didn't have much help from the Audio codec provided by Microchip but I was able to manage some thing without it. I have uploaded the Video in the project and the code in my Code Section. Next I would be upgrading this system by making it using proper Active 2nd or 4th order filter before it is fed to the LM386 power amplifier for the Speaker. Also the present demo runs the playback from the chip flash. So I have change this and make sure that it is able to play from the SD Card. Also the Play back is presently taking a lot of CPU so I plan to use the DMA and get things smooth and less resource hungry.
17-Aug-2008,
Today I was able to makeup the Accelerometer Interface and loaded a demo which can vary the LEDs based on X-Axis acceleration. I have uploaded a video for the this and the code in my Code Section. I am a little worried since my ordered parts have not arrived yet and that can put me off my schedule.
16-Aug-2008,
Good Day today!! I was able to solve the SD card issue and its now running from the Microchip's Driver. I am assured that at least my circuit didnt go in vain. There was one
thing that I learned from all this -
Trust Microchip, they will get you through.
Well the Accelerometer is already interfaced I am just waiting to config my ADC and Aquire data. Lets see if my target app - Accelerometic LED is done Thanks to the generous community in this site for helping me out. Check out the Updated Code in my Project's
Software Section.
14-Aug-2008,
I am presently trying to interface the Micro SD card and facing a lot of trouble.
The Initilialization procedure is not working. I have uploaded a video as an update.
Please help me out with this.
11-Aug-2008,
This time I have been able to achive a lot of flexibility. The ADC value from multiple channels is uesd to control the light intensity of LED 0 by varing the Output Compare OC1 duty Cycle.
We can also see these values through the Serial Port. I had a small CP2012 baord which works at 3.3v - Ideal for this app. I just fitted it to one of the proto-board and was able to get data on UART. Here is the Video of the same. I will upload the Code in the code section after my formating and documentation is done.
9-Aug-2008,
I was able to configure the Change Notice Interrupts.The demo code has been uploaded to my Code Section along with the video in Youtube.
8-Aug-2008,
My First program on the PIC32 now executing.
This is the remake of the Microchip's demo code but it gave me insight of how to use the Plib functions.
I uploaded a video for the program's execution alog with the code.
As the things progress I would post more of the items.
Thanks to PIC32 and this community for giving me an Highly anticipated & exciting opportunity,
Anticipating you support,
Best of Luck,
Abhijit
Finally got a chance to upgrade the Wireless Audio Controller development environment tonight. First, I put the full version of the C32 compiler in place, rebuilt and tested to make sure I didn't break anything. Then I started playing with optimization. Using optimization level 1, code size was reduced by 28%! I will look more into compiler options as we go along. Second, I got up to speed with the in-circuit emulator. It's nice to be stepping over interrupt routines now so I don't keep looping through the USB 1ms interrupt, or core timer interrupts, every time I break. So, software development marches on. If you haven't seen it yet, a new software video and block diagram are up on my site: http://mypic32.com/web/guest/contestantsprofiles?profileID=23324. See ya!
Matt
Software development progress and information.
Click Here for Project Page
The software for the CarbCounter+ will be developed in a modular fashion so that it can use either a RTOS or custom scheduler and be adaptable to future situations. Also if it is possible to write relocatable code, then additional modules could potentially be "loaded" as needed without having to reflash the entire device.
Following is the "To Do" list which will show what has been done, what is currently being worked on, and what remains. They are in no particular order and are currently arranged into two groups. "Hardware Related" for anything that talks to specific hardware, and "Non Hardware related" for the program that interacts with the user and everything else.
Key: UI=User Interface, MATH=Mathematic Calculation, DB=Database, OS=Operating System, EP=Expantion port add on.
To Do (In No Particular order...yet)
| Status
|
Hardware Related
| |
| Assemble Working Hardware (Still waiting on LCD) | -------- 95% ------
|
| Test/Port Graphics Library on new hardware | Waiting on LCD |
| Test/Port FAT32 SD Card Library on new hardware | ------- 100 % -------- |
|
| Write Code to read Scale from MCP3551 ADC |
| --- 40% --- |
| Get USB bootloader working | In the Que |
| Write SLEEP and WAKE code for power conservation | In the Que |
| Write RTCC functions | In the Que |
| Write Charger monitoring code | In the Que |
| Test/Modify MiWi P2P for wireless connection to a scale | In the Que |
| Write Basic Audio output functions (DAC and Volume Control) | -----------100%----------- |
| Write Audio output for Visually Impared assistance (DMA) | In the Que |
| Write Audio input functions in preperation for speech recognition | Future Add on |
| Test/Port NAND Flash routines for fixed data storage | Future Add on |
| | |
Non Hardware Related
| |
| UI - Splash screens | In Definition |
| UI - Main Menu | In Definition |
| UI - Create Keyboard for user input | ------ 100% ------- |
| UI - Database search by keyboard input | In Definition |
| UI - Database search by graphical file structure | In Definition |
| UI - Database search by favorites (Possible speech recognition) | In Definition |
| UI - Weighing item | In Definition |
| UI - Setup screens | In Definition |
| UI - Space Invaders (Needs the acelerometer module fitted) | When I want a change ;-) |
| UI - Audio playback for User interaction in menus etc | In Definition |
| UI - Database Management | In Definition |
| UI - Blood Glucose (BG) input | In Definition |
| UI - Data recall and plotting for BG, Carbs, etc | In Definition |
| UI - Low BG "carb's needed" display etc | In Definition |
| UI - Recipe Builder | In Definition |
| MATH - Low BG to Carbs needed calculations | 50% - Have Math - need to code |
| MATH - Insulin to Carb Ratios | 50% - Have Math - need to code |
| MATH - Insulin Sensitivity Rations | 50% - Have Math - need to code |
| MATH - Weight to Carb calculation | -------- 100% --------- |
| MATH - Insulin profile calculation (FUTURE) | Future add in |
| MATH - Food profile calculations (GI and FAT delays etc) (FUTURE) | Future add in |
| MATH - BG to Insulin Ratios | 50% - Have Math - need to code |
| MATH - Note: The above have different values relative to time of day | |
| MATH - Recalculation of above ratios based on data input (FUTURE) | Future add in |
| MATH - Filtering for weight scale input | In Definition |
| DB - Parsing of generic database for quick sort and search | In Definition |
| DB - Loading and saving of files | In Definition |
| DB - Search Engine | In Definition |
| DB - Relationship engine (Food types, Images, Speech recognition, etc) | In Definition |
| DB - File format | In Definition |
| DB - Matainence | In Definition |
| DB - Inserting new Data | In Definition |
| DB - Backup and Restore | In Definition |
| DB - Import and Export | In Definition |
| OS - Core operating system - RTOS or Custom | Currently Researching Options |
| OS - Alarms and Alert processing for BG testing periods etc | In Definition |
| EP - BG Meter / Pump interface (IRDA or wired) (FUTURE) | Future Feature |
| EP - 3 Axis Acellerometer for alternate navigation (FUTURE) | Future Feature |
| EP - Speech Processing Module (FUTURE) | Future Feature |
| | |
The above is a dynamic list and will constantly be changing until the project is complete. If there is any additional you think should be added, please let me know. Also if you know of anything that might help with any of the above, please let me know that too.
Thanks,
Mike.
Update
Full moon and the 13th today so I thought this was a good day for an update here.
Expected this to be a good week which let me bring up the lwIP stack + driver on the SweetBox. But the week started with other work and then a customer had some panic that I had to attend to an so on. You know the drill. So finally I got some time for fun things. Plugged in the wall wart, fired up MPLAB. Hmmm... is't that smoke in the air. Yes, it definitely came from the PIC32 board. Power off. Test. Everything dead. Some hours later a replaced MCP1603 and a new diod plus a strap made it work again. I forgot that I had to much power hungry stuff hooked up... Yes, I sat in a corner with a silly loking hat the rest of the day.
Oh well things like that happen. At least to me. So now I have some time to actually work with the SweetBox. FreeRTOS is in place. Really like it. I will use FreeRTOS on other projects to in the future for sure. One grasp the concept in a few hours and Barry is really helpful. lwIP compiles and I have coded the enc28j60 driver. Just need to get it to work. ;-) This is the fun part after all so it does not matter if it takes some time if it was not for everything else that needed to be done...
Hopefully I have some code uploaded next week before customers need to be attended to again. :-(
vscp.org - Very Simple Control Protocol
Be Hungry, Stay Foolish.
Cheers
/Ake
PROJECT PAGE
I've made very little observable progress this week. I've spent a couple of days learning how to write basic graphics applications in OS X. It wasn't as quick of a learning experience as I'd expected. It isn't very close to Linux at all.
I've had trouble with emulating a mouse and a digitizer tablet, too. It works fine in XP, but behaves oddly in OS X (with Parallels running). I have a few dozen more combinations to try before I give up. I might settle for not doing mouse emulation when the ball isn't in a 3-D app.
And I've looked at my schedule. I'm going to have to hustle to get it all done. I'm really hoping to get a lot done before Thanksgiving so I can show it off to some friends.
Hello everyone, here is a quick note to let you know how the WAC software stage is progressing. The weather here has turned cold and dreary. While outdoor sports season is probably over, this weather is conducive to programming. Since the software phase began, I have been hard at work setting up a software application framework. I began by blinking an LED of course, but behind the blinking of that LED was an embedded real-time operating system. It was actually quite easy to get started with the RTOS. Since then I spent many hours attempting to get the PIC32 processor to communicate with a USB flash drive. After several days of debugging, I finally saw success and am now able to read from the memory stick. I'll have a video update on the WAC project page on Nov. 14.
News from Reality Battle Chess!
I haven't been too active, just cruising along watch some of the other designs. In hardware stage I built the arms and wrote the software that actually moves the pieces. I also built ONE of the pieces. In this stage I'll build the rest of the pieces (31 of 'em) write the animation sequences and figure out how to actually program a computer to play chess.
I've got some really great ideas for chess pieces (and animations), if you have some ideas let me know. I've updated my insurance and Pyrotechnics WILL be involved!
Goals for this week...
1. Upgrade to digital servos for arm movement
2. Calibrate arm motion.
3. Animation sequences for ONE pawn.
Thanks to all those that voted for me and check back next week for video of the above goals.
Now THIS will be hard for me. Writing a functionable Optimal Control C code. But that's why I'm here.
During this time I have to make the light, final, self-made extension board also. Thanks God, in the packet was a PIC32 breakout board too, so now I have the connector.
Best wishes to everybody: Duc
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