It is my first week back in college and the start of a new semester. One of my first tasks was to prepare a report of the progress of my final year project. I found it hard to summarize the work I had done as I have not been keeping as much documentation as I should. Below is the report I handed in.
Final Year Project Semester One Assessment.
• Reviewed current cycling performance measuring devices on the market.
• Tested and experimented with Nuelectronics data logging/Ethernet shields.
• Found Petit FAT File System library did not meet the needs of the project.
• Moved to sdfatlib library, modified and adapted it to work with data logging shield’s SD card.
• Tested Sparkfun’s GPS shield using raw NMEA codes and TinyGPS library.
• Wrote test program to save GPS data to Nuelectronics data logging shield.
• Tested basic examples of the Openlayer’s library using GPS data logged.
• Prototyped different SPI Bus configurations (Daisy chain vs Independent slave) to determine if the Nuelectronics data logging shield could be used with the Nuelectronics Ethernet shield.
• Determined the Nuelectronics shields are not a viable option.
• Researched a viable alternative for the project’s SD card/Ethernet needs.
• Determined the latest official Ethernet shield fulfilled the requirements of the project.
• Reviewed current accelerometers and gyroscopes on the market.
• Analyzed the needs of the project and determined a full IMU(inertial measurement unit) system was
needed.
• Reviewed a range of IMU systems available to the hobbyist market.
• Decided ArduIMU V2 (Flat) IMU best meet the project needs.
• Due to limitations of ArduIMU a second microcontroller was found to be needed for the project.
• Analysed inter microcontroller communications systems , SPI , I2C , UART.
• Determined I2C was the best fit for the system.
• Sourced and tested a viable real-time clock (RTC) DS1307.
• Wrote test code for each individual sub system part. i.e. RTC, IMU, SD Card, Ethernet and I2C Bus.
Plans for Semester 2
• Connect all individual elements together.
• Create a XML file format for the data captured.
• Scrape GPS information for use in Google maps overlay.
• Investigate different 3D rendering options for the captured movement data.
• To develop a Web front end server solution to handle the captured data.
• Perform real world data capture tests using the system.
• Compile detailed documentation of hardware design using Eagle.
• Complete an end to end solution.
I received some good feedback from my supervisor on the progress of my fyp. One of the key points made clear to me was the need of much better documentation. The report counts for 50% of the overall marks. I am due to make a formal power point presentation in a week on my work to date.
