Project 3

This last project is designing and creating a commercial egg incubator. I'm partnered with Frank, and I still don't have a laptop. The next few days are spent working on the physical and digital wiring for the incubators. I will try to post updates, screenshots, etc.

Stepper Motors (or something)

We had talked about motors in the last class, but I have a harder time understanding everything because it's so new to me. More motor stuff...
Something about currents and magnets. It makes sense though.

We received fans and photogates to measure the RPM of the fans. (No pictures, unfortunately). This was fairly simple. It was a matter of connecting the photogate to the LabQuest Pro and then using the corresponding express VI to do the work.

After that, we also received stepper motors. We wired our motor to the DCU and used the VI from before (the one to test the different patterns) to figure out which numbers made the motor turn. The different patterns showed which wires were open (?), which controls the current.

Lecture 21

LEDs:
We were given 4 LEDs with some wiring (not really sure how to describe that?). Binary numbers come into play here. Numbers 0 through 15 (in binary) correspond to the 4 lights, with 0 being off and 1 being on. I am familiar with binary but not wiring or using lights. I wish i had a picture, but I didn't take one. A large knob is used to change the pattern number to see what the lights do in response to changing the DCU pattern. The lights on the front panel corresponded to the lights in real life. It was interesting to see binary actually do something outside of the computer.



Next we were to wire a VI that would simulate the light display on the Knight Rider car (I like to think of it as a Cylon eye instead).

We were able to control which lights came on and when. Frank and I thought of different ways to do it using arrays and other unnecessary, complicated ideas, but we ended up using a sequence to cycle through the necessary DCU patterns. The first part of the sequence turns on each light individually and consecutively and the second part of the sequence does the same thing in reverse order. The lights on the front panel show the same pattern.

I am awaiting Frank's e-mail containing the VI, but I may not receive this in time. I have a screenshot of Edgar's VI, but it is called "KnightRiderFail" so I don't think this wiring worked.


We also discussed motors but I was confused... I'll just leave that part to Frank.

HW#19

Identify the DTMF tones of a cell phone dial buttons. I wasn't going to do this homework assignment, but Mundo had done it using a MATLAB script, so I did mine using MATLAB. There seems to be a problem with the variables going into the script. I can't figure it out but here are pictures of the wiring and the MATLAB script. There seems to be a problem with the MATLAB script outputting to a string variable.

This was a pretty fun assignment because we got to use a microphone and detect the different tones a cellphone uses.

Lecture 20

A VI to check the temperature of a chicken incubator. This also contains a subVI that will convert the temperature to degrees Fahrenheit upon command. The VI uses temperature probes to constantly check the temperature of the incubator and then sends a message to the front panel depending on if it's to hot or too cold.

Microphone testing:
I was not able to get the VI from Edgar, but I can describe what we did. We used different LabQuest Express VIs to filter out the sounds from the microphone. We tested it with our voices.

Edit: Thinking back, I am surprised we never used this feature again.

HW#18

Temperature VI that receives data from 2 temperature probes. The temperatures and an average is graphed. A beep plays for every data point. The higher the temperature the higher the frequency. Another addition is the passive-aggressive message box.

Debugging snaps:

Lecture 19

Ivan lent me his sister's laptop, but it's too small and slow so I'm still sharing with Edgar in class.

Practice: Case structures

You can type directly in MATLAB code using a MATLAB script
->Functions Palette->Mathematics->Scripts and Formulas->Script Nodes->MATLAB Script
Practice: MATLAB script

Boolean functions

Application: Volume in a Cylindrical Tank
[insert screenshots]

HW#17

Question 1 and 2: Using a case structure to change the graph to cosine, sine, tangent, and cosecant.

Question 3: Calculating frictional factor using Reynolds number.

Lecture 18

Data types in LabVIEW

Practice: Voltage Divider
Creating a Voltage VI with graphics on the front panel.

Practice: Controlling User Input
Solving for volume using the ideal gas law. Editing maximum values to prevent the user from going past a certain point. Select "coerce" next to the maximum value in the properties window to stop the knob from going past the maximum value.

Practice: Creating a SubVI
Bundles, arrays, and graphs

Practice: Exponential Growth

HW#16

First LabVIEW homework. All VIs are done in while loops.

Question 1 & 2: Binary

Question 3: Root and square root

Question 4: Quadratic formula

Lecture 17

Today we moved on to LabVIEW. My laptop is dead, so I could not bring it to work on. I will be observing classmates' experiences with LabVIEW.LabVIEW is a lot more visual and user-friendly than MATLAB. I like the visual aspect of it but it doesn't seem like we will be doing much coding (which is what I am primarily interested in). Because I cannot take screenshots, I will be typing solutions and explanations to the practice exercises here. Start a new VI (visual instrument).

Edit: I'm sharing a laptop with Edgar so I can have screenshots now.

Practice exercise: familiarizing with the functions palette
Add -> functions palette -> Numeric group
Wait -> functions palette -> Timing group
Dial numeric control -> Numeric group
Toggle switch -> Boolean group

Creating a VI: build a simple VI that has a toggle switch with an LED indicator that illuminates when the switch is "on".
First drag a light LED and a toggle switch to the front panel. Connect the two with a wire and run continuously. There are alignment options at the top of the front panel. AND/OR can be used for these "wires". Input goes into the back and output goes out the front.

Creating a Division VI; Using while loops:

Project 2 Discussion

Today we turned in Project 2 and had a discussion about criticisms of and improvements for the assignment. Our group estimated that the time it took was 20 - 24 hours. We learned that you should start on a project as soon as you receive it. Also talk to your colleagues for feedback and new perspectives. Below is a picture of the whiteboard we worked on. It lists the steps of this project, what could be improved, and what we learned.

Project 2 Code and Raw Data

http://www.megafileupload.com/i0r3/proj2.zip