Lessons & Projects

Projects, Slides, & Videos

• Introduction to Embedded Systems
• Hands-on experience with:
  • PIC microcontroller
  • ARM microcontroller
  • x86 CPU
• Hands-on Basic electronic circuits.
  • Use components first then control via microcontroller
  • Introduction to integrated circuits
• We will use Home Automation as the model for combining all we learn into a nice package.

• Basic Electricity & Electronics (details)
  • Simple switches & light bulbs
  • Resistors, capacitors, LED's, & relays
  • Bread boarding our circuits
  • Ohms law: how to compute voltages, resistance, and current in our circuits
  • How to build a AND circuit
  • How to build a OR circuit
  • Using transistors as switches & more!

• Controlling our circuits with a microcontroller.
  • Parallax student guides to get:
    • What's a Microcontroller
    • Robotics with the Boe-Bot
    • PBasic programming guide (excellent)
  • Welcome to the Basic Stamp 2  closeup image.
  • The Board of Education (BOE) & BS2
  • BS-2 Activity 1:Working with LED's, resistors, & Ohm's Law
• Introduction to PBasic
  • 1-PC to Boe-Bot Comm check (P. 35)
  • 2-Your first program (P. 36 Activity 4)
  • 3-Program blinking LED's (P. 62) Get code here.
• 4-BS-2 Activity 2  Make it turn on a transistor. video  image
• 5-BS-2 Activity 3  Make it turn on a relay
• 6-Control a AND gate (7408 chip)
  
• More PBasic programming:
  • Variables, If statements, Loops, and Sub-routines

• Robotics With The Boe-Bot (Chapter 3)
  
  • Basic Navigation (Chapters 2 & 4)
    • Intro to servo control slides
    • Basic Moving & Turning code (PBasic)
  • Ramping up & down
  • Navigation Programming With Subroutines
  • PBasic Sub Routines
  • Servos & Subs
  • Three Position PING Servo test
  • PING Servo Sweeping
  • Roaming with PING (challenge 3)
  
  
• Challenges

  • Challenge 1

  • Challenge 2

  • Challenge 3

• Welcome to Home Automation
• Introducing Phidgets
•  PhidgetInterfaceKit 0/0/4 info & manual
  • Phidget21.Net dll for VB/C# apps. Copy to your Windows machine.
• HA Activity: Our first WINDOWS VB app using Phidgets. Get the project here.

• Arduino UNO
• NetDuino Plus
  • 1- HelloWorld demo
  • 2- Blink an LED
  • 3- Blink LED with onboard switch
  • 4- Monitor data remotely on the web. My voltage test demo.
    • C# app for voltage test(helloPachube) and required dll here.