ECE 4760: Laboratory 4

Design project.

Introduction.

For this exercise, we want you to pick a project, then design and build it. During this period there will be no other assignments, so we expect you to spend all of your time for this course on the project. As a rough estimate, this means a minimum of 12 hours/week in lab. You will be expected to be in lab at the usual times every week and to show significant progress each week of the project. When choosing a project you will need to consider availability of hardware, time available, a monetary budget, and your programming skill. You may want to look at several of the links on the 4760 home page for project ideas.

Grading:

Web pages and social media

Procedure:

Special project restrictions:

Budget considerations:

Your budget will include MCU(s), boards you build, power supplies, parts you order, and everything else you buy. Details below.
Only parts actually in the final prototype count towart the budget.
Hardware you already own is included in the budget.
Budget exceptions:

The instructor will order parts from the following vendors once/week, on Monday at 0800.

Budget Details:

Student observations:

A group in 2002 added the following thoughts.

Here are the top 10 things you can do to survive EE 476 Final Project Month:

1. If you use a chip other than the one you've been using in class all semester, read the documentation thoroughly, subtle differences are going to kill you. It's just a matter of for how long they kill you.
2. If you feel heat from your board, or smell burning: THERE IS A SHORT. Don't look for the short first. TURN OFF THE POWER!
3. If the voltages look right, and the wiring looks right, but nothing's happening, it is possible that your chip is fried, don't be afraid to ask for another chip. This would've saved me a week of pain, and a bad hit to morale.
4. If you're stuck on something, ask Bruce or the TA's. Make a reasonable attempt to solve it yourself, but don't sit there for three hours just because you cannot remember which port of the opamp is correct. Remember, we all look like we're working, so Bruce's spider sense won't kick in. You must call him, he can't call you.
5. Order parts early. Order duplicates if you can afford it.
6. If you're going to solder onto a perf board, you don't have to rip apart your breadboard. Just make another copy of the circuit.
7. You will not finish if you don't start early.
8. You probably won't finish if you don't take advantage of extended lab hours.
9. Do what you can do out of lab out of lab.
10. Seriously, pick a project you'll enjoy. These four weeks can be pain, or the most fulfilling of your Cornell Career.

A group in 2003 added this:

Know your limits. As much as we'd all love to have a final project whose bells and whistles rival Las Vegas slot machines, realize that a month is a very short time, and that dealing with the disappointment of having to scale back your project as you progress along is much better than coming to the same realization on the day of your demonstration.

Assignment

You will be graded on several aspects of the project:

  1. Appropriate level of hardware/software complexity.
  2. Appropriate use of microcontroller. Does the project make embedded system sense.
    At least 50% of work must be done on PIC32MX series chips.
  3. A project which works according to specification (which you will write).
  4. Level of effort and organization shown in lab.
  5. Ability to say within budget.
  6. A demonstration of the final project to Bruce during the last regular scheduled lab period of the semester.
  7. Completeness and understandability of the final report.
    1. The final report is a web page which must be handed in on the day and time specified for a final project in this course by the University.
      The report must be emailed as described (see bottom of page).
    2. The final report web page will consist of one folder with exactly one html file with the file name index.html.
      In the folder there may be c-source files, images, mpegs, or other supporting documents linked to the one html file.
    3. In the final report, Appendix A
      One of two sentences!
      Either: "The group approves this report for inclusion on the course website."
      Or: "The group does not approve this report for inclusion on the course website."
      and
      One of two sentences!
      Either: "The group approves the video for inclusion on the course youtube channel."
      Or: "The group does not approve the video for inclusion on the course youtube channel."

      Documentation must includ      e all the major sections.
      You may omit specific subsections not relevant to your project.
      All appendices must be included.
      Final report outline:
      • Near the top of the first page:
        • project title
        • student names (and optionally netids) You would be surprised at how often this is omitted.
      • Introduction
        • One sentence "sound bite" that describes your project.
        • A summary of what you did and why.
      • High level design:
        • rationale and sources of your project idea
        • background math
        • logical structure
        • hardware/software tradeoffs
        • Relationship of your design to available IEEE, ISO, ANSI, DIN, and other standards.
        • Discuss existing patents, copyrights, and trademarks which are relevant to your project.
      • Program/hardware design:
        • program details. Could someone else build this based on what you have written?
        • hardware details. Could someone else build this based on what you have written?
        • Be sure to specifically reference any design or code you used from someone else.
        • Things you tried which did not work can be useful for the next people to use your techniques.
      • Results of the design:
        This is the section which is most often lacking in student projects. Be specific!
        If you took calibration data, then show it!
        If you have images or video, include it.
        Show:
        • speed of execution (hesitation, filcker, interactiveness, concurrency)
          Be quantitative. Show graphs!
        • accuracy (numeric, music frequencies, video signal timing, etc)
          Be quantitative. Show graphs!
        • how you enforced safety in the design.
        • interference with other people's designs (e.g. cpu noise, RF interference).
        • usability by you and other people (perhaps with special needs).
      • Conclusions:
        • Analyse your design in terms of how the results met your expectations.
          What might you do differently next time?
        • How did your design conform to the applicable standards?
        • Intellectual property considerations.
          • Did you reuse code or someone else's design?
          • Did you use code in the public domain?
          • Are you reverse-engineering a design? How did you deal with patent/trademark issues.
          • Did you have to sign non-disclosure to get a sample part?
          • Are there patent opportunites for your project?
          • Are there publishing opportunities for your project?
        • Ethical considerations. Refering to the IEEE Code of Ethics, specifically explain how decisions you made or actions you took in this project were consistent with this Code of Ethics.
        • Safety considerations. Were there parts of the design that could hurt anyone.
          Specific examples might be isolation for bio-recordings, or laser-light shielding.
        • Legal considerations. For example:
          • If you use a transmitter, you must discuss the appropriate FCC Part 15 rules.
          • If you are connecting wires to yourself, you must discuss the appropriate FDA sections.
          • If you are attaching to a automobile, you must discuss the appropriate state and Federal Motor Vehicle Standards.
      • Appendix A
        One of two sentences!
        Either: "The group approves this report for inclusion on the course website."
        Or: "The group does not approve this report for inclusion on the course website."
        One of two sentences!
        Either: "The group approves the video for inclusion on the course youtube channel."
        Or: "The group does not approve the video for inclusion on the course youtube channel."
      • Appendix with commented program listing
      • Appendix with schematics (you can download free software from expresspcb.com to draw schematics)
        A block diagram is not a schematic.
      • Appendix with cost details with all part numbers, vendors, and their price. This cost will include components as described in the Budget Considerations section.
      • Appendix with a list of the specific tasks in the project carried out by each team member.
      • References you used:
        • Data sheets
        • Vendor sites
        • Code/designs borrowed from others
        • Background sites/paper

The web page final report must be submitted as desribed here.
Failure to follow this submission procedure may result in a lower grade.
Unless you optionally opt-in for inclusion on the class web page, your report will not appear on the projects page.
If you will ever be asking me for a recommendation, I suggest that you opt-in your project.
The project web pages help me remember the details of a project.

To submit your report:

  1. Put all of your web page files in one directory.
  2. Name this directory with the concantented netids of all the group members, e.g., brl4_bfg88
    Since the pages will be on a UNIX server, you must:
  3. ZIP the directory.
  4. Send it to yourself, unzip on a different computer, and test the site.
  5. email it to BRL4@cornell.edu.
    OR if it is too big use dropbox.cornell.edu

Copyright Cornell University November 1, 2019