Lennon Pultz, Kyle Stacy & Gabe Palkert

Micro Strain Gauge Real Time Measurement

Video Demonstration

Micro Strain Gauge Real Time Measurement

THE PRODUCT

• Initial product goal:• Produce a real time strain gauge

measurement using more advanced technology than currently exists.

• Our target audience:• Students and faculty of the Mechanical

Engineering & Mechanical Engineering Technology Department

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

• How was the project managed:• Working in parallel utilizing Agile SCRUM

methodology• Tasks broken down into subtasks utilizing

iterative development• Collaboration:

• Communicated via text and cell phone• Weekly group meetings in lab to discuss

progress and issues• Breakfast club

METHODOLOGIES

• Jira for task management

• SVN for version control

• Confluence for wiki and project progress

DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE

• First, developed requirements and a wish list

• Laid out and manufactured the PCB board for the analog to digital conversion

• Create Hardware Prototype of case and design

• Started working on displaying objects on the LCD board –Altera IP here helped

• Started creating file I/O from ADS1231 to text file.

EXTERNAL CASE

• Power Plug

• Key Holes for wall mounting

• Large holes for wires from the strain gauges

CASE PROTOTYPE

• Designed in Solidworks

• Worked with MET Rapid Prototype Lab to have the 3D model printed

• Model Design: 4-6hrs

• Print Time: 4hrs

• Made of plastic

PCB DESIGN & PRODUCTION

• Schematic done in EAGLE• Utilize EAGLE net-list to layout board• Used mill purchased by department to produce

double sided board and drill holes• Used on campus resources to place and solder

parts.

HIGH LEVEL DESIGN SPECIFICATION

• Strain gauge connected to an in-house fabricated printed circuit board (PCB)

• Connect through GPIO pins to DE2 development board

• Touch Screen GUI is connected through GPIO pins to the DE2

• Bridge was created to go between DE2 & MAVRK through serial i/o (RS-232)

HARDWARE DESIGNVIDEO PROCESSOR

• Utilizes NIOS II/f processor • Needed for fast refresh rates• Interfaces to the LCD Controller• Runs the GUI• Screen resolution: 400 x 240• Color Depth: 16 bits per pixel

IP DESIGN AND REUSE

• Reused a significant amount of code in our system

• LCD drivers• Altera University Program IP• Basic GUI from MP3 Player last year

• Created these components: • VHDL for ADS1231• Test bench for testing ADS1231 component• File I/O average strain measurement

GUI DESIGN

• Image Display• All images are stored in the software code.• All characters are stored as images.

• Touch screen response• Reads a flag controlled by the video processor.• Compares the x and y coordinates to a range represented by

a button.

• Main Menu • Obtain Data• Pause Data Sample• Clear Data

CODE REVIEWS

• Code coverage is a measure used in software testing. It describes the degree to which the source code of a program has been tested..

• Functional verification, in electronic design automation, is the task of verifying that the logic design conforms to specification.

• These generally help to improve coding as you may be doing something wrong that you don’t know

ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT

• Time management• Communication between platforms• GUI Development• Acquiring hardware from Texas Instruments and digikey

CONCLUSIONS

• Accomplished most of our intended goals• Project was interesting and fun but also

challenging• Lessons learned, recommendations• Future plans