The Product
Targets customers who want to monitor energy statistics with an easy-to-use graphical interface
Our widget will help you to be more aware of your energy usage, saving you time and money
Project Management
We used a combination of traditional and agile project management.
It would be very hard to manage a project that has never been done before using a strictly traditional approach (hard to estimate task durations)
Resource ScopingFPGADifferent versions of Nios IISoftwareIP BlocksInternal Power SupplyOutsourcing ConsultantsOther items considered for design
Code RepositoryUsed TortoiseSVN for Project Version ControlDirectory Structure:
C CodeC ScriptsC TestRTL CodeRTL ScriptsRTL TestDocumentation
This Directory Structure Supports Reusability
Code ReviewsWe did not implement formal code reviews
We collaborated between team members for writing and testing code
Benefits of RTL and C Coding GuidelinesMakes Code More Readable
Makes Code More Reusable
Makes Code More Portable
Increases Productivity of Code Reviews
Allows Auto-Documentation (Doxygen)
IP Design and Reuse
IP Component Reuse saves time in a project
Component Reusability should be paramount in a design
Reusability brings the product to market faster
Hardware to Software InterfaceA register map is a listing of all the memory
registers used in the project, and their address
The register map is used by everyone from design to layout to verification engineers
This makes it important to create the map early in the project
The register map can be created manually, or there is software available to automate the process
Cost Estimate (Break-Even Cost)
Part Price
Fpga 30
Lcd + touch 100
Pcb 30
Case 25
MCP3909 7.50
Power supply 10
Software 1,000,000
Outsourcing consultants Free
Engineering time spent Priceless
IP blocks used 100
Misc. components 200
Total ~ $500
Lessons Learned
Don’t wait until the last minute to add documentation
Read the datasheets for little “Easter eggs” which could delay
progress
Divide tasks more evenly between team members
RoadblocksWe struggled to re-create last quarter’s
touch screen interface
We struggled to learn how to use all the project tracking tools effectively
We struggled with the opto-isolator interface between the MCP3909 and the FPGA
The SPI interface was odd to work with
ConclusionsWe successfully interfaced with the MCP3909
Evaluation BoardWe successfully displayed the measured data on the
16x2 character LCDThis was a fun project with numerous practical
applicationsWith more time, we would implement a wireless data
transfer, uploading the data to the Internet, or bothAlso with more time we were going to try to
implement Ethernet to connect the device to the internet and communicate to websites like: “Google Powermeter,” and “Microsoft hohm;” to relay instant power usage for our area.
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