|
10:00 |
Starbucks Coffee, Tea, Bagels, and Pastries |
|
10:15 |
LEGO MindStorms and pbForth - CH Ting
"I
bought a MindStorms set as a Christmas present for myself. I wanted to evaluate
pbForth and see how it works. I constructed a Rovobot and got it to follow a
black line. I will talk about pbForth and give some demos."
Ting bought a
Legos Mindstorm for
$200.
The computer was unable to communicate with the robot due to the
overhead fluorescent lights.
Version 2.0 of the software uses a USB interface to an IR
transceiver, older version used RS-232 interface
- Robot:
- 32 Kb of firmware that includes 4 demo programs
- processor is a Hitachi H8/300, an 8/16 bit processor
- runs on 8 AA batteries
- 3 motor drive ports and a 2-way IR port
- 3 sensors - 2 touch sensors and a light sensor for line
detection
- Questions:
- can the robot be cloned with an ARM chip?
- can A/D, D/A, I/O bits be added?
- Options:
- PB Forth, a
public domain ANS standard is available
- 12 K, but some tools missing
- BricX CC firmware (Control Center) -
Bricx Command Center 3.3
- Windows program that communciates with the Mindstorm
- supports PB Forth and C programs
- Ting's experiences:
- he can download PB Forth
- can't download multiple lines of source code
- can download source code one line at a time
O' Reilly - Unofficial Guide to Lego
Mindstorms Robots and
Online
Resources
- VEX is a modular
robot sold by Radio Shack
- Starter
Kit $300
- a $20 ultrasonic distance ranging module is available
BAYLUG is the Bay Area Lego
User's Group
- Wegmuller
- Lego models
and ideas
- Lego train on gauge
one track
Lego's drag-and-drop visual programming is reminescent of
Kim Harris' D-charts in Forth
|
|
11:30 |
More New Products - Dave Jaffe
Dave will
survey some newly introduced microcontrollers, I/O peripherals, and gadgets
that are interesting and can provide useful and unique capabilities to Forth
embedded systems.
Presentation in PDF with web
links |
|
12:00 |
Lunch - go to TOGO's or bring your own meal and stay at
Cogswell |
|
13:00 |
Introductions, Announcements, Rumors, Gossip, and Random
Discussions
- From Bob Nash:
- Lantronix
XPORT
- embedded device server (ethernet)
- Digital filter DSP devices:
- Saelig
Signal Wizard II for audio frequencies
- $400 board - 4-channels
- Quickfilter
QF4A512
4-channel programmable signal converter - 32 pin part
- $200 for 2-channel development kit, $20 for chip
- programmable gain
- 188 Khz bandwidth
- anti-alias filter
- 12 / 16 bit A/D convertor
- SPI port
- available from Mouser
|
|
13:15 |
LabVIEW and the South African Large Telescope (SALT) -
Dirk De Mol (National Instruments)
LabVIEW is a dataflow language used in the control and instrumentation world. A
short overview will be given of its structure, constructs, functions, and
grammar. SALT, a 10 meter-class telescope
will be discussed as a case study.
- Labview can write Excel files and do FFTs
- user designs front panel and Windows
- $100 for student version
- $2000 for full version
- can produce .exe file that does not need a runtime
environment
- runs on Mac and Linux as well
- Labview Embedded - product for chips
- SALT - South African Large Telescope - 11 meter
- uses Labview for telescope control
- scheduling program is written in
MPE Forth
Slideshow in PDF - 8.88 Mb
|
|
14:30 |
"Watergate" and Forensic Engineering - Jay
McKnight
FIG member Jay McKnight was one of the "tape experts" on Judge
John J. Sirica's panel that advised him in 1973 about the "missing 18 minutes"
in Nixon's tapes. Jay will show and discuss slides from the report, and/or
answer your questions. The full report describing the techniques that they
developed is online at the AESHC
website under the heading "Forensic Audio Engineering".
AP photograph from SF
Chronicle - January 19, 1974 |