Status (5/11/2001)

(5/11/2001)

Much of this week was spend on the final design review package. One warning, this package is big. When we put everything together, we have a document that was over 50 pages. Some of this may end up being cut after we know a little bit more about what it is expected to be. For instance, the testing and design issues may not be necessary. 

Also this week, we managed to do most of the designing for the XSV circuitry. The monitor displays as outlined in the design package minus a number of characters. The VGA system is therefore nearly complete. The system still lacks the dual-ported RAM and some of the controls, but these shouldn't take too long to finish. The bulk of the work left is the same stuff we had on the update from last week. We need to integrate the micro controllers and sonars as well as build the accelerometer system and the autonomous controller. We also need to integrate the Virtual Wireless boards now that we have them and physically build the platform.

One other thing of note is our latest decision regarding the video. There are just too many other things to do on the project other than build the video system. The challenges in building this system have been well demonstrated not only in our own efforts, but in those of our fellow classmates. Therefore, we have decided to use the camera as it was originally designed. We have brought in a TV and plan to use it to display the image from the tank. The telemetry data will still be displayed on a VGA monitor with the space that the video would have occupied still available for that purpose. If by some miracle we finish everything else, we can always go back to it, thus our original design is still included in the design package.  

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