RS232 Serial Port Research Articles

Development of a hierarchical computer numerical control milling machine control unit using low-end PIC microcontrollers

The acquisition of automated manufacturing equipment in developing nations can be expensive. Hence, this article presents the development of a computer numerical control milling machine’s control unit using low-end PIC microcontrollers. The design employs a hierarchy of five low-end PIC microcontrollers connected to a PC. A single master PIC acts as a link between a PC and four slave microcontrollers via a RS232 serial port. One slave PIC is interfaced with the electronics of the spindle drive. The three remaining slave PICs are interfaced with the electronics of the x-, y- and z-axis drives. The low-cost milling machine’s control unit has been constructed and tested. A circle–diamond–square test confirms the functionality of the machine and demonstrates that it does not accumulate error along a milled profile path.

Low-Cost and Optimized Two Layers Embedded Board Based on ATmega32L Microcontroller and Spartan-3 FPGA

Microcontrollers and FPGAs both are widely used in digital system design. Microcontroller-based instruments are becoming increasingly widespread. This paper presents design and implementation of a new low- cost and minimum embedded board based on ATMEGA32L AVR microcontroller and Spartan-3 (XCS400-4PQG208C) FPGA in two layers with mount elements on top and button of board. Using of AVR microcontroller in proposed board it adds many features include Analog to Digital Converter (ADC), Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), 32 Kbytes flash memory, 2 Kbytes SRAM, 1024 bytes EEPROM memory. The design goal was to implement as many as possible low- cost and minimum size of the board, also to receive and process input signals in a short time period as real time. The board features are; mount elements in two side of the board for minimization of proposed board and also place decoupling capacitors (by pass) for the FPGA in bottom layer of board strictly below this IC because they should be placed as close as possible to the power supply pins FPGA, use GND polygon layer in total top layer and microcomputer ground for FPGA in bottom layer, use two RS-232 serial port, one VGA connector, PS/2 serial port, and SPI serial port on FPGA, use MT48LC16M16A SDRAM-256MB(4*4MB*16), and XCF02S configuration PROM. Size of the proposed embedded board is 10cm*15cm thus this board was optimized of aspect cost, performance, power, weight, and size.

Accuracy test and analysis for infrared search and track system

Infrared search and track (IRST) attracts many attentions nowadays. It is important to evaluate the performance of the detection and tracking performance for the development of IRST. This paper presents a tracking accuracy indoor test method for IRST. The proposal approach compares the simulated target trajectories with the tracks given by the IRST and calculates the dynamic tracking accuracy of the tested system. An infrared point target track simulator was built to simulate the actual target and missile trajectories. The movement of the simulator was driven by a high-precision stepper motor. A blackbody was used to simulate the infrared radiation of targets. The simulator was controlled by computer via RS-232 serial port. The simulator moving speed, direction and the operation angle value was managed in a software interface written in Visual Basic. The moving point target's coordinates, azimuth and elevation angle trajectories were reconstructed through the algorithm of coordinate translation. A comparison between the simulated target track and IRST recorded trajectory was performed to get the tracking accuracy of tested system. The paper describes the tracking accuracy test system design and implementation in detail. The experimental test and result analysis are provided to verify the effectiveness.

A Redundant FPGA Based Controller for Subsea Blowout Preventer Stack

A redundant Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based controller for subsea Blowout Preventer (BOP) is presented. Triple modular redundancy technique is used for architecture design, since high reliability is a necessary requirement for subsea BOP control system. A multiprocessor system is developed to enhance reliability of the processors and performance of the system. In addition, the shared memory method is applied to interchange information between the processors. One processor is responsible for communication, while the others run application programs. The proposed system has been implemented using three FPGA development boards, which are connected to each other through RS-232 serial ports. Besides, the voting algorithms for discrete input, analog input and discrete output are proposed. Functional simulation of the output voting is performed by using the Quartus II Simulator software. The results demonstrate that the proposed controller is able to tolerate faults, which means it has extremely high reliability.

The Application of Mutual Control Monitoring and Communication Technology in Intelligent Building Safety Mitigation System –The Design of Computer Communication Interface and Control Platform

With the development of intelligent building, building intelligence system integration has become the focus of the field of intelligent building. The mutual control mode communication technology can provide strategies against emergency. On the other hand, in order to effectively support the real-time control system, and improve the system of operation, we connect the system with a computer platform by using RS232 serial communication port, and use VC program design platform and ActiveX technology which introduced by Microsoft to produce a operating control platform of the mutual control mode communication machine.

Wireless Sensor Network for Continuous Monitoring a Patient’s Physiological Conditions Using ZigBee

The research paper, presents a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) for monitoring a patient’s physiological conditions continuously using Zigbee. In the experiment 3 groups of persons were made to undergo the test. Person A was in the age group of 1-10 years. Person B was in the age group of 11-30 years and person C was in the age group of 31-80 years. Physiological conditions of these 3 groups of persons were monitored using physiological sensor. The output of physiological sensor has to be transmitted via Zigbee and the same has to be sent to the remote wireless monitor for acquiring the observed patient’s physiological signal. The remote wireless monitor is constructed of Zigbee and Personal Computer (PC). The measured signal has to be sent to the PC, which can be data collection. When the measured signals over the standard value, the personal computer sends Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) short message to the care taker.Although Bluetooth is better than Zigbee for transmission rate, Zigbee has lower power consumption. Hence, Zigbee is generally used for 24 hours monitor of communication transmission system. The first procedure of the system is that Physiological sensor is used to measure Heart rate, respiration rate, pulse rate, temperature, oxygen level in the blood and blood pressure from human body using Zigbee. Next procedure of the system is to measure saline level in bottle using zigbee.The measured signal is to be sent to the PC via the RS-232 serial port communication interface. The signal is to be sent to remote PC or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) from the internet. In particular, when measured signals over the standard value, the personal computer will send GSM short message to absent care taker’s mobile phone. The results obtained using WSN in terms of accuracy and credibility of measurement is poor. But, the result obtained from WSN using zigbee confirms that it effectively works for continues monitoring a patient’s physiological conditions. The conclusion and implications of this study reveals that a successful research project was developed and the abnormal conditions of the patients were identified. So the effectiveness of this WSN using zigbee is more compared with the effectiveness of WSN.

A Real time ZigBee Based Locating System

Embedded Systems based on ARM processors are used extensively in mobile devices like PDA’s and MP3 players.ARM is 32bit Reduced Instruction Set Computer(RISC).Windows CE is real time, multi-task operating system that works on a 32-bit processor. This paper suggests Windows CE embedded operating system, and how to build a platform for Windows CE operating system embedded in a LS5310 ARM11 microprocessor S3C6410 and also the design of Windows CE embedded applications based on Embedded VC++ 4.0. Here we are employing RS232 serial port of ARM 11 processor and ZigBee wireless data communications module to design an application for a ZigBee location system with an easy-to-use interface. It performs multiple functions like information and data receiving, saving, processing and display. It has advantages of high performance, low cost, and low power consumption and is an important component of the network locating system.

Design of Uniform Temperature Increases Control System of an Apparatus for Measuring Shrinkage Temperature of Leather

In order to make temperature increases rate of the heating module of leather shrinkage temperature apparatus meets leather shrinkage temperature measurement standards in national light industry, we used a temperature sensor to collect the current temperature value of the heating medium. A single-chip microcomputer (SCM) controls the turn-on and turn-off time of triac to ensure a uniform and constant medium temperature increase at (2±0.2)°C/min through negative feedback control. We were also able to transmit the temperature-time data to a host computer in real time via RS232 serial port for further study. Experiments show that this heating module gives a good control effect to the whole system and meets the measurement standards. It is particularly important to improve the accuracy of measuring shrinkage temperature of leather.

An Invitro Study on The Temperature Changes of Dentin, Irradiated by CO 2 and Er: Cr;YSGG Laser

Introuduction: The aim of this in-vitro study was the evaluation of temperature changes due to irradiation of two different lasers used for the reduction of dentinal hypersensitivity and their effect on the pulp damage. The study was done for two dentin thicknesses. Material & Methods: Twenty intact extracted third molars were prepared by longitudinal ground sectioning for 1 and 2 mm dentin thicknesses while a thermocouple was positioned at the inner surface of the dentin disk. Thermal evaluation was assessed by a KJT digital thermometer. During the test, the data produced by the thermometer was transferred and logged into a PC via RS232 serial port. CO 2 laser (Ultra pulse, 50W, 100μsec, Spot size: 0.5 mm) and Er,Cr;YSGG laser (Free-running pulse mode,0. 25W, 140μsec, 12.50 milli-joules) irradiations were randomly performed upon the dentin surfaces. The collected data was analyzed by two-way ANOVA test. Results: The mean temperature rise in 1mm dentinal thickness was 8.57°C which was significantly higher than 3.63°C in 2mm dentin thickness (P<0.001) and higher than the threshold temperature for pulp damage; however, no significant difference was noted between the two lasers (P=0.355). After removing the CO 2 laser, the temperature decreased to the initial level faster than the time needed for Er,Cr;YSGG laser (44.47°C versus 62.82°C)(P<0.001). In other words, in both lasers the temperature decrease in 2mm dentinal disc was faster than 1mm dentinal disc. Conclusion: The temperature rise due to both lasers for 1mm of dentinal thickness was in excess of safe limit for the tissue and it would probably result in pulpal damage. In the case of 2mm dentinal thickness, the temperature rise was not higher than the safe limit and it would not damage the pulp in clinical conditions.

Desenvolvimento de um titulador baseado na contagem de gotas

TitDrop II, a practice low-cost titrator based on drop counting is proposed. A microcomputer counts drops in an opto-switch and it receives pH values from a commercial pHmeter with RS-232 serial port. The volume of drops must kept constant and the amount of base in each drop is obtained by standardization in the titrator. A linear behavior between height of reservoir of titrant and drop frequency was observed, but there is no influence of low height on drop volume. Acetic acidity in samples of vinager was compared with volumetric titration, and deviation between -2.6 to 3.9% was observed.

Screening Robotics and Automation

Screening Robotics and Automation

Development of Embedded DAQ System for Flux Counting

A portable data acquisition (DAQ) system with embedded microcontroller was developed for radiation detection and environment monitoring purpose. The developed DAQ system consists of an ATMEGA128 of high performance, low-power 8-bit AVR microcontroller made by ATMEL and a AD7746 24-bit capacitance to digital converter. A software based Universal Serial Bus (USB) and a RS-232 serial port is used for the communication between the developed system with a main computer. The developed DAQ system has 8-channels analog to digital converter (ADC) with 10-bit resolution. The ADC has singled ended mode, differential mode using inside amplifier and it has maximum signals sampling rate 50-Kbit per second. It has discriminator capability with an analog comparator and signal counter capability with a 16-bit timer/counter. It can also measure precious capacitance, temperature and voltage with the functionality of the AD7746. The developed embedded DAQ system was tested with scintillation crystal irradiated with in radioactive sources. This embedded DAQ system is simple but portable and useful for radiation and environment monitoring.

E-Nose System for Anesthetic Dose Level Detection using Artificial Neural Network

In this study, an E-Nose system was realized for the anesthetic dose level prediction. For this purpose, sevoflurane anesthetic agent was measured using the E-Nose system implemented with sensor array of quartz crystal microbalances (QCM). In surgeries, anesthetic agents are given to the patients with carrier gases of oxygen (02) and nitrous oxide (N20). Frequency changes on QCM sensors to the eight sevoflurane anesthetic dose levels were recorded via RS-232 serial port. A multilayer feed forward artificial neural network (MLNN) structure was used to provide the relationship between the frequency change and the anesthetic dose level. The MLNNs were trained with the measured data using Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. Then, the trained MLNNs were tested with random data. The results have showed that, acceptable anesthetic dose level predictions have been obtained successfully.

In situ measurement of the energy gap of a semiconductor using a microcontroller-based system

This paper describes a microcontroller-based laboratory technique for automatic in situ measurement of the energy gap of germanium. The design is based on the original undergraduate laboratory experiment in which students manually measure the variation of the reverse saturation current of a germanium diode with temperature using a current-to-voltage converter. After collecting the results students later analyse them to determine the energy gap of the semiconductor. The objective of this work was to introduce interfacing and computerized measurement systems in the undergraduate laboratory. The microcontroller-based data acquisition system and its implementation in automatic in situ measurement of the band gap of germanium diode is presented. The system which uses an LM335 temperature sensor for measuring temperature transmits the measured data to the computer via the RS232 serial port while a C++ software program developed to run on the computer monitors the serial port for incoming information sent by the microcontroller. This information is displayed on the computer screen as it comes and automatically saved to a data file. Once all the data are received, the computer performs least-squares fit to the data to compute the energy gap which is displayed on the screen together with its error estimate. For the IN34A germanium diode used the value of the energy gap obtained was 0.50 ± 0.02 eV.

Caller Line Identity Delivery: A Computerized Call Alert Application

The subject of this study was to analyze the Frequency Shift Keying caller ID FSK transmission protocol used by Jordan Telecom. and implement a call alert computer application. An FSK decoder is presented and a decoding algorithm based on asynchronous data communication is discussed. Data is captured through the RS232 serial port and a 32-bit software is presented as a call alert application using a small mail transfer protocol through a TCP/IP Internet connection.

C02: Improved microcontroller and FPGA based signal generator

The goal of this paper is to introduce an evolved architecture of a microcontroller and FPGA based signal programmable generator. The equipment was developed as a high speed digital programmable signal generator. The system communicates with dedicated software located on a PC computer. The communication with the PC is ensured via the parallel Centronics printer port or the RS232 serial port.

A reliable and economically feasible remote sensing system for temperature and relative humidity measurement

Sensing and recording of relative humidity and temperature plays an important role in many industries. In the past analogue devices were used for measurement of relative humidity and temperature. A simple technique combining analogue and digital circuit theory together with programming techniques has been used in this paper to design a remote temperature and relative humidity sensing system. The sensors analogue signal is applied to a micro-controller based data logger for storage purposes. The data is then transferred to the computer through standard RS232 serial port using the user interface program. The program also allows the user to input some of the important parameters such as sampling interval as well as starting date and time for the logging operation. A back-up power supply is also included to enable the system to remain functional in the event of a power failure. The proposed system has added advantages compared with existing systems, namely, in its low cost and high memory capabilities and the ability to perform in both real-time as well as off-line.

Low-cost data acquisition card for school-network cosmic ray detectors

The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) at University of Nebraska/Lincoln and the Washington Area Large-scale Time coincidence Array (WALTA) at University of Washington/Seattle are among several outreach projects siting cosmic-ray detectors at local high schools in cities around North America, to study the origins and interactions of high-energy cosmic rays. In a collaboration between QuarkNet, the outreach program based at Fermilab, CROP, and WALTA, a low-cost data acquisition electronics card has been developed to collect and synchronize the data from each detector site. The cost for each card is under US$500 for parts, functionally replacing much more expensive electronics crates and modules at each high school site. The card has 4 analog discriminator inputs for photo-multiplier tube signals, a 4-channel Time-to-Digital converter for local coincidence and time-over-threshold measurements at 0.75 ns resolution, programmable trigger logic via a CPLD and microcontroller, and a built-in low-cost GPS receiver/antenna module (via external cable) to provide event trigger time stamps at better than 100 ns accuracy. Temperature sensors and a barometer are also integrated to record environmental data along with the counter data. The card connects to any PC or laptop via a standard RS-232 serial port for data output and control. The microcontroller and CPLD are field programmable and therefore make the card functionality flexible and easy to upgrade.

GPS time synchronization in school-network cosmic ray detectors

The QuarkNet DAQ card for school-network cosmic ray detectors provides a low-cost alternative to using standard particle and nuclear physics fast pulse electronics modules. The board, which can be produced at a cost of less than $500.00 (USD), produces trigger time and pulse edge time data for 2- to 4-fold coincidence levels via a universal RS232 serial port interface, usable with any PC. Individual detector stations, each consisting of four scintillation counter modules, front-end electronics, and a GPS receiver, produce a stream of data in form of ASCII text strings in identifiable set of formats for different functions. The card includes a low-cost GPS receiver module, which permits time-stamping event triggers to about 50 nanosecond accuracy in UTC between widely separated sites. The technique used for obtaining precise GPS time employs the 1PPS signal, which is not normally available to users of the commercial GPS module. We had the stock model slightly custom-modified to access this signal. The method for deriving time values was adapted from methods developed for the K2K long-baseline neutrino experiment. Performance of the low-cost GPS module used is compared to that of a more expensive unit with known quality.

Efficiency improvements of photo-voltaic panels using a Sun-tracking system

This paper presents a Sun-tracking design, whereby the movement of a photo-voltaic module was controlled to follow the Sun's radiation using a programmable logic-controller (PLC) unit. All electronic circuits and the necessary software have been designed and developed to perform the technical tasks. A PLC unit was employed to control and monitor the mechanical movement of the PV module and to collect and store data related to the Sun's radiation. It is found that the daily output power of the PV was increased by more than 20% in comparison with that of a fixed module. The PV-tracking system can be employed as a stand-alone device and it could be connected to a personal computer through the RS232 serial port to monitor the whole process on a computer screen.