The UMass Amherst M5 Blog

Studio M5 Records the Zumbyes

2010-05-03T22:39:00.004-04:00

Studio M5 is undertaking its first major recording project. The project involves recording the Zumbyes, an Amherst College a capella group. They are in the process of recording their latest album and are looking to record 10 to 12 songs in the studio.

Recording sessions have already started with two songs having been completed thus far. The project will continue on as classes finish up and will extend into the better part of May. Samples of the album will be released soon, so stayed tuned!

For more information regarding the project, contact James Rutter (jamesdavidrutter@gmail.com).

The Zumbyes warming up in the Great Room, M5.

Ben Johnson - USB Audio Interface Device

2010-05-03T12:57:00.002-04:00

Come check out Ben's Senior Honor's Thesis Project tomorrow, Tuesday, May 4th at 4pm in M5.

Project Description:
USB Audio Interface Device, a device used for recording high-quality analog audio to a laptop for digital mixing and mastering. The device is meant to serve as a low-cost alternative to using professional recording services or purchasing expensive recording interfaces that can cost thousands of dollars. Other audio interfaces have built-in mixers, digital effects, sound filters, and other functionality that most musicians already have built-in to their practice/gig gear. The device will allow part-time musicians and hobbyists to record high-quality digital audio at home using practice/live gig equipment by bridging existing gear to a computer, removing the need to purchase what is virtually the same set of gear twice. By stripping away functionality that can be found in other stages of the recording process (for example, digital effects and mixing capabilities in a live mixing board), the USB Audio Interface is a much cheaper device that seeks to provide the same quality of sound as professional recording studios.

Short Bio:
Ben Johnson, 22 from Scituate MA. He is a senior Computer Systems Engineering major in the ECE department. The USB Audio Interface Project is an attempt to improve his previous attempts at home recording music with several bands he played in throughout high school.

ECE-UMass Theater Collaboration (Update)

2010-04-20T15:02:00.002-04:00

For those of you who have not been following us, this project required us to design a control for a 5 HP stepper motor for the UMass Theater Department, as well as make a mechanism to control the hands of an analog clock. These things are being used in UMass' production of "Little Shop of Horrors" which runs until Saturday, April 24.

So far we have finished both the stepper motor and clock controls. The clock is controlled by an Arduino sending serial RS-485 commands (via a MAX485 chip) to a stepper motor controller which moves the hands. The stepper motor is controlled by a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) using digital inputs/outputs. It takes inputs from the control box that we built and sends commands to the DURApulse motor controller. Now that our primary goals have been achieved, the only minor goals left to accomplish are writing documentation and instructions for use, along with transferring the DURApulse and PLC from the older wooden box to the new and more organized metal box.

Love,
UMass Theater Collaboration
\\(~.~)//

Nolan Bushnell at M5!!!

2010-04-15T17:33:00.001-04:00

Emma5: Coming together! - Quick Demo Video!!!

2010-04-14T18:10:00.004-04:00

Hey guys,

so Emma5 is coming together.

The 485 network works.

Text-to-speech works.

Our motor control works.

Our wireless connection between Emma's brain and Houston is fully functional.

Now we need to get our Power team to tie up their final knots and debug a couple of sensor/webcam issues, and then Emma will be golden!

Drive Circuit on Breadboard - Complete

Next week's blog post will have a more elaborate explanation of everything because after class was done today, Houston was controlling the speed of the DC motor, which was connected to the RS-485 network, which was connected to Emma's brain.... So think about that for a week, and get ready to get your mind blown in 7 days!!!!!

Emma5: Pictures!!!!!!

2010-04-07T16:17:00.011-04:00

Hey everyone,
so since all the groups are still finalizing their subprojects, little big accomplishments have been made. So in the sake of keeping everyone posted on what's going on, this entry will contain pictures and pictures and pictures!
A couple of updates are that the RS485 network is ready to go and that Houston and Emma's Brain have functional communication! The only road blocks to completion are the debugging of each subgroups.
Another announcement is the Circuits & Code (C&C) fair on April 24th 2010 from 11AM - 3PM. C&C will have students from SDP, DP123, as well as students doing Honors research present their projects. Hopefully Emma will be there and students will present where the project stands at that point in time!

With that said, here are the pictures

Emma5 - Halfway there

2010-03-31T16:13:00.005-04:00

As we start approaching our project's halfway point, our groups are still working hard on tying loose ends on their given tasks. This mostly includes debugging of code/hardware, and just as we have been since day 1, we approach the creation of Emma.
The biggest issue the group is dealing with now (it involves all subgroups) is the creation of the RS-485 network. Although all the code is correctly written and all the prototype circuits for the Max485 chips, there is still a small issue retrieving the information to Houston. Although all equipment shows the right data, the computer is being stubborn and wanting to comply with all of our wishes. Soon the group will convince the computer to be comprehensive, so we have no worries there. By next we should have this problem fixed.
Once the network foundation is set up, all subgroups will be able to communicate to each other, however, each subgroup should have a functioning system.

Right now, our friends over at the drive group finally have the proper transistors and breakout boards to create their H-bridge circuit. The first picture of this post shows how studious Edmar is on the subject (you can't tell, but it is most definitely a posed picture).
The group dealing with the power supply for this robot is testing to know how to find out how much battery life is left in each battery. This aspect of their group is crucial so that Emma5 knows how much time she has left to run to a plug in a wall and charge herself up (although she won't literally do that).

Our video streaming and text-to-speech people are inches away from the finish line, where only software issues are getting in their way. Meanwhile, Ryan works on the "movement rationale" of Emma, where an accelerometer and a couple of ultrasonic sensors will inform the system of what tilt she's at, how close are objects in a certain cone view. This picture shows a prototype system embedded on a cool little two-sided RC cars (you remember them right?).In the next couple of weeks we should be seeing the groups merging and talking over the network, and finally some video footage of all this in action!!!

Emma5: Post-'Spring Break' Post

2010-03-24T15:13:00.006-04:00

So Spring Break is over and we're down to the last month and a half of school, and this means time for progress...
The teams are still working hard on accomplishing their goals, and for this reason this post will not have any action shots of Mr McKinley (who is currently at the machine shop working on Emma's chassis). However, we do have some cool action shots of our ECE students drawing schematics on papers and hooking up wires to their prototype boards!
Most progress is happening in the code-world, but the group finally has a PS2 controller that will be controlling Emma!!! (see pic of PS2 controller with rainbow colored wires below.)So far it's still in 'progress-mode', but will be soldered on to a PCB as soon as we are ready for finalization!!!!
Our friends working with power had an itty bitty accident last week. While testing out their power control, a freak accident happened and exploded one of our Macs into FLAMES! If that were true that would be pretty awesome, but I'm just kidding...what actually happened was that the circuit in test was using the USB's 5V from the computer to power up the Arduino, and due to a slight misfortune, a surge current went through the Arduino and into the USB port and crashed the computer... no flames, but maybe next time.
This schematic will guarantee that no other laptop will take the fate of our dear M5_MBPro_04 ... or_07 ... well at least it wasn't a PC (no offense Prof Soules).
Our text-to-speech and video streaming groups are constantly working on getting their subsystems working and building a GUI to make these Emma-features easily accessible. We'll most likely have these systems up and running in a couple of weeks. Likewise, our drive group is still working hard with the SMT transistors and tweaking their Arduino code to make Emma cruise perfectly and elegantly like the lady she is.
Lastly (but not leastly ...) Houston is currently working with the RS-485 network system to get both systems communicating.
Soon, Houston will be able to send and receive commands to Emma as it will be able to "tap into" the RS485 bus. Not only that, but soon enough our PS2 controller will soon be incorporated to this entire shabang too.

In the next couple of sessions, we will definitely start seeing the mechanical aspect of Emma being infused with the digital subsystems.
And soon enough, Emma5 will be alive!

DP123 Monday Madness Crazy

2010-03-23T18:32:00.001-04:00

Who gave M5 a welder, and a grinder? And all that safety gear and clothing that renders one anonymous, and rather frightening-looking?

Team Proteus5, subdivided into further teams, now has a cacophony of grinding and sawing noises to accompany their workings-on as the build team fires up the power tools in the corner of the backroom, the future site of the M5 fabrication lab, dubbed Fab5.

Fab5 is a the future facility that will expand the build capabilities of M5 to include metalworking, woodworking, and plastic and glass work. We have, so far, a welder and grinder.

At this week's Play the Room, we decided against playing the room in the literal sense, with solenoids on the pipes and ducts and such throughout the Good Room, primarily to cut down on the amount of tubing and mounting hardware required for such an endeavor, as to save time and fully realize our goal of an electromechanical, MIDI-controlled instrument.
We have decided, instead, to use a metal cabinet that housed some sophisticated-looking engineering equipment, including a piece at the bottom (the power supply, perhaps) that features a sign: DANGER / LETHAL VOLTAGE.
We gutted all the cables out of it and found some promising locations for the pneumatic actuators we have arriving soon. Also–our arduino software is looking good! More on all of this soon!

DP123: LED Off the Grid Project

2010-03-08T18:30:00.003-05:00

Appropriate technology (AT) is technology that is designed with special consideration to the environmental, ethical, cultural, social, political, and economical aspects of the community it is intended for. The term is usually used to describe simple technologies considered suitable for use in developing nations or less developed rural areas of industrialized nations. In practice, appropriate technology is often something described as using the simplest level of technology that can effectively achieve the intended purpose in a particular location. In industrialized nations, the term appropriate technology takes a different meaning, often referring to engineering that takes special consideration of its social and environmental ramification. (wikipedia)

Project Description: To design and build a low-cost, safe LED-based lamp for families in Less Developed Countries (LDCs). The lamp will be powered by a renewable source of energy, such as mechanical energy, and will store the energy in capacitors.

This is a motor configured as a generator. The motor was hooked up to an electric drill and the output voltage was measured. A similar generator will be used in the final design.

This is the breadboard with the ultra-capacitors used to store the energy and the white LEDs. Students have already been able to store energy in the capacitors and power the LEDs up to an hour.

Programming an AVR using the Arduino (based on instructables)

2010-03-05T15:55:00.006-05:00

So recently I was hoping I could start programming AVRs. I like using the Arduino IDE because it is incredibly easy, however, programming a chip using C or even Assembly is far more powerful. I was looking through everything to try and find a feasible solution to get my AVR programming started, so I searched through programming cables, dongles, DYI things, Sparkfun, Atmel, etc etc etc... I found out programming cables can get to be expensive, especially if your computer doesn't have an RS-232 port.
Luckily, instructables.com exists and saved the day, since they have a pretty good step by step process on how to program an AVR using an Arduino!!! Making the Arduino a middleman in order to program your AVR... so brilliant and convenient! (an arduino costs about 20 dollars, much less than a USB stk mkii programming cable). The instructable is really good and I recommend following it, however I will explain the process I went through to burn a bootloader onto an ATMega168, and the same process can be used to burn a bootloader to any other AVR supported by the Arduino. I'll also show how you can upload a hex file (from a C or ASM file) to your AVR through this Arduino circuit.

You can find the instructable here .

For the case and purpose of this blogpost, all you really need from this instructable is the Arduino circuit and where to get the code (which I'll post a link to later on). The circuit involves hooking up the Arduino to the AVR and hooking up some nifty LED's for debugging purposes (and because they look kind of cool when you reset the ARduino/do your AVR programming/etc). Installing WinAVR is recommendable! To do so, go to this site and get it donee!!!

The first thing to keep in mind is that these Atmel AVRs have an ISP programming option (acronym for In-System Programming). Also, the communication protocol that you can use for the programming of the hardware is SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface). Lucky for us, there are well labeled pinout diagrams for these AVR chips all over the internet, and there is a built in SPI interface on the Arduino boards (obviously, since the Arduino is based on the ATmega168/328/etc et al).
SPI is a basic protocol, but all that you need to know at this point is that you want to connect each respective Arduino pin to their "counterparts" on the AVR you wish to program.

Ok. Now, in order for your Arduino to work as a 'middleman' programmer, you'll have to upload the proper code to it so that it does it's job. I'm not taking credit for this code, because I obviously didn't write it, so I'll link the word after the semi-colon to the website you can find it: here. Download the latest avrisp.xx.zip and extract the code to your computer and upload it to the Arduino.

Bam! Now the LED's in the circuit start flashing, and the last one is getting brighter, dimmer, brighter, dimmer, etc etc etc..Like a heartbeat! Its alive! You know your circuit is working! And the Arduino is ready to receive its instructions... How will it do that?? Serial Port?? nope! You'll have to talk to avrdude from you command prompt (quite frankly it makes you feel like a pretty cool hacker). In order to have avrdude installed in your computer, you'll need to either have Arduino installed (since you burned the code to the ARduino you probably already have that) or you can just download avrdude from its site... i think this one is pretty recent/legit. Anyhow, just make sure you have avrdude installed on your computer before proceeding, or else you'll be communicating with a non existing entity on your computer, and your computer will think you're crazy.

Ok. To talk to avrdude, all you have to write in the command prompt (regardless in which directory you're in) is:
avrdude

to see a list of commands, type in
>avrdude
to your command prompt, you should get the following:

pretty easy right?!?! now let's actually talk to the Arduino! Make sure you know what SERIAL PORT your Arduino is connected to. Usually Com5 for windows, dev/tty/USB for Mac etc.. To find what port you communicate to, open the Device manager in your control panel and see which one is active ***OR*** just open the Arduino IDE and look for the Serial Port option (like you would usually do to program the Arduino). Ok, so now you know what Port you'll be talking to, time to find out what CHIP you have! For this part, just look at the AVR thats in your circuit and read the AT***** part. OK, now type the following in your command line

>avrdude -c avrisp

You'll get an error message and a long list with recognizable MCU names!

Great, now just look for the MCU you have and know which one it is... I'll be using the ATMega168 as an example because that's the chip i used. Likewise, my COM port was COM6.
So type in the following, just modify COM6 or m168 IF NECESSARY:

>avrdude c -avrisp -b 19200 -p m168 -P COM6
(then press enter)

I usually get an error message the first time I type that in saying:
avrdude:stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x15
So i try it again (shortcut, press the up arrow for the last command you typed)
You'll see your circuit LEDs do a weird blinking cycle, and your command prompt should look like something like this:

Great, so now your computer is successfully talking to the Arduino!
Now let's go step-by-step to see what that command did

>avrdude -c avrisp -b 19200 -p m168 -P COM6

-c avrisp => (avrdude, I would like to use the avrisp programmer!)
-b 19200 => (avrdude, I want to change the baudrate to 19200 baud)
-p m168 => (avrdude, the part I'm using is the ATMega168)
-P COM6 => (... my Arduino is on port COM6)

We will also use a -U command which writes a specified file or fuse bit to the AVR and the -e command which erases the AVR

Ok, so now to burn the bootloader to the Arduino, you must find the bootloader file on the arduino hardware\atmega folder. If you're using the 168, you're lookingfor the ATmegaBOOT_168_diecimila.hex file,if you're not using the ATmega168, use some common sense to find out what file to specify. Ok so now you have the path that the bootloader file is located in, in my case it was <> .
Now write these commands (**adjusting it to your configurations**)(press enter after each line, or just copy the entire thing and paste it to the command line)

>avrdude -c avrisp -p m168 -P COM6 -b 19200 -e
>cd C:\Program Files\arduino-0016\hardware\bootloaders\atmega
>avrdude -c avrisp -p m168 -P COM6 -b 19200 -U lock:w:0x3f:m -U efuse:w:0x00:m -U hfuse:w:0xDD:m -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m
>avrdude -c avrisp -p m168 -P COM6 -b 19200 -U flash:w:ATmegaBOOT_168_diecimila.hex

(If you get error messages, check your configurations!!!!!)

All we in that code was say "Hey avrdude, erase whatevers on the chip, then i want you to overwrite the fuses (-U xfuse:w:#x##:m) and this program on the flash memory (-U flash:w:ATmegaBOOT_168_diecimila.hex) I'll leave it up to you to figure out what the fuse bits are adjusted to (but essentially you need it to se the AVR to work off an external oscillator).

To burn a HEX file, you'll need to convert the C or ASM file to HEX (using WinAVR or AVRStudio). When you build the project, there will be a folder that saves the HEX version of your code.

now just modify the following according to your computer specifications and type

>avrdude -c avrisp -p m168 -P COM6 -b 19200 -e
>cd
>avrdude -c avrisp -p m168 -P COM6 -b 19200 -U lock:w:0x3f:m -U efuse:w:0x00:m -U hfuse:w:0xDD:m -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m
>avrdude -c avrisp -p m168 -P COM6 -b 19200 -U flash:w:.hex

GREAT! You can use and Arduino to program an AVR and to burn bootloaders.

Any question feel free to find me at M5 or e-mail me at: dbercht@student.umass.edu

Emma5, March3(rd)

2010-03-03T17:10:00.006-05:00

So I would figure that the biggest update we have is that our mechanical system is coming aliiiiivee!
Parts keep arriving and Emma is slowly gaining a physical core. Other than that, all the other teams are making some significant process in the development of their subgroups. Our Text-to-Speech, sensing, brain, and media streaming groups are working on their code and playing around with their respective microcontrollers.
On the power group (responsible for not letting Emma fry... or anyother subgroup in that case... while allowing them to function) has started to run tests on their given circuit, and hasn't blown anything... yet... Which is always a good sign.
Our power group has been working on soldering tiny little transistors onto the cool little Bandicoot SMD protoboard. Unfortunately for them, these transistors are literally tiny! They have been going to the Senior Design Project Lab in order to use an appropriate solder iron for the job.

And for this week, this is it! Soon we will be reaching the halfway point of the semester, where hopefully most students will have accomplished their mid semester goals. So for now, I'll finish this blog with a picture of Adib thoughtfully staring at an abyss (or M5's wall) and Matt working dilligently on his Arduino code in the background.

PartyDuino Update

2010-02-25T17:44:00.006-05:00

Hey y'all!

We are back with an update on the design of partyduino. The team has made significant progress with the project and is getting ready for production. The design group finished their design by adding a low-pass filter to the output. Dan and Mat created a barebones version of the partyduino that closely represents the actual PCB. They ran into issues with the bootloader but overcame those issues swiftly and had the partyduino up and running by the end of the lab. While the other teams were working on design aspects of the circuit, Mike was preparing the parts list and datasheets that will assist in the design of the PCB. The datasheets will be used to gather the dimensions of each part and to help design the footprint of the parts to be out on the PCB.

We will be back next week with another update!!!

ECE-UMass Theater Collaboration

2010-02-23T17:56:00.006-05:00

A man eating plant that sings early Motown-esque music and a deranged laughing gas addicted dentist who sings 1960s-esque rock and roll?! The DP123 UMass theater class is assisting the theater department beginning with the production of Little Shop of Horrors. Controls are being built to raise and lower an elevator, interact with pneumatics to enlarge the man eating plant, rapidly spin clocks, and anything that's being asked. To start, students are reverse engineering the box in the picture above.

The box contains a PLC and motor driver for a 5 hp motor (trying to stop the motor from rotating is like trying to stop a small elephant). Earlier today, the controls were dissected to the point where messages from a knob can be understood by the PLC to interact with the motor driver to control the motor.

The project's overarching goal is to create a simple-to-use and completely adaptable control box. Such a box that can control all electronic props for virtually any theater production with an interface that my grandfather could figure out in a few minutes. It's a little too early to show a diagram of the final design but what we hope to be the final design was completed today. Now everything just needs to be built...

Top: The theater department's tech shop where much of the class work takes place
Bottom: Students discussing the project with Michael Cottom, the tech director

Play The Room - Third Class

2010-02-19T17:32:00.002-05:00

Imagine this. You sit before a humble, MIDI keyboard. It looks like a truncated piano. You can't help but notice the colored wires spewing from a small box behind it to places scattered around the room. The walls. The ceiling. You press down a key, and involuntarily clench as a clang from overhead rings out, as a solenoid's core slams into the ventilation duct. You hit the key again.

We at the Play the Room class are getting there, and quickly. By the end of this week's class, we had a fully functional proof of concept–a solenoid controlled by MIDI keyboard. Check out the schematic.

A MIDI cable carries the performance information from the source, whether it is a computer sequencer (Ableton Live in the video below) or a keyboard, into the Arduino. The software in the Arduino detects the incoming MIDI message, and sends a pulse of power to the solenoid, which then strikes whatever is before it. The software in the Arduino must be able to filter out irrelevant MIDI information (there are many kinds of messages useless to us in this context), and as we add more solenoids to be controlled, the software must send a voltage pulse to the correct solenoid depending on the MIDI note that is received. That is, when you hit different notes on the keyboard, it plays different solenoids. Both of these goals are easily achieved in software.

Issues we will consider in future classes include the design of a robust mounting scheme and velocity control. Ideally, the solenoids and their control mechanism will remain intact and usable for decades, or until our neighbors tire of the noise. And if you were to hit the key on the keyboard softly (or strike it proudly with vigor), wouldn't it be great if the solenoid responded with appropriate force? To be continued...

VIDEO!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s2aRMzjkhg

Arduino Code (thank you Alden!)

//****************************************
byte incomingByte;

void setup () {
Serial.begin(31250);
pinMode(11, OUTPUT);
}

void loop () {
if (Serial.available() > 0) {
incomingByte = Serial.read();
if (incomingByte > 143 && incomingByte < 160) {
//note on
digitalWrite(11, HIGH);
} else if (incomingByte > 127 && incomingByte < 144) {
//note off
digitalWrite(11, LOW);
}

}
}
//****************************************

Product Design: First Post

2010-02-18T17:48:00.006-05:00

The design of Partyduino is now in full gear! Partyduino is a circuit that was designed to make some funky beats and noises. The inputs to the arduino are two pots that determine which beats and noises are played. The arduino outputs a digital square wave that is altered by the low-pass filter and some caps, to a 3.5mm female stereo connector. Today, Joe the project leader, lead the design team in finalizing version 1 of the design for the circuit by adding a low-pass filter to the output signal. Dan is taking on the task of loading a bootloader to the ATMega 328 avr. Alden is on an alternative code that will generate two audio signals simultaneously. Mike is gathering all the parts needed for the pcb as well gahering all the datasheets for the parts. The datasheets will help when designing he actual pcb because the datasheet contains the dimensions for the respectful part.

We'll see you next week when
we start designing the pcb!!!

Play the Room -- First Class

2010-02-11T19:04:00.005-05:00

Play The Room had its first class last week! Having solidified the roster, we broke out the solenoids and, well, played around with them.

In order to better get to know the solenoids, we hooked them up on a breadboard, as shown. The mosfet shown acts like a switch, controlled by the arduino through pin 11 in this schematic. When the program in the arduino tells pin 11 to go HIGH (+5 V), the mosfet allows current to flow through the other two leads, providing the solenoid with a path to ground. Current then flows through the coil of the solenoid, and the metal core inside it is forced outward, striking whatever may be in its path (percussion!).

When pin 11 goes low, as determined by the Arduino's software, current ceases to flow through the other two leads of the mosfet, therefore no current flows through the coil of the solenoid. This means there is no longer a magnetic force pushing its metal core outward, allowing it to return to its internal position. However, the solenoids we ordered to not have a spring to make the core return to its starting position, and one cannot simply reverse the direction of the current through the solenoid's coil and expect a magnetic force in the opposite direction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-hand_rule). Our (hopefully temporary) solution was to use a rubber band to bring the core back to its starting position.

By the end of the class, the solenoid cacophony had drawn a small crowd. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bisMUvgiogU

Here is the arduino code:

//***********************************
int solPin = 11;

void setup() {
     pinMode(solPin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
      //give the mosfet a voltage pulse to activate the solenoid
     digitalWrite(solPin,HIGH);
     delay(30);
     digitalWrite(solPin,LOW);

     //wait one second
     delay(1000);
}

//***********************************

Emma5: Working on Goals

2010-02-03T17:28:00.006-05:00

This entry will be relatively short and vague.
Since last week's order form for parts did not go through, the group could not make any physical progress on the construction of Emma5; however, groups did work on their proposals for this semester.

Each proposal consisted of the subsystem's goal for the next four months. These proposals will be evaluated mid-semester to justify, excuse, or extend the goals (that were and were not met).

As of now, those are the updates of the week, however, next week the parts we ordered will have arrived (arriven? arroven?) and then it won't be long until Emma5 is up and rolling around campus.

M5 Third Open Mic Night

2010-01-27T20:07:00.004-05:00

A clip summarizing the third open mic night from November 11, 2009 has been posted on youtube titled "M5 Open Mic 11-11-09" (link here). Unfortunately, some acts were not recorded (stand-up, strange electronic sounds, a guitar act, the end jam!) and are thus not in the video. Sorry :(

Emma5 - The Return from Fall 2009

2010-01-27T16:50:00.007-05:00

Emma5 Project is back! Much of today was recapping where we left off last semester and forming the groups for the 5 current subsystems. For those who don't know, Emma5 is a robot project which is being held at M5. We plan on having a wheelchair being powered by two car batteries, being moved by two DC motors, being controlled by a car computer which is being controlled by a headquarter PC (a.k.a. Houston). Houston and Emma's brain (a car computer ) is connected to Houston via a Wireless link, and the students involved in this project are working on getting this wheelchair up and running ASAP.

The project consists of 6 subsystems, which are as follows:
Power: This subsystem deals with the management of the two car batteries attached to Emma5. This group is in charge of developing a system which will keep track of the amount of power delivered by the each battery, the battery life left, and just managing both batteries in general.

Drive: This group works with the motors controlling the wheelchair and the entire system that is needed to manipulate such devices.

Emma's Brain/Houston: This group deals with the communication system between the car computer in the robot and Houston, all done through a wireless TCP/IP connection. This group also deals with addressing commands from Houston to Emma, accepting telemetry from other subsystems, and... oh yeah, receiving video footage and live audio streaming from the robot!!! Amongst other handy things.

Sensing/Override: This group is in charge of preventing Emma against colliding into anything on the outside world. Through the use of sensors, microcontrollers, and intelligent minds, this group will (hopefully) allow Emma to be anything but a hazard to walls, people, insects, and squirrels.

Mech: This group deals with the mechanical aspect of this entire project. Being that all but one of the members of the Emma5 Project are Electrical & Computer Systems Engineers, it might be needless to say that our only Mechanical Engineering student in the project is the lead in this subsystem.

This was a brief introduction to the Emma5 project, more updates on it next week!

What EE Can Do For You? - Prof. Vouvakis

2010-01-25T14:36:00.003-05:00

January 23, 2010.

Last Saturday, Professor Vouvakis participated in Science & Engineering Saturday Seminars.(www.umassk12.net/sess)

When asking the average high-school student what Electrical Engineering is all about, the most probable answer is: it deals with the electrical wiring and outlets, or in the best case, it helps build TV sets. Although this would have been the case for the Electrical Engineering of the 30s or 50s, modern electrical engineering is been considerably more exciting. We will give an overview of Electrical Engineering, and outline the basic principles behind some of the most ubiquitous electrical engineering technologies such as the iPhone, the laptop computer, the internet, radar, etc.

ShotClock Timer + RF module

2009-12-11T17:54:00.002-05:00

Hey guys,
So I've been working on this project for a month or so now.
It's a shotclock using two Arduino's,
1)which runs the timer down from 35 seconds to 0 seconds,
2)which is used on the remote control side of the operation.

Arduino 1 is connected to two HEF4511 BCD to 7 Segment decoder two chip, each decoder decodes information from PORTA and PORTC off the Arduino and outputs the value on two large 7-segments which were purchased from SparkFun.
Also connected to Arduino 1 is the Receiver end of a 315MHz 2400bps RF Module (also purchased from SparkFun).
Arduino 2 is connected to the Transmitter end of the same RF Module.

The basics of this project will be:
1)Have a timer that displays a count from 35 -> 0 ->35 ...
2)Have a transmitter which will pause, resume, and reset the shotclock
3)Have a bell which will ring when the shotclock reaches 00.

As of now everything is set up on breadboards, and hopefully this weekend the project will be completed on a prototyping board.
Actually, the Transmitter is already inside of a Wii Nunchuck and can operate from a 9V battery. All that needs to be completed is the Arduino1 side of the project.

Schematics and Pictures will be up soon!
All the best,
Dan

M5 Presents... Professor Burleson in Who's afraid of RFID?

2009-12-02T11:39:00.006-05:00

M5 Presents... Professor Wayne Burleson!
(formerly known as Cafe' M5)

in... Who's afraid of RFID?

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
3:30pm
M5

Abstract:
When I was an undergrad at MIT in the late 1970's, microelectronics was still young and Silicon Valley was a magical land on the other side of the country. Chip design was a new frontier that was predicted to improve our quality of life and required a judicious blend of circuit design, computer architecture, programming, and generic engineering skills.

Three decades later, microelectronics impacts most aspects of our lives, and many chips are designed by huge teams of engineers each with very specific roles and capabilities. Most recently , Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID), very small battery-free circuits, are used to widely deploy computing in a tiny wireless package that can be embedded almost anywhere.
RFID design involves energy harvesting, RF design, very lightweight cryptography and sensors, and custom design approaches that tightly interact requiring highly skilled but small multi-disciplinary teams. RFID technology has also raised many concerns about the ethics, security and privacy policies around ubiquitous computing.

This talk will take a look behind the curtain of RFID, hopefully dispelling some myths but still leaving plenty of unanswered questions.

Bio:
Burleson teaches and develops methods and tools for chip design and microelectronic systems. He has been at UMass since 1990. His current research involves two thrusts:
1) variation-aware design, including circuits and systems which sense and adapt to variations due to manufacturing, supply voltage, temperature and various failure and wearout mechanisms.
2) security-aware design including RFID, lightweight security primitives, hardware threat models, side-channel attacks and hardware trojans.

M5 Open Mic

2009-12-02T11:39:00.005-05:00

M5 OPEN MIC

6:30pm
Wednesday, December 9th
M5

On Wednesday, December 9th, M5 will be hosting its third open mic night! Starting at 6:30 pm, a slew of circus performers, tie stealing magicians, beat poets, awkward looking musicians, yo-yo wielding politicians, and noise loving electricians from any department at UMass will do those things they love to do.

Everyone, not just students, is invited to attend this open mic as either performer or audience member. The setting will be low-stress and laid back so feel free to demonstrate that experimental falsetto or pantomime you've been working on. Everyone is guaranteed to have a good time!

To sign up or request more information, please send an e-mail to Sean Klaiber at sklaiber@student.umass.edu.

M5 Presents... Professor Zink

2009-11-20T12:42:00.004-05:00

M5 Presents... Professor Michael Zink!
(formerly known as Cafe' M5)
in... Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere:
System-driven Design, Implementation, Operation and Research

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
4pm
M5

CASA is a NSF funded Engineering Research Center that seeks to revolutionize our ability to observe, understand, predict, and respond to hazardous weather by creating distributed collaborative adaptive sensing (DCAS) networks that sample the atmosphere where and when end-user needs are greatest.

In this presentation, I will give an overview of IP1, the first DCAS testbed. This 4-node test bed, which has been operational since June 2006, is installed in southwestern Oklahoma and covers a region of 7000 square km that receives an average of four tornado warnings and 53 thunderstorm warnings a year.

First of all the system architecture of this DCAS system will be presented. This includes the sensing nodes, the communication infrastructure, and the central node, which hosts the Meteorological Command & Control (MC&C) architecture. The MC&C is the heart of the DCAS system, which ingests data from the four radars, identifies meteorological features in this data, and determines each radar’s scan strategy based on detected features and end-user requirements. Every 1-minute heartbeat, the MC&C ingests processed sensor data to generate meteorological features which might be of interest to the system end-users. These features are then clustered together and posited as potential three-dimensional scanning tasks. Novel optimization techniques that consider the preferences of different end-user groups then determine the actual targeting of the radars. Next to the overall DCAS architecture results from its performance evaluation in the actual IP1 test bed will be presented. I will also give a quick overview on the systems engineering process used to design and implement this test bed.

In the second part of my talk I will highlight results from my research on long-distance 802.11 networks. CASA students have come up with a concept of Off-the-Grid (OTG) radar networks. These networks consist of radars that are independent of gridded power and wired network access. Long-distance 802.11 wireless networks are one alternative to establish communication links to these OTG nodes. I will present results from measurement studies performed in such
networks which can be used as guidelines for the installation and management of such networks. Finally, I will show how this measurement work led me to investigate the performance and quality of wireless packet sniffers.

Bio:
Michael Zink is currently a Research Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He also serves as CASA's Deputy Director for Technical Integration where he manages an interdisciplinary team of meteorologists, electrical engineers, social scientists and computer scientists. He works in the fields of sensor networks and long-distance 802.11 wireless networks. Further research interests are in sensor network virtualization, wide-area multimedia distribution for wired and wireless environments, network measurements, and systems engineering. In 2003, he received his Ph.D. degree (Dr.-Ing.) from Darmstadt University of Technology. His thesis was on "Scalable Internet Video-on-Demand Systems".

M5 Presents... Professor Burleson in Who's Afraid of RFID?

2009-11-20T12:29:00.003-05:00

M5 Presents... Professor Wayne Burleson!
(formerly known as Cafe' M5)

in... Who's afraid of RFID?

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
3:30pm
M5

M5first2weeks

2009-02-02T17:16:00.004-05:00

Everyone should check out what's happening at M5 this week. For the fist two weeks of the semester we're hosting a bunch of fun events.
Tuesday 2/3 is game day, with board games and M5-style ping pong available all day.
Wednesday 2/4is Open Mic night 7-10 with musicians, bands and other talents. Sign up or just come watch.
Thursday 2/5 is Fen Experiments day form 4-6pm. Come by to have fun with some music equipment and circuits.
Friday 2/6 we have our scavenger hunt due and a paper airplane competition at 3:30 with prizes for finishing first. There are two competitions, one for distance and one for airtime.
Check out the M5 website for all the details you need to know!

Computer Updates

2008-11-17T18:39:00.004-05:00

I made a couple of updates to the computers that everyone should know about:

- Xcode is now installed on all the computers. It's Apple's development environment along with an array of different tools. To find out more on it, go to Machinstosh HD-->'Developer' and there you'll find the Xcode pdf along with tons of tools and programs to check out. (Note: The gcc compiler comes along with Xcode as well, so you can compile and execute c/c++ in the command line.)

- Magic Number Machine is now installed on all the computers. It is a very easy to use graphical, high-precision, scientific calculator. Very useful!

- Remote Desktop Connection is now installed on all the computers. It is the alternative to Window's Remote Desktop Connection. You can connect to vlab by going to applications->'remote desktop connection' and then entering the same information as you normally would to connect to vlab.

- The network connection problem we were having with "ENGIN-GUEST" was fixed.
- Datasheets for the ATmega 168, ATmega 64 & Atmega 32A are located on the desktop
- Brian Evan's arudino programming notebook is on the desktop

In the future please use the M5 Feedback Forum to request any additional software, or report any problems with any of the computers so we can fix and update them efficiently.

Arduino-Based 3D Printer

2008-09-22T20:24:00.005-04:00

"RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is the practical self-copying 3D printer shown on the right - a self-replicating machine. This 3D printer builds the parts up in layers of plastic."
- RepRap.org

"The RepRap Project is not a mere harbinger of the future. It is the future, pure and simple. Imagine being able to print out three-dimensional objects on your computer, created in a 3-D rendering program like Dream Weaver...RepRap is an abbreviation for a device for the rapid reproduction of physical parts."
- The Daily Targum

The designers of RepRap used the Arduino for the foundation of their project. They customized the Arduino, which they refered to as the "Arduino Rebrain Project", where they ultimately tried to recreate a USB Sanguino.

The Sanguino is an Arduino-Based Microcontroller that has more memory, RAM, and pins. For more information on the Sanguino Board, check the website.

Octopart

2008-04-23T17:13:00.005-04:00

Octopart is a search engine for electronic parts. Search for price, specs, inventory information from multiple distributors.

Thanks to Andrew L.

All Hail the Hypnocube

2008-04-22T10:58:00.004-04:00

I found a great kit the other day that would make a nice showy project to M5. It's a programmable lattice structure of 64 (4x4x4) RGB LEDs, that can show a maximum of 4096 colors. The kit has a USB hookup to allow the user to create different displays (Mooninites anyone?). It retails for $185 shipped.

Company website: http://hypnocube.com/

A video of the Cube in action:

THE TASK OF A UNIVERSITY...Book of the day

2008-04-18T10:19:00.005-04:00

"Youth is Imaginative, and if the imagination be strengthened by discipline this energy of imagination can in great measure be preserved through life. The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble imaginations. Fools act on imagination without knowledge; pendants act on knowledge without imagination. The task of a university is to weld together imagination and experience"

From the chapter, 'Universities and their function',
THE AIMS OF EDUCATION by Alfred North Whitehead.

Find it at the M5 Library, Miscellaneous section.

The M5 website was born today, Wednesday 16 April 2008

2008-04-16T19:30:00.003-04:00

It's true. The M5 website was born today, Wednesday 16 April 2008. Joe did a great job of getting a basic site together in short order. Thanks Joe!

The website can be found at http://www.ecs.umass.edu/ece/m5/

Cafe' M5 on Friday, 18 April 2008

2008-04-16T19:14:00.004-04:00

Cafe' M5
Despite its name, Café M5 is not a real cafe' such as Rao's or Amherst Coffee but rather, Café M5 is a series of informal talks designed specifically for ECE undergraduates - freshmen through seniors. They will be held in M5 and an informal discussion will follow each talk. Please come and take advantage of this opportunity to hear your professors and others speak on topics that are of personal interest to them.

.................................................................................

Getting Beyond Devices: Using Your Degree from ECE for Solving Real World Problems Like Climate Change
By Prof. P. Siqueira
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Friday, 18 April 2008
Refreshments served at 3:00 PM
Talk begins at 3:30 PM
Marcus Hall, Room 5 (M5)
Seating limited

The process of learning the field of electrical engineering involves becoming an expert on a variety of fields, ranging from applied physics, mathematics, signal processing and statistics, not to mention the more traditional circuits, solid state devices, computer programming, networking and computer systems. As undergraduates, it is often easy to get focused on the details of the learning process and the immediate goals associated with coursework, and in that process the bigger picture gets lost. In today’s marketplace where economic trends on continental scales force much commercial development to occur overseas, it is becoming increasingly important to keep this big picture in mind, because that, ultimately, is where future opportunities and growth will be found.

In this talk, Prof. Siqueira will talk about those components of the undergraduate education that fit into this paradigm, and his personal experiences in applying a technical background in electrical engineering to the multi-disciplinary questions associated with climate change.

Prof. Siqueira earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, and his PhD from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 1996 he worked with the Radar Science Engineering Section at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California. He was a Visiting Scientist at the European Commission’s Joint Research Center unit for Global Vegetation Monitoring in Northern Italy in 2001-2002. He is a principal investigator for NASA's terrestrial ecology program and on the science team for the Japanese Space Agency's Kyoto and Carbon Cycle Initiative. He has been an associate professor at UMass since 2005, where his research interests are in the design, development and application of microwave remote sensing and microwave engineering for studying the environment.

Prof. Siqueira may be reached via siqueira@ecs.umass.edu.

Upcoming Cafe' M5 event:

Friday, 25 April 2008, 3:00 PM
The iPhone as an Ultra-portable Computing Platform
By Prof. R. Mettu

T. B. Soules
Sr. Lecturer and Undergraduate Program Director
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Marcus Hall, Room 8
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst MA 01003-5215 USA
+1 (413) 545-4573 (Direct Line + Voicemail)
+1 (413) 545-2441 (Undergraduate Program Office)
soules@ecs.umass.edu

Audio Engineering Blog Update

2008-04-15T19:31:00.008-04:00

The address for the audio engineering blog is now:
www.umassamherstaes.blogspot.com

Tip: Z-Drive Access from Anywhere

2008-04-10T10:57:00.002-04:00

Note to M5 Computer Users:

Remember, you can access your ECS Z-drive space through http://portal.ecs.umass.edu by logging in, clicking on 'My Account' and 'File Manager'. From here you can upload and download your 'pcfiles' (your z-drive content) and also edit your webspace 'webfiles' (yes, ECS provides us all with webspace that you can SSH into and create!). Portal makes it very easy to manage your space. If you'd like more information on ftp'ing and setting up your webspace look here:

http://www.ecs.umass.edu/index.pl?id=3592 (use barney.ecs.umass.edu or envy.ecs.umass.edu)

and find a client, such as http://winscp.net/eng/index.php, which supports SFTP

April 11 M5 Cafe

2008-04-09T17:46:00.002-04:00

The Arrow of Time: A Consideration of the Irreversibility of Time
By Prof. M. V. Fischetti
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Friday, 11 April 2008
Refreshments served at 3:00 PM
Talk begins at 3:30 PM
Marcus Hall, Room 5 (M5)

We can move back and forth, up and down, left and right, but we
inexorably move only forward in time. Why? Even Einstein’s relativity
treats time differently from the start, giving distances in time a
negative sign which spatial distances do not possess, but provides no
explanation. It simply acknowledges it as a fact.

Looking at the history of this question, the answer apparently depends
on how we define time and what we mean by "unidirectional flow' (or
"irreversibility): Is time the psychological feeling that we have of
its flow and irreversibility our inability to make memories "real"? Do
we define time as the thermodynamic evolution which forces heat to
flow from hot to warm bodies and never (?) in the opposite direction,
thus causing an irreversible increase of the disorder (or "entropy")?
Are we dealing with the irreversible processes postulated (long ago,
by a few important people in Copenhagen) to occur when we make a
measurement of a quantum system and cause its wavefunction to
"collapse"? Or are the boundary conditions at the beginning and the
end (however we define it…) of the Universe which ultimately determine
the direction of the "arrow of time"?

The discussion will start from introducing the "thermodynamic" time
(presumably identical to our psychological time and the most important
one, although sadly ignored by Steven Hawking in its popular "Brief
History of Time"), looking at how giants figures of Physics have
addressed the problem: From the tragic life of Ludwig Boltzmann (who
killed himself, anguished by the controversy surrounding his work on
this very issue) to the understated and obscure Lars Onsager and his
"reciprocity relations" and to the controversial Ilya Prigogine with
his speculation on the dynamic nature of the second law of
thermodynamics based on chaos theory and fractals. This will lead to
uncovering the connections of the concept of “irreversibility” with
information and computational theory, touching on the never ending
controversy about Landauer-Bennett’s irreversible computing and
mentioning Charlie Bennett’s solution of the Maxwell demon’s paradox.
Then we'll move to the interpretation of the act of measurement in
Quantum Mechanics, its effect on irreversibility and to the various
"decoherence" model (especially that by Ghirardi, Rimini and Weber)
and, finally, to their connection to the cosmological time, as in the
model by Gell-Mann and Hartle.

Massimo Fischetti graduated in Physics from the University of Milan in
1974 with a thesis on the role of symmetries and conservation laws in
quantum field theory. In 1978 he obtained his PhD degree in Physics at
UCSB under the supervision of James Hartle on issues related to the
stability of space-time worm-holes near charged but non-rotating
(Reissner-Nordstrom) black holes and quantization of fields and
particle creation in the early Robertson-Walker universe. All these
efforts went wasted (apparently) as he moved to experimental Solid
State Physics and started working on high-field electronic transport
in insulators, semiconductors and semiconductor devices, using Monte
Carlo techniques to solve the Boltzmann equation in sub-micron
MOSFETs. This activity has kept him busy for more than 20 years at the
IBM T. J. Watson Research center in Yorktown Heights, NY, and more
recently at the ECE Department at UMass which he joined in 2005. His
main interest is currently on the physics of semiconductor devices at
the nanometer scale. Much to his amazement and amusement,
understanding the equations which control the motion of electrons in a
tiny device requires coming to grips with the problem of understanding
where irreversibility enters the picture, consideration which loops
back to the theoretical interests of his earlier life. It must be said
that, despite his efforts to clarify the origin of irreversibility,
prof. Fischetti has not managed to get any younger over the years.

UMass Audio Engineering Blog

2008-04-09T17:39:00.008-04:00

Here is a link to the UMass Audio Engineering blog. There is a group of UMass EE students along with professor Soules trying to start an audio engineering thematic track. This blog has some information concerning the process as well as fun information combining EE and audio engineering.

If your interested in helping with this audio engineering group, meetings are at 10 AM on Thursdays in M5.