February 17th, 2012
Yesterday afternoon I managed to finish the Linked Lists program. It’s surprising how much more obvious hard parts of a program become after some sleep. I pretty much figured out what I was doing wrong on the way home; the next day it was just an issue of fixing that, and then the few little bugs that it threw at me. Now it’s good to go. Today I will try to implement that on Contiki. In between getting lunch with Nicola.
I’ve had a few nice QRSS spots recently, too. This weekend I will be preparing the transmitter in a waterproof box to be put at the bunker for a week or two – see how many spots we get there… Watch this space…
Last night saw a discussion around the Barking Radio & Electronics society, where it was voiced that the current members wished to bring forward the closing date to Easter 2012. Next week will see equipment valued and an EGM the week after, where equipment will be sorted out and distributed amongst all members. I’m sure it will be an interesting evening.
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February 15th, 2012
So this week I have been trying to perfect a linked list. In an object orientated programming language, a Linked list allows you to create an object that resides at a known place in RAM. Then each sequential object allows you to link to the next element in the list. Each object contains a pointer to the next object along with the parameters associated with each object. In my case this will be the node parameters. It is therefore possible to break links, insert and remove objects, etc. It allows for a dynamically changing list. But it doesn’t work. And I don’t have an object orientated language; I have standard C.
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February 9th, 2012
This is the first post in a long while, but progress has been slow. Today I spent most of the day working towards getting the battery status read out of the node in order to start forming beacons. I demonstrated a simple spinning network to Yiannis last week. Since then, I have been reading other MAC specifications to see how other protocols implement beaconing; how the data is contained, and so on.
Just now I am working out how to pack the battery status into the packet payload in the most efficient, yet expandable way. Progress is slow, and most attempts result in the processor crashing & restarting. Not fun.
Today saw a meeting for the UCL Engineering Postgraduate Research Application System; a faculty initiative to upgrade the PhD application process, and as a PhD Student who has just gone through this process, and with strong views about it, I was asked to become involved. We essentially talked to software company employees to create postit note based stories to help them ascertain what it is the “system” needs to do. Key emphasis was placed on the PhD Students and the Academics, with most of the problems and complaints input by admin staff. A follow up session is arranged for Monday, 13th Feb 2012.
Things have worked out well with the generator for use with portable radio work; Dave and I have managed to work a few people from the bunker recently, but missed the 144 MHz UKAC contest due to illness. Still, we should be on form for the 432 MHz contest next week.
Posted in Contiki, Course, Meeting, PhD | No Comments »
January 24th, 2012
So today I developed a network system which waits a random time after receiving a packet before transmitting a new one. This was an investigation into my initial network discovery techniques. I want to test the nodes on the DAQ system to measure the power requirements for this system, and to get a good idea overall.
The TelosB nodes were ordered by John today, so Yiannis tells me. Also, some SMA connectors turned up on my desk? I assume these are for the TelosB motes when they arrive.
A short Youtube video of the MAC in the simulator can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNZNJc6aUyc.
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January 20th, 2012
Just a short update. Today I made yet more progress. It’s becoming worrying. I managed to measure the times required to change channel on the CC2420 using a scope. Pretty basic stuff. Figure is about 130uS. Meeting Nicola for a coffee very soon, and then off out with the lads tonight for some food and bowling. Should be a good night!
Posted in Contiki, Food, PhD, Social | No Comments »
January 18th, 2012
So today see real progress with regard to the Ph.D. I actually managed to get two devices to send messages to each other. It’s only fairly basic using the RIME API in Contiki; but, it works! I broke through yesterday into the ability of doing something but today I worked on the issue and managed to get some actual results. Tomorrow I will spend trying to work out how quickly I can change channels. That should be interesting as I’ve no idea at all how to do it.
In other news today see the world’s largest internet protest against the Protect IP Act and Stop Online Piracy Act, or PIPA and SOPA respectively. Many websites displayed banners and messages detailing these acts, and some went further – Wikipedia disabled their encyclopaedia for the day instead showing a message regarding the issues. Many other prominent websites issued statements regarding the acts. I really hope these do not get through – time will tell. Initial response looks promising.
With that, at 10pm, I will leave my desk and let TfL drag me home.
Posted in Contiki, Electronics, PhD, Website | No Comments »
January 13th, 2012
So, following meetings and conversations with Yiannis and John, there’s a decision to be made: TinyOS 2, or Contiki? I need to decide what operating system to run on my TelosB nodes. The choice is an awkward one:
- Poorly documented but easilier to program
- Reasonably documented but much harder to program
I have tried a few examples in TinyOS (the harder to program) and have to say that it does really take forever to get anything to work. The example applications work flawlessly, but are quite complex to begin to decompose to learn from. TinyOS is event driven and the user must provide and link callbacks for events by hand.
The alternative, Contiki, is simpler and easier to use, but is currently lacking reference books and documentation that TinyOS has. My aim for the weekend is to experiment with Contiki and get an idea of how suitable it would be as a platform, and any potential edges it has over TinyOS.
Posted in Contiki, PhD, TinyOS | No Comments »
January 11th, 2012
A quick update from fear of it being weeks again. Since the last post all of the wireless sensor networks have been modified, and just 2 remain to be tested. I have finished marking the First year Lab practicals (pre- and post-resonance, as well as pre-transistors). I am yet to find a book on Contiki, which is a shame. Today was a kind of wasted day. I had intended to get some reading done today about Bayesian Probability; alas it was not to be. A trip to the dentist and hygienist took up much of the early morning – I had a nap too, which wasted the rest of the morning (having been up late the previous night).
Yesterday Dave, G7UVW, and I officially entered our first UKAC using the Barking Radio & Electronics Society’s callsign, G3XBF. Hopefully the first of many. Dave has also ordered a portable mast too.
Posted in BRES, PhD, Radio | No Comments »
January 4th, 2012
Well, it’s been a long time since I last posted, and a lot has happened. Things have been very hectic. Since my last post, all aspects of life have changed, mostly for the better; I’ll start with the exception.
So, just before Christmas, but after the last post, Nan was taken into hospital by ambulance with a broken hip. Initially, plans were to operate, but after much deliberation on the part of the doctors at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, they decided not to, on account that she was probably too told and there was higher risk. Instead they dosed her up with medicine and told her to lay still. She remained in Queen’s Hospital until January 3rd, when she was discharged to King George’s Hospital, Hornchurch (an interesting building, left over from World War 2, as there was an airfield very close). King George’s is a rehabilitation hospital, and there Nan is hoping to regain the ability to walk unaided. She seems to be doing well – Time will tell.
Christmas was good. We went to my cousin’s house on Christmas day where my great-cousin, Grace, cooked a lovely Christmas Dinner with Gammon and Turkey! It was really nice. Boxing day we were again treated to lovely food by my uncle David. We saw my cousin Martin’s flat in Debden and then settled back in my uncle’s house for the evening. New Year was uneventful for me; the usual lost all had other plans as nothing had been decided. I had a quite new year, and ended up working on the Arduino Bluetooth Shield hardware.
On the last day of term, and actually the day after Nan went in, we had a meeting at work. A few of the other Ph.D students met with Yiannis and John to discuss about the ‘Wireless Wall’ as I have (literally just) coined it. The plan is to get some of the wireless devices in a test-frame on the wall of one of the Telecom group’s labs – I can’t say too much yet because it is all still speculation, but things have the green light – great! I have been modifying some sensors using the microscope to accommodate an SMA connector – the iMote2 nodes have a horizontal plane antenna which causes severe multipath interference with reflections from the walls. Polarising the antennas at right-angles to the wall is a good solution but requires some modifications – my job! To this post, I’ve modified 7 nodes, and have 16 to do. They have been programmed by Dow with a test program which allows the modification to be validated with a spectrum-analyser. I will be popping into work later tonight to get a some more (hopefully all) nodes modified.
In terms of friends, we’ve had a few nights out as people have been back for Christmas and New Year. Nothing too exciting. Just holding out for my birthday next week!
Hopefully it won’t be so long until my next post! Over and out!
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December 16th, 2011
Today I had a half day due to being in work until 9 pm on Wednesday night. Today again proved to be a late one and I wasn’t home until 10 pm.
I hadn’t originally planned to go in at all today but then remembered that I had said I would meet Kieran for lunch. Kieran chose to work though lunch in order to get home earlier as snow had been forecast for the Midlands. Still I was in.
I went into the lab to tidy up a few bits I had left in the laboratory when it became apparent that we were having new equipment delivered for evaluation. I arrived half way through the salesman’s scripted examples of how to use the almighty Tektronix MDO4104-6. It really is an excellent piece of equipment and I want one (though at a sniff over £19,000 it won’t happen for a long time). We, George (a fellow PhD student) and I, spent the entire day testing and evaluating every claim the device and salesperson made using a Virtex-5 FPGA.
Later once we’d mastered the ‘toy’, George returned to working on his FPGA, with help from the 4104-6, whilst I modified 3 more iMote2 nodes. In the process I managed to stab myself in the hand (very hard) and it hasn’t stopped hurting since.
I stayed up late (now 4am) for no valid reason thus messing my sleeping habits further and minimising my chances of getting up on time tomorrow. I did however get all my Xmas presents for the family ordered as well as some new RAM for the server.
Night…
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