To: David G Michelson

From: EECE 380 Team L2D8

Date: April 6 2014

Subject: Project 2 Weekly Memo 9

Dear Professor Michelson,

This memorandum outlines the latest progress of the team for the week.

Achievements from Last Week

Our team assembled the crystal filter, amplifier and the peak detector altogether and tested the hardware as a whole. We also modified the LabVIEW software to run the local oscillator and display the signal spectrum using the waveform graph display. MyDAQ is connected to the hardware and it has two analog inputs coming in from the hardware. We run the program, observed the signal and debug the hardware all in the same time. Various frequencies were used and tested to ensure optimal performance of the hardware. In order to display the signal better in LabVIEW, we modified the offsets, signal run frequency and the number of samples run per second. We also tried to convert the signal to a log scale and convert the x-axis to frequency domain. To improve the peak display in LabVIEW, we monitor the discharge rate of the capacitor in the peak detector circuit.

Progress for this week

Both the hardware and software parts are assembled altogether and our team debug any possible problems may arise during the testing phase. We realized the signal spectrum was not displayed properly in LabVIEW, therefore we changed the offset and the scale of the axis. Different input frequencies and amplitudes were used to test the hardware, and we observed the displayed results in real time. We also ensure that the capacitors are discharged in a desirable time in order to improve the overall performance. After the final testing phase where the results are correctly displayed, we are ready for our project’s demonstration.

Problems and Improvements

Our team learned a lot throughout this project. We realized that sometimes the signal spectrum was not displayed correctly. This is because the Schottky diode was not connected properly in the circuit, which caused the capacitor to not discharge properly to produce a peak for the signal. The amplifier depends heavily on the values of the resistor we used. We biased the circuit and tested with different values of resistors using Multisim and Circuit Maker. We also observed the amplified voltage using the oscilloscope. In order to improve performance, we learned to calculate the right values of resistors to be used for the hardware.

To: David G Michelson

From: EECE 380 Team L2D8

Date: February 14 2014

Subject: Project 1 Weekly Memo 4

Dear Professor Michelson,

This memorandum outlines the latest progress of the team for the week. The progress is being discussed into three main topics below.

Achievements from Last Week

Over the last week, our team organized a meeting to discuss ideas in designing and building circuits for the hardware part of the project. We researched on different types of motors and sensors in order to obtain the suitable ones to be used in our design. We decided some mandatory components and drew circuits for our design.  On last Friday we have learned how to use PUTTY to run scripts, create email filter and check forwarding in the email. We also continued working on the code using the computer and the modem in the lab.

Progress for This Week

During this week, we have successfully completed bash scripting, email subject line and header and had the ADC voltage values sent to our email. The ADC circuit we built last week is used to measure the voltage values. The voltage value changes with different voltage input values and the range is set to be from zero volts to 3.5 volts. We also started building the hardware part of the project after our team discussed and choose the best design. Currently we are continuing working on the FFS and GSM and hopefully improve the time delay between sending signals to the satellite and receiving the emails in return. We also use Orbcomm commands and currently working on to combine FFS and email contents by modifying the code.

Goals for Next Week

As reading week commences, our team decided to meet in the lab to continue working on both the hardware and software parts of the project. We are still waiting for our ordered parts to arrive and hopefully they will arrive early next week. We will also be doing a lot of testing and calculations throughout the design process.