final project in papilio


Ahmad Zaklouta

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One of the problems you will have is that the person grading the project will not know what an FPGA is.

Something that is really an advanced FPGA design will seem like a simple software project - for example, sending a UDP packet.over 10baseT requires a good level of understanding - Manchester coding, CRCs, keep-alive pulses, timing and so on. However it can also be done in a few lines of C on an Arduino which has an Ethernet shield.

As well as the project, the problem will be explaining what the the project is!

What level of complexity are you expected to produce?

Would something like "How pipe-lining speeds up division in a computer's CPU" be suitable?

Do you have any examples of projects others have submitted so we can get an idea of the complexity for our suggestions? When does it need to be finished?

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If you want a 'fun' project, I've been thinking of a project to "take control" of another pilot's InfraRed RC Helicopter mid-flight.

They are on demo in the shopping malls at the moment, and it would be a giggle to fly their helis for them.

The idea is

- Implement a controller in an FPGA (like http://hamsterworks.co.nz/mediawiki/index.php/FPGAheli, but with joysticks)

- Connect an FPGA to a bad-as IR illuminator.

- Add an IR receiver to receive command from the other pilot. might need to add optics to make this work over range.

When you see a heli flying, the FPGA needs to

- look for an "official" control signal - find what channel you need to be on.

- wait for some command from local controls (e.g. throttle to full) to activate the 'take-over'

- Take over control of the heli, and fly the heli away...

Would be a fun project - with lots of different issues to address - interfacing to the illuminator (darlington?) and joysticks (A2D), the heli control protocol, how to jam the other piliot's signal and so on... you could use a A2D + FIR filter to pick up and filter the original pilot's signals...

Best of all, you get to play with toy helicopters.

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