I'd like to hear from anyone that's using a motor controller board with the EFIKA. I'm looking at integrating the EFIKA into an existing robot and am debating between a motor control board and a client/server with the server being a dedicated microcontroller, such as the OOPIC or a 68HC11.

The next step would be to investigate QNX support for said boards. But before I re-invent the wheel I'd like to get opinions. That's why they call it RE-search, I suppose :)

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Kevin Nickels, Assoc. Prof, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, USA

Hi Kevin, we have recently begun to support QNX on the EFIKA.

http://www.genesippc.com/software.php

We are in the process of developing a package with QNX to support precisely this sort of request. In the meanwhile, it might be interesting for us to know if you are familiar with LabVIEW and the embedded design tools from National Instruments.

LabVIEW is a graphical programming language developed by National Instruments and introduced in 1986. Since then, it has become the standard for large test system development and instrument control. It has become National Instruments' flagship software product. They have sold to over 25,000 companies in 2006 alone ($660M), and no one industry makes up more than 10% of their revenue.

This broad-based market coverage has encouraged National Instruments to developed general purpose IP blocks like math and signal processing to make the development of these systems easier. In the last few years, they have started to recognize that many of the components that they have included to make LabVIEW a full programming language for test also has more general applicability, specifically, in the embedded design space.

In 2005, they released the first version of the LabVIEW Embedded Development Module which generates C Code from a LabVIEW diagram (LabVIEW otherwise has a native compiler which converts the graphical code directly to x86 machine code). This C Code is then passed through a 3rd party compiler and it is executed on the embedded target. Thus, if someone knows what they're doing, they can have LabVIEW up and running on a new platform with relative ease.

To address desires of their customers, they have started looking for an opportunity to create an OEM evaluation kit that would work with QNX on a board bundled with one of their USB data acquisition devices for those who wish to have analog I/O in their system. This system would work "out of the box" and the hope would be that this configuration would be what the OEM would use in their end product.

All this to tell you that the EFIKA is the newest platform to be a target. If you are interested in testing these tools please let us know and we may be able to get you more than a trail license.

We should say a BIG word of thanks for selecting the EFIKA as a focus for your educational endeavors. We think that is great and we will do what we can to support you!

Best regards,
R&B :-)

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http://bbrv.blogspot.com

Hi.

We're going to build our next generation soccer playing robots (for RoboCup, small size league) around the EFIKA or at least a derivative build around the MPC5200B. Motor control will be done through an FPGA, taking care of part of the PID control and PWM generation, as well as reading the encoders of the 4 brush-less motors.

We're at a very early stage with this design (we're currently implementing another design first), but EFIKA will make a great base for the prototype. More information here about our project here:

http://robotics.puv.fi
http://www.robocup.org

The fact that QNX is supported is very nice :-)

As soon as I have some more time, I will make a test set-up with this in combination with LabVIEW or something. I will put the information online at that point.


Best regards,
Johan

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Johan Dams, Genesi USA Inc.
Director, Software Engineering

Yep, I have a blog... PurpleAlienPlanet

Hi Kevin, before we return to Texas we will be meeting Johan (purplealien) in Washington D.C. We will discuss this specifically and hold a conference call with QNX to see if we can sort out a special license for you. The following week, when we do get there we will set-up the same sort of connection with National Instruments and see if we can't get you designated as a beta-site for the completely integrated package.

Best regards,
R&B

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http://bbrv.blogspot.com

Yes, we use LabView in several of our courses: I'm quite familiar with it.

I'll need to think about how the LabView/DAQ would help the project - ideas anyone?

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Kevin Nickels, Assoc. Prof, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, USA

Yes, Bill was describing the FPGA-based driver board solution to me - probably from your description :) So you're FPGA is communicating with the 5200 via the PCI slot, right? Then you have the h-bridges and such on the same card, is that the idea?

One drawback of the "commercial" motor driver cards is that they don't do power amp as well, just motion profiling. Always seemed to me that you ought to be able to hook a DC motor directly to a motor driver card!

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Kevin Nickels, Assoc. Prof, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, USA

Hi Kevin,

The prototype will indeed be communicating with the 5200B over the PCI bus. Everything needed to drive the motors will be part of this card, but for prototyping purposes it'll consist of a system of modular sub-cards.

In the end however, we plan to design our own PCB with the MPC5200B and the motor control in order to save a lot of board space and to keep the whole thing as compact as possible.

The idea however is to keep using the EFIKA based design (in past prototyping stages) for educational use. We are thinking of making a link to LabVIEW for example to visualise PID tuning etc.


Best regards,
Johan

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Johan Dams, Genesi USA Inc.
Director, Software Engineering

Yep, I have a blog... PurpleAlienPlanet