Beyond Shepard

Added by J. Simmons almost 10 years ago

Occasionally there are some discussions over email and in hangouts about what will come after Shepard. Until the Board approves and launches a new project we can use this thread to capture ideas and thoughts for what could come next. But, let's not let it distract us from wrapping up Shepard.


Replies (9)

RE: Beyond Shepard - Added by J. Simmons almost 10 years ago

Some thoughts on data acquisition

A while back there was some discussion about using a network architecture to link the DAQ to the control PC. For Shepard this seems like overkill to me, but I have always thought we should be moving in this direction with later projects. Note, when we site down and do the design work for this architecture I want to be sure we include security and data integrity in the requirements so we don't have accidental firings of a motor or engine under test.

OK, with that caveat out of the way, I wanted to share something interesting I have been looking at: The Arduino Yun. The Yun is header compatible with the Uno (which we used for Shepard)/Leonardo and has a built-in Linux server which can be used to provide very powerful network connections to the Arduino without bogging down its little processor. In fact, there is an example of creating a RESTful API from the Arduino. Plus, there is a built-in micro-SD card slot on the Yun.

That's a lot of very powerful features that would let us directly extend our current architecture. Being header compatible with existing board means we could use out existing sensor shield from Shepard. The ability to write a RESTful API directly from the Arduino is very much in line with our discussion of enabling network communication. And the micro-SD card slot would allow us to cache sensor data locally instead of having to send it all out over the wire in real time.

RE: Beyond Shepard - Added by Christopher Sigman almost 10 years ago

I will say I like it a lot. I haven't purchased one yet, but it's on my wish list. The alternative I would bring up is a BeagleBoard. It seems they're a bit difficult to come by though, so I don't know if some of it's pro's are worth it.

RE: Beyond Shepard - Added by J. Simmons almost 10 years ago

The BBB (Beagle Bone Black) would seem like the other serious alternative to the Yun. Beyond hard to come by, I also get the feeling that working with them at the PIN level is not quite as easy as with the Arduinos. My understanding from the blogs and vlogs I've seen is that you have to work with the pins through Python, which works but seems awkward when I have looked at the source code. Plus, it is hard to beat being able to leverage existing hardware and software from Shepard (at least for the next couple of test stands). After we have the architecture discussion, maybe we can hold a bakeoff between the various alternatives we find (Yun and BBB are obvious candidates).

Again, mostly just throwing this up here so we can come back to it once Shepard is finished.

RE: Beyond Shepard - Added by Christopher Sigman almost 10 years ago

As a quick follow up, it looks like BBB's are going to start flowing again. Via BBB's Twitter page BeagleBone.org has certified their first 2nd party manufacturer of the boards, with an initial lot sent out to distributors of 7000. Additional info available on Make Magazine's Blog

RE: Beyond Shepard - Added by J. Simmons almost 10 years ago

And Adafruit has a nifty little gadget to send power over ethernet that is compatible with Arduinos. Very clever... I think this would go nicely with the Yun.

http://www.adafruit.com/products/435

RE: Beyond Shepard - Added by Jeremy Wright over 9 years ago

Storing this here for future reference.

Load cell Arduino shield that seems to be very well done:
http://www.osengr.org/Projects/Load-Cell-Shield/Load-Cell-Shield.html

Materials to use as add-on cable shielding for the load cell leads:
http://www.buyheatshrink.com/braidedsleeving/metal-braided-sleeving.htm

http://www.spectreperformance.com/search/product.aspx?prod=1008B

RE: Beyond Shepard - Added by J. Simmons over 9 years ago

And one more interesting thing.... A display library for real time data collection from Adafruit.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ladyada/posts/jeh7JMnKdz9

RE: Beyond Shepard - Added by J. Simmons over 7 years ago

NASA has released an open source mission control dashboard called Open MCT.

https://github.com/nasa/openmct/blob/master/README.md

I think it would be interesting to replace the Shepard GUI with a customized deployment of Open MCT.

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