Every two weeks we are asked to do, in a group of two students, a project with simple integrated circuits and/or VHDL.

Today we tested what is gonna be our last project of this kind, our last VHDL project developed in the subject of Digital Systems.

We were asked to develop, using vivado’s software, a sort of digital lock that would grant access if the right two digit code was inserted and would stay locked if the wrong code was inserted. If we put the wrong code more than a certain number of times we would have to wait 9 seconds (in our case, it would change depending on the group) before inserting another code. Even tho it sounds pretty simple, it isn’t, it gave us quite some work but, in the end, it was quite easier than the previous project we had to develop for this subject.

When we finished testing our program we were asked to take the program we had synthesised and, by implementing some changes, make it allow more tries before it started counting the 9 seconds previously mentioned.

The video below is the result of the implementation of our program in the board.

The code to open the digital lock was pressing twice in the left button (the first thing we do). After we enter the right code, the electronic board starts counting 5 seconds (the five seconds the lock will be “open” before it closes again and we have to, once more, insert the code).

The second time we press the buttons of the board we insert a wrong code. Nothing happens. We insert a wrong code a second time and the board starts counting, once again. This time, the electronic board will count nine seconds before it allows us to try a new code (this nine seconds are the ones i mentioned above the video in this post).

In my course we have, during this semester, a subject called “Portfolio”. This is the subject for which this website is being evaluated. Apart from this website we have other types of evaluation including small projects with NXT Lego Robots and the pro

gramming system with them associated.

It is quite simple to understand how to work with this robot and we could, very easily, get the hang of it, developing several projects with the objective of making the robot move, detect obstacles, change directions accordin

gly among several other things.

In our last class where we worked with this robot’s we were asked to develop a program of our own that would allow the robot to do something of our choice. After creating the program we were supposed to prepare a presentation to the rest of the class about our program and what it does.

Even tho we were given a lot of liberty to choose what to do with the robot, we chose to keep it quite simple, playing a bit and exploring the robot’s functionalities but keeping it short in order to have time to prepare a decent presentation.

In this post you can find a video of my group’s robot acting according the program we created.

What the program does is making the robot move along a line detecting obstacles and stopping if one is detected. If the obstacle doesn’t move out of the way within 2,5 seconds (if I’m not mistaken) the robot will rotate, reversing its course. If the obstacle does move, the robot will resume is movement.

A couple of days ago, I published something talking about my first VHDL project in the Digital Systems’s lab class. Well, yesterday, we experienced again with the vivado software.

As expected it was a more demanding task, being substantially more difficult to achieve the project’s objectives.

It was quite difficult to overcome some issues regarding the problem, but in the end, I think we did ok.

Nevertheless the difficulties regarding the project, I think it was, once again, a very rich and          interesting class where we were able to develop our skills with vivado. This skills that we will need in the next and final project in the subject “Digital Systems”.

Precisely 2 weeks ago from today, me and my course colleagues tested for the first time a VHDL code. The result was actually pretty cool, and I reckon it was a fantastic first contact with the Xilinx’s software.

Today we are gonna work with that same software again in our Digital Systems class. This time It was more complicated to prepare for the class and surely the class itself will be more complex. Nevertheless, I am still looking forward to experiment once again both with vivado and the electronic board where we implement the programs.

(The picture in this post consists on the electronic board I referenced earlier.)