| 10.5.2009 | Lecture NotesH-bridge lecture notes are now up. |
| 9.29.2009 | Lab 2 Bug ReportWhile most groups successfully completed lab 2 without many problems, there were a couple of groups that spent more time than anticipated due to a bug with the provided sample code. The bug is simple, but it occurs multiple times.
pwmPins is declared in the beginning as an array of length 5. However, it is later accessed in the for loop for indices 0 through 5. This presents a problem. Unlike Matlab, which starts counting arrays at 1, the Arduino language uses a more popular convention by starting counts at 0. So pwmPins[0] returns the 1st element in the array. Nothing is problematic until you reach the point where i = 5. Code that then tries to access pwmPins[5] then becomes meaningless. Many of you managed to get to the checkoff without being hindered by this bug. However, a frustrated few definitely encountered this mistake. While the fix is trivial (all you have to do is change the for loop so that it iterates from 0 to 4), the implications are not. The Arduino IDE will catch compilation errors that are generally syntactic, but run time errors such as the familiar (Index OutOf Bounds) will probably not be caught. Therefore, be careful when thinking through code for your project. Errors in logic are much harder to debug than things such as a missing semicolon. This bug has now been fixed. Please let your GSI know if you encounter any further difficulties. |
| 9.28.2009 | More OH'sSarah now has office hours on Thursday from 2-330pm. |
| 9.20.2009 | Project Proposals and OH'sOn the presentations this coming week:
Additionally, Andrew now has office hours in 2168 Etcheverry on Thursdays from 330-5 and Friday from 1-3. The course info has been updated to reflect this. |
| 9.15.2009 | Project Proposals
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| 9.10.2009 | Lecture notes from yesterday, as well as for next Monday are now online. |
| 9.2.2009 | All lectures will be held in 277 CORY from now on. Lecture times and days are unchanged. Lecture notes from yesterday are also up
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| 9.1.2009 | Hi all, The Arduino board kits are ready for pickup. Tom Clark will be distributing them in 2113 Etcheverry on Friday, Sept. 4, from 8:30-10:30am and 11am-5pm. He will be out to lunch for ~30 minutes around lunchtime. Please stop by with your group and pick up one kit for the group during this time. You'll need the kit during your next lab session, so remember to bring it with you. Andy |
| 8.31.2009 | Hi ME 102 So, many of you may be wondering when and where to get your Arduino Kits to complete the lab assignments. The kits are being currently assembled and tested. As soon as they are completed they will be available. Stay tuned for more details. Thanks for your patience as the semester gets underway. On a non-lab related note, lecture notes for today are now up: |
| 8.27.2009 | There have a number of questions about which Arduino board should be used for ME102. Please note that lab kits will be provided. The lab kits will contain the Duemilanove as well as the sensors and actuators needed to complete the labs. That being said, the Arduino website features many boards such as the Duemilanove, Nano, Mini, Pro, Mini Pro, Mega, and Lilypad. The standard Arduino boards is the Duemilanove and the largest difference amongst the available options is the size of the board. A comparison can be found here. To shrink the board size down from the Duemilanove, a number of convenient features such as overcurrent protection, USB connectivity, and easy-access pins are no longer there. The ME102 labs were written with the Arduino Duemilanove that have the Atmel 328 chip in mind. This is the most recent version of the Duemilanove, and offers expanded memory in comparison to the Duemilanoves with the Atmel 168. If you wish to buy your own boards for lab, buy the boards with the Atmel 328. A fellow classmates has found an online retailer that sells them for $30 (S&H inclusive). |