ECE3411: Microprocessor Applications Laboratory (Fall 2016)

Instructor: Marten van Dijk

TA: Chenglu Jin

Course Introduction

The basis of sophisticated designs of modern digital systems that appear in products such as automobiles, appliances and industrial tools is the Micro Controller Unit (MCU); a microcomputer optimized for single-chip system design for controlling peripheral devices geared to real-time applications. We will use the Atmega328P microcontroller (from the Atmel MEGA series RISC microcontrollers) in a series of labs to design microcontroller based systems. In particular, we will explain how to read and use the Atmega328P datasheet and how to write self-explanatory C code for interfacing with the MCU and controlling peripheral devices. This includes initializing register values, writing Interrupt Service Routines (ISRs), constructing underlying Finite State Machines (FSMs), and using a task based programming approach based on hardware timers.

Throughout the course students will learn the basics of C (without advanced data structures that involve pointers) and learn how to use C to program a Micro Controller Unit (MCU). This class aims to educate engineering students with little coding background. I.e., as a prerequisite students are expected to have some experience with basic structures such as loops, if-else statements, arrays, etc. (e.g., as used in MATLAB).

This class offers an intermediary course which allows students to prepare themselves for MCU courses which expect students to have real experience with C, e.g., Bruce Land’s course at Cornell. Our goal is to use the new ECE 3431 class as a prerequisite to a to-be-developed advanced MCU applications lab where we will teach the topics including real time OS, networking protocols such as CAN bus and ZigBee, OLED displays, motor control applications and much more.

Textbook: Elliot Williams, Make: AVR Programming, 2014.

Accessing Instructor's Material

The links below provide the student view of all the taught material. If you are a colleague faculty member, you can email at marten.van_dijk@uconn.edu in order to get access to all the pptx, latex, and C source files together with all the solutions (which are omitted from the student view).
However, there is one catch: you need to acknowledge this course by adding (where appropriate) the following footnote to your slide decks:

Developed by: Marten van Dijk & Syed Kamran Haider
ECE3411: Microprocessor Applications Laboratory (Fall 2015)
www.scl.uconn.edu/courses/ece3411/index.php

Moreover, you need to suggest how the course can be improved and share with us the new quiz/final questions or lab problems as developed by you.

Student's Material

The links below provide all the lecture notes, labs and the class/lab quizzes. If you are a student following these lectures and want to get the solutions of the labs/quizzes, you can email at marten.van_dijk@uconn.edu to first show what code/solution you have attempted by yourself, and then get the complete solutions.

Preliminary Resources

• Course Syllabus
• Online Ordering List
• Tools Setup
• Debugging Techniques
• Useful Datasheets and Documents
• ATmega328P_Datasheet
• ATmega328P Xplained Mini User Guide
• ATmega328P Xplained Mini Design Documentation
• Getting started with ATmega168PB
• Temperature Sensor Datasheet
• MCP4921 DAC Datasheet
• LCD_Datasheet
• LCD_Controller_HD44780
• LCD_ADM1602K-NSW-FBS-3.3v
• Buzzer_Datasheet
• C1815_Datasheet
• RedBot_Basic_Kit
• ATmega328P Bug Fixes & related files
  • ATmega328P_Not_Detected
  • EEPROM_32U4_00_mega328P_rev4.hex
  • Change_serial_number.zip

Before coming to the first lecture/lab:

• Place the order of your MCU kit and other components mentioned in the Online Ordering List.
• Make sure to have set up Eclipse/GCC & Atmel Studio; see Tools Setup which explains how to do this for your laptop, you do not have time for installing software during lab!
• Sign up for Piazza.

Week	Date	Lecture	Lab	Textbook Reading Assignment
1	29 Aug	Lec1a: Course Outline + Introduction to C-Programming	Lab1a: Examples basic C-Programming
	31 Aug	Lec1b: Microcontroller introduction + General Purpose Digital Output (GPDO)	Lab1b: Examples basic C-Programming Continued	Ch1. Ch2. till page 21 Ch2. 3 Ch2. 4
2	5 Sep	Labor Day – no classes	Labor Day – no classes
	7 Sep	QUIZ 1: C-Programming (Sample Quiz)	TEST 1: Basic C-Programming using Eclipse (Sample Lab Test)

Your Fail/Pass the first QUIZ and TEST is a good indicator for being able to successfully complete this course!

• Courses dropped after Monday September 12th will have a “W” for withdrawal recorded on the academic record.

From now on:

• You will need to submit a lab report (not handwritten) each week Monday summarizing the preceding week's lab solutions (see syllabus)
• Each lecture will start with a 5 minute short quiz/question about the reading assignment, posted lecture notes for that lecture, and previous lab.
• During each lab we will step-wise present (and post at Piazza) solution slides in order to keep the whole class in sync: you will have time to first code up your own answers.
• Highly Recommended: Write and maintain easy to understand template solutions yourself: This allows you to pick and choose code segments during lab tests.
• Notice: The sample quizes and sample lab tests provided may not have 100 points.

Week	Date	Lecture	Lab	Textbook Reading Assignment
3	12 Sep	Sample Class Question Lec2a: Universal Asynchronous Receiver & Transmitter (UART))	Lab2a: AVR Board Setup (soldering) + LEDs (GPDO)	Ch. 5 till page 97
	14 Sep	Sample Class Question Lec2b: General Purpose Digital Input (GPDI) + LCD Display	Lab2b: UART (recognizing strings) Related Files: uart.h, uart.c	Ch. 6
4	19 Sep	Sample Class Question Lec2c: Interrupt Service Routine (ISR)	Lab2c: LCD + General Purpose Digital Input (GPDI) Related Files: lcd_lib.h, lcd_lib.c
	21 Sep	QUIZ 2: GPDO, GPDI, LEDs, UART, LCD (Sample Quiz)	TEST 2: GPDO, GPDI, LEDs, UART (no LCD) (Sample Lab Test)

Week	Date	Lecture	Lab	Textbook Reading Assignment
5	26 Sep	Sample Class Question Lec3a: ISRs + Timer 0 + Task based programming	Lab3a: Non-blocking UART + debounced switches (uses ISR)	Ch. 9
	28 Sep	Sample Class Question Lec3b: Timers 0, 1, and 2	Lab3b: Non-blocking LCD
6	3 Oct	Sample Class Question Lec3c: External Interrupt + Pin Interrupt	Lab3c: Non-blocking LCD continued	Ch. 8
	5 Oct	Quiz 3: Main focus: ISRs, Timers, nonblocking UART and LCD, External and Pin Interrupts (Sample Quiz)	Lab Test 3: Main focus: ISRs, Timers, nonblocking UART and LCD, External and Pin Interrupts (Sample Lab Test)

Week	Date	Lecture	Lab	Textbook Reading Assignment
7	10 Oct	Sample Class Question Lec4a: External Interrupt + Task based programming	Lab4a: Human reaction time + Capture Interrupt Timer 1
	12 Oct	Lec4b: Review Session	Lab4b: Stopwatch
8	17 Oct	Sample Class Question Lec4c: Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)	Lab4c: Stopwatch continued	Ch. 10
	19 Oct	Quiz 4: Main focus: Pin Change Interrupt, External Interrupt, PWM, Timers (Sample Quiz)	Lab Test 4: Main focus: Pin Change Interrupt, External Interrupt, Timers (Sample Lab Test)

We will provide a prediction of your final score based on the average of your last three quiz/lab test scores.

• Monday October 31st is the last day to drop the course.

From now on:

• We will not present any solution slides during lab: You will work on your own solutions during lab time and you can ask the instructor(s) questions and ask for explanations where needed.
• From Lab6b onwards you are required to be even more independent: We will not lecture the new concepts, you will study the concepts with minimal guidance from the lab problem slides and you will extract information from the datasheet on your own.

Week	Date	Lecture	Lab	Textbook Reading Assignment
9	24 Oct	Sample Class Question Lec5a: Analog-to-Digital Conversion (ADC)	Lab5a: PWM	Ch. 7
	26 Oct	Sample Class Question Lec5b: Analog-to-Digital Conversion (ADC)	Lab5b: ADC	Ch. 12
10	31 Oct	Sample Class Question Lec5c: EEPROM + Watchdog Timer	Lab5c: Debugging using Atmel Studio Related Files: lab5c_files.zip	Ch. 18: p. 387-396 Ch. 19 Ch. 20
	2 Nov	Quiz 5: Main focus: PWM, ADC, EEPROM, Watchdog, Debugging (Sample Quiz)	Lab Test 5: Main focus: PWM, ADC (Sample Lab Test)

Week	Date	Lecture	Lab	Textbook Reading Assignment
11	7 Nov	Sample Class Question Lec6a: Task based programming revisited + Real Time Operating System (RTOS) global understanding	Lab6a: EEPROM + Watchdog + Assembly
	9 Nov	Sample Class Question Lec6b: RTOS continued + SPI	Lab6b: SPI	Ch. 16
12	14 Nov	Sample Class Question Lec6c: I2C + RedBot (PID control) + Servo Control	Lab6c: SPI + DAC	Ch. 11 Ch. 15 Ch. 17
	16 Nov	Quiz 6: Part of the quiz will be about RTOS (Sample Quiz)	Lab Test 6: Part of the lab test is about SPI (Sample Lab Test)

Week	Date	Lecture	Lab	Textbook Reading Assignment
	21 Nov	Thanksgiving Recess – no classes	Thanksgiving Recess – no classes
	23 Nov	Thanksgiving Recess – no classes	Thanksgiving Recess – no classes
13	28 Nov	Sample Class Question Lec7a: Advanced Topics	Lab7a: I2C + RedBot
	30 Nov	Lec7b: Review Session	Lab7b: RedBot	Ch. 17
14	5 Dec	Quiz 7: Main focus: SPI, I2C, DAC, Advanced Topics(Sample Quiz)	Lab Test 7: Main focus: I2C/SPI, DAC(Sample Lab Test)

Week	Date	Lecture	Lab	Textbook Reading Assignment
	7 Dec	Advertisement Advanced MCU Application Lab; Q&A	RedBot Demo
15	12-16 Dec	Finals Week - No Final	Finals Week - No Final

Disclaimer: The course schedule is subject to change.