This “Testing and Optimization” phase is the final stage in the design process, beginning on March 24th, 2015, and concluding at the end of the Spring 2015 semester, May 7th, 2015. This process takes the output of the previous Detailed Design Phase, and fine-tunes the overall design to operate at the highest efficiency, with the best possible result.
The main objective of this design phase was to optimize the software side of the design, in order for the operation and transfer of data to be as fast, intuitive, and efficient as possible. This involved adapting both the Altera Hardware Description Language (AHDL) to control the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), which controls the main functionality of all of the componentry; but also adapting the MATLAB code, which controls the transfer of information from the user on the computer, as well as the transfer of images to the computer from the device. By changing these software elements iteratively, the group was able to have the software run the data transfer between components run as quickly as possible, with the lowest Bit Error Rate (BER). This is necessary to ensure that the data received is devoid of as many delays as possible, but also to guarantee that the data is correct. Additionally, with the inclusion of the many different design elements found in the MATLAB Graphical User Interface (GUI) discussed on the previous Detailed Design Phase, the group was able to include a much larger range of functionality, such as the ability to alter the images taken to be in color or grayscale. Other implemented design elements include: ability to alter the gain and shutter speed of the images taken, and the ability to adjust the speed of frames in the movie file that can be created from the still images.
- Computer
- Oscilliscope
- Digital Multimeter
- Laser
- Image Sensors
- Micro USB Cable
- MATLAB
- Altera Quartus II
- Altera ModelSim