THIS
MONTH:
Due
Digilence
THE USB I/O EXPLORER FROM DIGILENT.
This month, we have the opportunity to present the USB I/O Explorer from Digilent. The I/O Explorer is a dedicated USB peripheral device choc full of sensors so
intrepid roboticists can practice their programming skills by
writing applications to interact with real world inputs. The
I/O Explorer is a bit different from the projects we’re used
to – with Evan’s mechanical engineering background, we’re
most accustomed to adding new mechanisms and sensors
to tweak kits. We would describe our programming skill set
as instrumental – we do what it takes to get by, kind of like
MacGyver. We shoehorn lines of code together that might
not normally have any business next to each other, but it
will get the robot through the maze in one piece. The I/O
Explorer, however, is all about the coding. The sophisticated
array of sensors and expansion ports take the guesswork
out of equipping your device with the means to gather data
from the outside world, allowing you to focus on writing
the code capable of dealing with such a wealth of information.
We hope the I/O Explorer will help us refine our coding skills
to be a little more James Bond and a little less MacGyver.
I/O Explorer: First Class
The I/O Explorer is an impressive and highly evolved
device, so it makes sense that the
process of designing it was one of
experimentation and incremental
advancement. Before the I/O Explorer
burst onto the scene, the diligent
folks at Digilent were working on a
number of Field Programmable Gate
Array (FPGA) boards. The Adept
software system was originally
designed to download configuration
files to the FPGA boards. The Adept
software was soon expanded to move
data back and forth between the
FPGA boards and the software
application on the PC. The culminating
result is the Adept software application
that allows users to discover connected
devices, configure them, and transfer
data between the device and the
computer. The software application has
WRITING AN APPLICATION WITH MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO C++.
68 SERVO 11.2011