PC Based Oscilloscope

Final report and files

2008-05-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

Here is the final project :

Source code

Project report

Installation guide

PROJECT COMPLETE

2006-06-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

Our work was over on 9th June but the professor made us stay..

So... At last I announce that OUR PROJECT IS COMPLETE!!!!!!

Here's the screenshot :

Surging Ahead!

2006-06-07T01:44:00.000-07:00

Today we combined the front end design of the oscilloscope with the plotting program. We also integrated the slider and the volt/div controls. We also took 10^6 readings of an input waveform with varying frequency and voltages.

Our report is expected to be only around 12 pages, so that made our job a lot easier.

Finalizing the Panel

2006-06-06T06:27:00.001-07:00

Today we improved the design and almost finalized it. We replaced the checkboxes and radio buttons with push-buttons.

Now all that remained was to bring all the code together!

Meeting the Professor

2006-06-06T06:21:00.001-07:00

Today we met the professor and decided to talk about the RAM and our leaving date. He was under the impression that we were final year students. That was why he had given us the RDS assignment. We corrected him immediately.

We discussed Op-amp networks and Schmitt triggers for almost an hour. He told us the pitiful state of education in engineering, the marks-oriented study condition, about how the teachers also were not so up-to-date.

We talked to him about the RAM on his unused PC and he consented. However, we found out that it was only 64MB and it would not help us in any way. We decided to run a part of our project on Nitin's laptop as the RAM was totally insufficient.

We improved the slider in the panel.

Sahil and Nitin watched Desperate Housewives till very late in the night.

Designing the Panel

2006-06-06T06:16:00.001-07:00

We woke up early today. We added sliders for providing vertical and horizontal motion of the graph. We also added radio buttons for the time/div and volt/div options. We also provided checkboxes for Pause, Trigger and Vector Mode.

We took a half day today. Mr. Pandit also had to leave as he had to correct a mistake in the paper he had been setting. He had to set a paper on AIC (Analog Integrated Circuits) and had by mistake he set a paper on ADIC (Analog and Digital Integrated Circuits).

Today Saurabh and Nikhil came to visit us. We went to see X-men 3 in the nearby multiplex. It was a good movie. Came back and watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose and had a debate over the horror movie. Slept late as usual. We also met Sandeep Sahare in the night.

Started Report

2006-06-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

Today we started writing the project report. We started putting whatever we could find relevent in a document and planned to trim it off later. We planned the size of the report to about 35 pages.

We also discussed the front end of the applet.

Today Tushar came in the evening and Nitin spent the evening with him.

Going Ahead

2006-06-06T06:07:00.000-07:00

Today was a big day. We achieved direct plotting of data from the MySQL database to the applet at a rate of about 4000 samples/s.

We calculated the frequency of the wave. As there was a mismatch in the speeds of Java and C, the displayed frequency was not correct but the code was working.

We also started designing the front of the oscilloscope.

Hemant visited us today.

Plan B

2006-06-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

Today we went back to work. Mr. Pandit had told the professor that we had gone to Lamington Road to look for RAM in the torrential rain. We suggested a solution for solving the RDS network solver he had asked us.

We were facing problems in implementing the queues and they also were inefficient, so we decided to implement direct streaming of data from the database.

Relaxing

2006-06-06T06:04:00.000-07:00

Today we did nothing. We were fed up, it was raining like hell and we were all aleepy. We got up in the evening. We watched Being Cyrus and Kung fu Hustle in the night. Both were too good.

Planning Ahead

2006-06-06T06:02:00.000-07:00

Today we formed an idea about how to proceed in the project. We planned on using queues as internal buffers for plotting the data. We also decided on running two threads in Java. One thread would handle the queue and the other would take care of plotting the values.

We also used the drawLine() function in Java for joining the points to make the graph look continuous. We studied threads more.

We realised that the 256MB RAM wasn't sufficient for our projec. We watched Fanaa in the night.

Stuck

2006-06-06T06:01:00.000-07:00

Now we had a major task in hand, to query MySQL from the applet through the servlet. This took us the whole day to work out. We also read about threads and how to manipulate them.

Report Presentation

2006-06-06T05:58:00.000-07:00

We had to give a presentation on our project to Prof. T. S. Rathore, about what we had achieved and what we planned to achieve further in our project. He saw everyone's presentations and didn't comment much on our presentation.

We also played with the C code introducing a sleep to reduce the processor load. The code took about 20s instead of the usual 10s. The reason for today's small blog is we spent yesterday night watching Aladdin and Swordfish.

Playing Around

2006-06-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

We realised the transfer of data through php and JavaScript made the process of plotting too slow, giving a plotting rate of only 1 frame/s. We had to take a different path, so we decided to use a Java Servlet. The applet was allowed to interact with the servlet through the sandbox. The servlet interacted with the MySQL databse. The implication of this was that we could achieve frame rates of upto 20 frames/s as the Tomcat server was fast. We decided this today and made a Java applet accept a string variable parameter from the servlet.

A Glimpse of what's about to come...

2006-05-25T23:36:00.000-07:00

These are just some of the initial images ;) ...

Project going fast ahead!!

2006-05-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

Today...
For the first time we saw values change in the monitor with us changing a knob in our hands!!! (instantaneously)
We plotted the graph of the actual and observed readings.. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!! Here is the attached pdf file for download.

We made a prog for querying C with MySQL and integrated it with PARAPIN.

Mr. Pandit told us to ponder more on the diode circuit problem he gave us.

Then..
I decided..
The following approaches are available for giving the data to the JAVA-APPLET:

To digitally sign the java applet to allow it make connections to other hosts.
To use the tomcat server to make the MySql queries for the applet and ask the applet to connect to tomcat server on port no 80. (The applet is allowed to make connection only to port it was called from.)
The 3rd approach.. (My original approach :)
To use AJAX to update the data on the client!!
The APPLET tag on the webpage has a parameter named PARAM.
My theory is -

As the PARAM tag is on the html webpage.. JavaScript will have full access to it.
JavaScript has full access to make network connections.
The JavaScript can make AJAX requests to the web server and update the PARAM tag.
I will make the JavaScript call for a PHP page which will in turn query the MySql Data.

Sahil

Tomcat Started!

2006-05-23T21:29:00.000-07:00

Today we successfully interfaced parallel port buffer through C.

We started the day late as usual.Vidyadhar Kamble, who was to give us lab equipments had gone on leave and was supposed to return on the next Monday. Then the lab was in hands of Vinod who was quite (damn) unhelpful and refused(!!!) to give us equipments till Vidyadhar returned. So, we went back to our lab and asked Mr. Pandit for help. He pulled out a couple of boxes and arranged for resistors, capacitors, LED's and gave us a CRO, signal generator and power supply. The fat guy (IIT final year placed in INTEL doing his final year proj.) had taken all of our earlier equipment and wasn't even working on it.
We then went to Prof. M. B. Patil and got three ADC's from WEL. The WEL lab in charge was Mr. Joshi who was most helpful and gave us a book to photocopy about interfacing the ADC804's and the much needed single strand wires. We soldered PP connector to single strand wires and connected it to the buffer IC. We tested the ckt and it worked like magic. Our only point of concern was the 40mA current taken by the buffer which increased sometimes on connecting to the computer.

Moreover we also made a Tomcat 5 server servlet query a MySQL database.

Trip to Pune..

2006-05-21T20:56:00.000-07:00

Today is Sunday.
We decided on Friday that we'll be going to Pune.. We reached Pune at 11 P.M. by bus..

On Saturday..
We brought all our clothes to Pune to use Isli's washing machine to wash our clothes. Turned out his washing machine hadn't been used for 3 months :P . We spent an hour cleaning his washing machine. When Sahil washed his clothes in the washing machine.. and returned after 15 min, the water had turned darker than slum water.(Yuk!). Put his clothes in one more round. Same with Sumit.
Then we went to Deccan road. Had a Pizza for lunch. Sahil purchased 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus'. Had some fun at McDonald's.
We came back home, had ice-cream, had chinese for dinner along with Austin Powers I (awesome night!!).

Today..
Caught bus at Kothrud. Sahil had to stand half of the way coz no seats were left. Reached hostel around 2 P.M. had samosas AND went to the department. Was a rough day. Had nice food in canteen.

Aamchi Mumbai - Kelon ka din

2006-05-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

Today we were beaten up and looted. Well actually we broke the law. The day started with Sahil getting up late. Ladki finally aa gayi. We deposited our login forms. We then took our notebook and set off for Lamington Road to shop for an ADC with a list of 15 prospect ADC's. Sahil wanted to recharge his mobile. Five buses left for Andheri in front of us. We then waited for an hour till we got a bus. We went to Andheri station and purchased two return tickects for Grant Road.

As Sahil and Sumit wanted to book tickets for going home, we decided to book them in Dadar. After roaming a lot on the station, we finally located the place where we wanted to book the tickets. Unfortunately, there was a outstation platform between us and the booth and we were caught by the rascal waiting to catch unawares like us. We were taken to the office where we saw two hooligans getting scores. After bargaining and a lot of gidgidana, we managed to get the fine down from Rs 1254 per person to Rs. 100 per person. We were then sick of Dadar and decided to book the tickets in Churchgate.

So we set off for Lamington Road. We searched a lot for Vega and Visha electronic shops and found them in an hour. Only Vega had one of our 15 ADC's and that was costing Rs.850. We also learned that the market had fallen 826 points. We then had food at King's. We roamed a lot on foot searching for an internet cafe, but after another hour of fruitless search, we found that the nearest internet cafe was in Chowpatty. We were frustrated and decided to leave for Churchgate.

We booked new return tickets for Churchgate. We went in a comparitively empty train and went to the reservation center where there was a long queue but fortunately, was air-conditioned. We then wanted to make the trip some use, so we decided to see the Gateway. It was fun and we saw a lot of couples there. We also returned by foot and had atleast a four km walk.

As we returned by a fast train, there was tremendous rush at Andheri and Nitin got his lip swollen. We had had enough of the day and went to Powai in an air-conditioned bus. There were two wonderful girls in the bus. We had dinner in the restaurant in the campus and returned back to the hostel.

We had set out to explore Mumbai but Mumbai ended up exploring us.

2006-05-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

Today we got up at 9 in the morning and hurried without breakfast for fear that we were late. The lab was closed. We successfully installed FC5 on the computer by using the CD-ROM of another computer.

We also installed the MySQL libraries for C and Java and tested the code of the laptop on the PC. It was working fine.

We came to know that we were allowed 24-hours access to the department lab with AC. It had Windows and Linux. For surfing the internet, we have to ask for permission from Prof T. S. Rathore.

Ladki kal bhagi thi aaj bhi nahi aayi.

We got a hostel room H4-332 which was very dirty and without a tubelight. We asked for one more room.

2006-05-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the lab and started work properly. We surfed the internet for two hours in the afternoon and searched for an appropriate ADC for our project, though we didn't come to any satisfactory conclusion. We also collected the ID cards in the evening.

The day was cool but we didn't do any work. We were sleepy in the afternoon. ladki bhaag gayi. We discussed about a diode resistor circuit solver in C in the evening. We upgraded the computer's RAM to 256MB.

2006-05-15T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today we successfully made JAVA query MySql!!!

At last... Solanki Ma'am (the office person in the academic section) finally came back from her holiday (which delayed us by 10 days). We got the project form signed from the Dean which opened many doors for us ->

We were able to pay the project fees (Rs. 2000/- each).
The fees reciept enabled us to step inside the department lab.
We applied for hostel accomodation and identity card.

We went to the department and met our project supervisor Mr. Uday Pandit after one whole week. We recieved our computer in the department today although we wont be allowed to work on it (i.e. install FC5 on it (rape it)) until some kind of permission is obtained from some computer supervisor. We also recieved our equipment today.

From tomorrow we have to report at the department at 10 am(!!) everyday(!!!!) and brief the professor about our progress(??) before leaving.

After coming back we watched Gangster (in a Body's room coz our friend's had locked the doors behind us). Before leaving in the afternoon I was at the brink of making Java work with MySql... I had the code... I had installed the package.. the code complied.. everything was perfect! BUT.. the code refused to work. Now at 2:30 am at night I realised I was trying to execute the wrong executable all along! Everything was perfect and the correct executable worked. I was just trying to execute the wrong one.

Tomorrow we would be recieving our hostel accomodition. We will apply for sharda accounts (Sharda is the name of the mail server of the electrical department at IITB).

Finally... the project starts..

Sahil

2006-05-13T06:31:00.000-07:00

Today we interfaced C with MySQL successfully (even though we got up at 12 in the afternoon). We haven't been able to contact Prof. T. S. Rathore and Mrs. Solanki was absent the whole week, due to which we are working in two teams, Sahil in H13 on Rohan's comp and Sumit and me in H4 on my laptop. I had put the mysql.h file in /usr/include which was not the proper way of doing it, so Sahil downloaded the rpm from the internet and it worked like magic!

Sahil is reading Java (it's quite vast), I'm Orkutting and Blogging and Sumit is sleeping. We have read the Parapin tutorial and understood quite a lot of it. We'll test it as soon as we lay our hands on the department comp (my laptop doesn't have a parallel port). Sahil is reading about interfacing, packaging and threading. He says we have to read the whole of Java for implementing the plotting applet.

Softwares:

Fedore Core 5
phpMyAdmin 2.8
MySQL 5.0.18
libgcj-4.1.0
gcc 4.1.0
Parapin 1.0.0
Firefox 1.5.0.1

We are using only Open Source softwares for the development of our project.

Have done:

Understood Parapin programming in C through the Parapin library.
Interfaced C and MySQL.

To Do:

To build the ADC and buffer circuit and clock it using Parapin.
Test the C program real time using a variable dc input.
Test the C program real time using a variable frequency ac input.
Decrease the time delay in inserting data into the MySQL database.
Understand Java applet programming.
Interface Java with MySQL.
Synchronize Java so that MySQL table is not flooded.

Nitin Isloorkar

2006-05-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

This is a blog for tracking the development of our PC Based Oscilloscope...
Creators :
Nitin Isloorkar
Sahil Ahuja
Sumit Mathur