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  • Author Author: dougw
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Smarter Life Challenge - The Henrietta Project - PC App

dougw

This installment of the Henrietta Project documentation covers operation of the touch pad and the remote PC app which uses Bluetooth to set up and control Henrietta. Actually, pretty much the whole system is shown in operation. In addition to programming the PC app and properly maping the touch pad, other significant progress since the last update includes implementing the thermostat scheduler with four programmable time periods each day on a seven day rotation. Since adding in the thermostat scheduler, memory usage on the PSoC4 has climbed over 80%.

There are 4 videos associated with this update:

  1. The first video is mainly a summary of the hardware subsystems.
  2. The second video demonstrates the touch pad and its use in programming the thermostat schedule.
  3. The third video was split into two parts, the first part shows the PC remote control app features.
  4. The second PC app video (fourth video in this update) shows the PC app and Henrietta together and how they interact.

Henrietta Hardware Recap

 

Henrietta Touch Pad Operation

 

Henrietta PC App

 

Henrietta PC App with Henrietta

 

For more info on the Henrietta Project, which is entered in the Smarter Life Challenge, check these logs:

http://www.element14.com/community/videos/10631/l/smarter-life-challenge--the-henrietta-project-intro

http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/dev_platforms_kits/element14_dev_kits/psoc4_pioneer_kit/blog/2013/12/15/smarter-life-challenge--the-henrietta-project

http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/dev_platforms_kits/element14_dev_kits/psoc4_pioneer_kit/blog/2013/12/17/smarter-life-challenge--the-henrietta-project--touch-screen-subsystem

http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/dev_platforms_kits/element14_dev_kits/psoc4_pioneer_kit/blog/2013/12/23/smarter-life-challenge--the-henrietta-project--personality-infusion

http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/dev_platforms_kits/element14_dev_kits/psoc4_pioneer_kit/blog/2013/12/29/smarter-life-challenge--the-henrietta-project--wire-wrap-versus-jumpers

http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/dev_platforms_kits/element14_dev_kits/psoc4_pioneer_kit/blog/2014/01/01/smarter-life-challenge--the-henrietta-project--bluetooth-operation

http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/dev_platforms_kits/element14_dev_kits/psoc4_pioneer_kit/blog/2014/01/02/smarter-life-challenge--the-henrietta-project--furnace-interface

http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/dev_platforms_kits/element14_dev_kits/psoc4_pioneer_kit/blog/2014/01/02/smarter-life-challenge--the-henrietta-project--light-sensor

http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/dev_platforms_kits/element14_dev_kits/psoc4_pioneer_kit/blog/2014/01/03/smarter-life-challenge--the-henrietta-project--gps-clock

 

 

videos

http://www.element14.com/community/videos/10631/l/smarter-life-challenge--the-henrietta-project-intro

http://www.element14.com/community/videos/10720/l/henrietta-eyes-animation-demo

http://www.element14.com/community/videos/10789/l/the-henrietta-project--bluetooth

http://www.element14.com/community/videos/10808/l/the-henrietta-project--voice-control

http://www.element14.com/community/videos/10809/l/the-henrietta-project--light-sensor

http://www.element14.com/community/videos/10810/l/the-henrietta-project--gps-clock

http://www.element14.com/community/videos/10826/l/henrietta-gps-clock-large-font

http://www.element14.com/community/videos/10849/l/the-henrietta-project--hardware-summary

http://www.element14.com/community/videos/10850/l/the-henrietta-project--touch-pad

http://www.element14.com/community/videos/10851/l/the-henrietta-project--pc-app

  http://www.element14.com/community/videos/10854/l/the-henrietta-project--pc-app-operation

  • in reply to dougw

    Hey Douglas,

    Good! I was just wondering, you don't have to fix it for me... I just guessed that they could run faster, and whether the firmware load was too big or not. Apparently it was more in the timing, good to see that... Might improve overal performance!

  • in reply to vsluiter

    Hi Victor,

    I took a quick look and eliminated some of the timing delays in the LCD writing routine which improved the refresh rate by about a factor of 2. I will look into it more closely later.

  • in reply to vsluiter

    Hi Victor,

    The SPI to the displays is implemented with a bit-banging routine using fairly conservative timing. Each pixel takes several microseconds and there are various other delays in the driver. It could probably be improved significantly, but I haven't tried to optimize it yet, mainly because of other higher priorities.

    The reason for bit-banging is I tied up the 2 hardware serial ports with Bluetooth and GPS and wasn't sure if I could implement another serial port in programmable hardware, given all the other interfaces I was trying to implement. I did mess around with a different solution for the Bluetooth port to free up an SPI port, but PSoC Creator wasn't too happy with my attempts, so I parked it. Chalk it up to rookie ignorance. I'm still thinking about it, but it is on the back burner right now. The LCDs are already connected to valid SPI data and clock pins in case I do find a solution that frees up an SPI port.

  • Hello Douglas,

    Very well done, you're integrating quite a lot.

    One thing I was wondering about: why do the screens refresh so slowly? Would there be a way to speed that up?

  • Very well done.

    You have done an excellent job with the project.

    I am truly impressed.

    DAB