Case Studies

Our users have applied Viewport to some interesting problems. Take a look at what people are doing with Viewport:

Hanno's DanceBot
Hanno build a sophisticated, vision-guided, balancing robot that can interact with its environment. Read how he used ViewPort to take measurements, perform vision processing, and fine tune his algorithms in this Circuit Cellar feature article.


Harley's Z80
Read about Harley and his quest to emulate the first "open source" microprocessor- the Z80.

Ingolf's Messmöbel
Read about Ingolf's high performance "measuring cabinet" which integrates a power supply, frequency generator, logic state analyzer, digital oscilloscope, and IO module into one box.

Kyle's Motor Controller
Read about Kyle's high-performance PID motor controller.

How you can use ViewPort

Use CaseDetail
Debugging Code Share variables with ViewPort and monitor how they change over time in the DSO mode. Step through spin code, set breakpoints, watch call stack and profiler.
PC-based Controller Connect Propeller to a device and share the variable controlling it's behavior. For example, use a ViewPort dial to control a hobby servo's position.
Tuning and Calibrating Parameters Use a scroll bar in ViewPort to change the parameters of a PID Control
Interface with other Hardware Use the LSA view to monitor timing signals when working with I2C devices like a compass or eeprom
Take Measurements View and measure the signals from an ADC with the DSO, Spectrum Analyzer, Data Logger and more.
SCADA Prototype Tool Control a remote system and log data for sharing with other programs.
Teaching Tool Introduce operation of basic instrumentation such as DSO, LSA etc.
Robot Design Platform View sensor values and control actuators with ViewPort
Fuzzy Logic Platform Use the control panel to adjust fuzzy logic rules to provide fuzzy logic control for your program.
Vision Platform Watch raw and vision-processed video from a camera with ViewPort. Integrate with OpenCV library

Project Ideas

ProjectDetail
Internet Weather station Add sensors to the Propeller: temperature, wind direction and speed, camera.
Create a weather station view Automatically upload screenshots to ftp server
Balancing Robot Build robot with tilt sensor and wheel encoder
Tune the control algorithm
Digital Oscilloscope/Spectrum Analyzer Add an ADC to the Propeller to measure analog values View signal in DSO/Analog views
Function Generator Add a DAC to the Propeller to generate analog values Assign controls to control the waveform: pwm, sine, square...
Measure sensorsGyro, accelerometer, Ping, IR , wheel encoder, compass, GPS, temperature …….
Control actuators Solenoid, Hobby Servo, motors, stepper motor, H-bridge
Study Control Theory Bode plot, step response, PID, fuzzy logic, state space, Kalman-filter, Signal process DSP, filter, sample, FFT…
Image Processing TV, camera, NTSC, Image process, Pixel manipulation, blob finder, contour…
Process Control Measure temperature and pH while fermenting beer
Pick and Place Tune software to use vision to recognize objects then move them

Measurements

It's easy to take and share measurements of sensors with Viewport. Here are some of our favorite measurements.

Tell us how you're using Viewport!

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