 July 1997 --
The WeaveScan project at Appalachian Electronics has made great progress during the month of July. There is a coordinated effort between both hardware and software that is turning out to be a fantastic system in getting the project on its feet and into production.All of the housing components have been assembled and certified to the original design.
Mechanical Designer, David Canterbury, has done an excellent job of creating a housing that is easy to assemble, easy to service, and low cost. This housing was installed on the weaving machine at Georgia Tech in preparation for the testing to be done in September. At this time, no changes in the enclosure are required. As I mentioned last month, the DSP/Camera sub system has been successfully prototyped. The software has been tested and new boards were recently received. We anticipate additional board assemblies to be produced by mid-August. The controller hardware has been verified in July. This system uses a new Motorola processor referred to as a "ColdFire". This is a new family of micro-computers that Motorola anticipates upgrading for the next several years. The components in this upgrade support all applications in the foreseeable future. The system consists of 16 Meg x 32 RAM, 4 Meg x 16 Flash, real time clock, printer port, operator interface, network interface, and a massive parallel port to the camera system. Electronic Engineer, Gary McComas, has done a great job selecting the components and architecture for the "ColdFire" design.
In mid July, the software design for the "ColdFire" system was completed. Since that time, Software Engineer, Terri Blasius, has been busy testing the "ColdFire" hardware and writing code. At this time, the "ColdFire" software is 50% complete, as well as the hardware testing. We anticipate having the code tested by mid-September. Terri has done a wonderful job providing software for the DSP and "ColdFire" systems. After all the testing at AEI, we deliver the first unit to Georgia Tech to be installed on their loom. After testing in Atlanta, we will invite everyone to an open house at Georgia Tech. At that time, we will discuss field trials with potential partners. Our join effort with Georgia Tech was initiated in October of last year.
Our first prototype versus the latest enclosure design. We now have a fully extruded design using interlocking tabs providing simple assembly along with strength.
Our first full size unit. This unit has been fitted to a machine to test mechanical integrity. The test went well. Now to load up and test the electronics! The current plan is to have the system in the final stages of development this October. We appreciate everyone's support and are looking forward to showing you the WeaveScan System soon. Sincerely,
|
