Friday, January 30, 2015

Magellan Update

For 2015 the platform is using the following hardware:
  • Winbook 701  (Intel Baytrail tablet running windows 8.1)
  • Logitech 902 Camera 
  • Neo 6M GPS
  • Razor 9 IMU
  • 6 HCS-04 Sonar Sensors
  • 70cm Telemetry System
  • Hall Effect Quadrature encoders
  • Dual Front Bump Switch and Start Button
Major hardware changes for the year include replacing the odroid U2 that we used for AVC with the winbook.  The odroid would not allow us to run the vision software which is windows based.  The winbook has had the following issues:
  • Power management issues:  The charging circuit doesn't seem to keep up with power demands during heavy use.   The winbook uses more power then the odroid and needs to be on shore power when on running. 
  • Remote desktop.  Since the winbook can only run windows 8.1 home, there is not remote desktop functionality.  A wrapper was written to emulate all remote desktop functionality under a different process so that windows can't kill it. 
  • VNC is also used to mirror the winbook when preparing for a run.  This is slow due to the nature of NVC.
  • There are challenges with device drivers with windows 8.1 especially with prolific usb->ttl drivers.  In addition the FTDI driver renders devices unusable on any platform requiring the use a linux program call ft232r to reset the PID on the device. 
Additional challenges:
  • The usb hub is having problems with devices connecting and disconnecting.

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