Advisor(s)

Ali Abur

Contributor(s)

Gunar Schirner, Dionisio Bernal

Date of Award

2012

Date Accepted

4-2012

Degree Grantor

Northeastern University

Degree Level

M.S.

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department or Academic Unit

College of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Keywords

electrical engineering, engineering, computer engineering, software, microcontroller, stepper motor fault diagnosis

Disciplines

Electrical and Computer Engineering | Engineering

Abstract

Two independent pieces of embedded software have been developed to operate a data logging system based on a PIC18F8722 microcontroller for a stepper motor diagnosis application. The first piece of embedded software is implemented with several state machines in a foreground/background (superloop) structure, while the second is implemented as an RTOS-enabled software based on the Salvo Lite cooperative real time operating system. The superloop implementation results in data for up to 8 stepper motor channels being logged to an SD card and RS-232 link at a rate of 10 Hz, with approximately 50% processor overhead time reserved for RS-232 communications. The RTOS-enabled implementation results in an improved high priority interrupt service routine execution time, but is overall slower to respond to interrupts compared to the superloop implementation due to the cooperative nature of the chosen operating system. A custom binary-to-ASCII conversion software is also developed for converting the resulting data log file produced by both software implementations to human readable text, as the result of both implementations is a binary data log file containing data of interest for up to 8 stepper motors.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Rights Information

copyright 2012

Rights Holder

Michael Thomas Daniel


View Full Text

Click button above to open, or right-click to save.

Share

COinS