Accomplishments:
My accomplishments this week were in the preparation of our proposal slides, as well as individual research into the FPGA aspects of our project. Prior to Monday, I worked on synthesizing the details and feedback we received on our abstract, identifying potential gaps in our abstract, and researching further specifics to build on and quantify our use case/requirements/implementation. That enabled my contributions towards my sections of the slide deck. After Monday, I continued doing research and gathering data to finalize the FPGA selection. I did extensive research into FPGA options; particularly the options provided by the 18-500 parts inventory. Based on factors like the included FPGA, large onboard memory, and support with AMD Vivado, I decided on the Ultra96-V2 as the best FPGA for our purpose, and I have finalized that decision by submitting the order form. Since we have a top candidate for the wireless transmitter, I also have done further research into the packet structure and have a preliminary plan. Some of the finer details such as bit endianness can change later on, but in general I have a plan for the components of the packet, given the 32 byte constraint of the transmitter.
Progress:
My progress is mostly on schedule, as my main focus for this week was researching the FPGA design tradeoffs and finalizing the FPGA selection as well as finalizing the packet format. Both are mostly completed (the packet format may change to adapt to technical challenges later on, but we have a plan for now).
Deliverables:
My task for the next week is to establish a data link from the radio module to the FPGA. The goal is just a simple data link to show that the flow of data is being recognized, without any complicated packet handling yet. I will need to work with Haowen on that part, as the wireless transmitter falls under her scope too. In doing so, I will also see some of the technical challenges we might face later on, which will help guide further research as well as help adjust the timeline if needed.