I am looking for a development board (microcontroller based), with reasonably powerful math functionality, for real-time simiulation of oscillation systems (pendulums,SHM,shock absorbers etc.) and other similar systems which can be modelled using differential equations. I hope to represent the solutions graphically on an ossiloscope, so the board should also have analog output with sufficient resolution. Thanks, Alex
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2\$\begingroup\$ Do you need floating point math, or can you make do with fixed point algorithms? The former will be significantly more expensive and hard to find than the latter. \$\endgroup\$– Kevin VermeerMar 9, 2011 at 23:29
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1\$\begingroup\$ Please provide some more information about your project. Why do you need a board and not just a PC? Will the board measure anything or only simulate and drive the scope? \$\endgroup\$– jpcMar 10, 2011 at 1:47
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\$\begingroup\$ I know that it could be done much more easily on a PC (and I have done something similar on the PC), but I want to build a standalone device for the purpose(to create something similar to an analog computer, but implemented digitally). I do need floating point functionality.It wouldn't have to measure any inputs from sensors, the only inputs I need are just to toggle between types of and changing several parameters(so several push buttons and one or two potentiometers. \$\endgroup\$– Alexdagre8Mar 10, 2011 at 5:46
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\$\begingroup\$ @reemrevnivek I was hoping to use the RK method to solve the ODEs and I don't know of any algorithms for integration that only uses integers that can be run in realtime. \$\endgroup\$– Alexdagre8Mar 10, 2011 at 8:03
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2 Answers
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It would make more sense to do your simulation on a PC using MATLAB (expensive) or Scilab (free). Output can be plotted graphically, you won't need a scope.
answered Mar 9, 2011 at 23:04
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\$\begingroup\$ my friends doing computer vision and other heavily simulation based work often find that controlling a graphics card and using it can be 5 or more orders of magnitude faster then matlab. This can mean the difference between days and seconds. \$\endgroup\$– KortukMar 10, 2011 at 2:12
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\$\begingroup\$ The simulation that Alexdagre8 wants to do is much less demanding than that, MATLAB and Scilab on a PC should be quite adequate. \$\endgroup\$ Mar 10, 2011 at 16:47
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You could use a smartphone/PDA.
Most have serial ports for IO, and you could probably get analog output through the headphone output, if you don't mind a ~20hz highpass filter.
Alternatively, the BeagleBoard is a chunky SOC dev-board, with floating point capabilities, and has parallel IO, so you should be able to attach a DAC to it.
answered Mar 10, 2011 at 1:28
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\$\begingroup\$ I plan on giving it to my school as a present so I want to keep the budget to a minimum, so are there cheaper dev boards than a beagleboard(suitable for this purpose)? If not would an old 1G iPod touch work. \$\endgroup\$ Mar 10, 2011 at 19:22