Fortgeschrittenes Mikrocontroller-Praktikum

Fortgeschrittenes Mikrocontroller-Praktikum / Advanced Laboratory in Microcontroller

ECTS Credits: 6

Mandatory Requirements:
Successful participation in the laboratory course Mikrocomputertechnik / Microcontroller Techniques.

Course Objectives:
The objective of the course is

• to acquire advanced knowledge in the field of microcontroller architectures and peripheral hardware.
• to familiarize with the workflow of creating hardware-oriented and complex microcontroller applications. 
• to gain solution strategies to perform own embedded hard- and software projects.
   

Contents:
Using a MSP430 development board with advanced peripherals add-ons, the students will practically learn the relevant steps in the creation of a microcontroller application. This involves:

• creating microcontroller applications of extended size and complexity
• implementing hardware drivers and custom libraries
• understanding hardware documentation and circuit schematics
• utilizing advanced debugging tools (e.g. logic analyzers)
• understanding and implementing bus systems like SPI, I2C and UART
• interfacing complex peripheral units (sensors, ADCs, DACs, FLASH memories etc.)
• interfacing I/O devices (LCD displays, joysticks etc.)

Course Organizers:
Alexander Richter, Thomas Schaechtle

Procedure during the Coronavirus Pandemic:
The Advanced Microcontroller Lab is designed as a practical exercise to be performed autonomously at home, so that the course will take place in the summer term 2020 with only minor modifications due to the coronavirus pandemic. The following procedure will be applied:

• Upon successful registration, students will receive a link and a password to access the university's E-learning platform ILIAS, latest on April 23, 2021.
  The number of seats is generally restricted due to the limited amount of scientific staff members/ tutors to guide students along in the field of advanced microcontroller programming. We’ll do our best to include as many students as possible. If you received a seat, but decided not to participate, please let us know that we can redistribute the seat to students being on the waiting list.
• The students will be provided with an introduction document on the course in order to familiarize with the details of exercise submission and grading, supplemented with a video recording of from a previous semester.
• Please wait for separate instructions on picking up the hardware boxed from the library. We are currently negotiating with the library on how to proceed.
• Every student needs to register in an exercise group within the ILIAS framework, latest until April 30, 2021.
• As always, there is no lecture accompanying the course. The exercise sheets generally inform about where to find information. In most of the cases, the datasheets of the used components must be consulted.
• During the semester, four programming exercises based on the MSP430 microcontroller and advanced peripherals need to be solved. Exercise sheets as well as submission deadlines are given on ILIAS, such as done in the fundamental microcontroller lab course. In general, an exercise submission is due every second week. Feedback and grading will be provided by the course tutors.
• A final project will allow the students to solve a more complex task or to realize their own ideas, based on the contents of the four exercise sheets. Four weeks will be given to realize the project. Submission will include the source code together with a brief presentation on the project – either by video conferencing or by video recording.
• In general, full support will be given in the online forums provided on ILIAS. As video conferences are barely useful when having hardware-related or software-related issues, please open a thread on ILIAS, including a concise description of your problem and, if required, sample code. If you are experiencing defects on your hardware, please contact your course tutor.