competency demonstration report

1

Competency Demonstration Report

I, DAVOOD IZADI, staying at,

„All statements of fact in this report are true and correct and I have made claims of

acquired competencies in good faith. The report is all my own work and is a true

representation of my personal competence in written English. I confirm that I

understand that members of the engineering team in Australia are required to

display a commitment to exercising professional and ethical responsibility in all

aspects of their work. I also understand that documentation submitted in support of

my application may be referred to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship

(DIAC) for integrity checking.‟

Printed Name: Davood Izadi

Signature:

Date:

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INDEX

1. Curriculum Vitae………………………………………………………………3

2. Continuing Professional Development…………………………………………6

3. Carrier Episode 1……………………………………………………………….7

4. Carrier Episode 2 ……………………………………………………………..19

5. Carrier Episode 3 ……………………………………………………………..29

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Curriculum Vitaee

PERSONAL DETAILS

Name: Davood izadi

Date of Birth: 11/09/1983

Sex: Male

Marital Status: Single

Passport Number R10755135

Present Address: 4/21 Watson Ave, Belmont, VIC 3216.

Telephone (Mobile) 0403654551

E-mail: [email protected]

Career Objective

• To apply for Australian immigration

Education Details

• Feb 2008- Nov 2009

Masters of Engineering (Professional)

Specialization: Electronic & Telecommunication

Deakin University

• 2002-2006

Bsc Electrical Engineering

Sadjad University, Mashad Iran

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Theses Conducted

Master thesis on “Embedded Google Map Web Design Based GPS Data Compression”,

supervised by: Dr.Pubudu Pathirana, Deakin University, Australia.

Score: HD 83/100.

Bachelor thesis on “advertising LED board”, supervised by Dr. Abbas Golmakani, Sadjad

University, Mashhad. Iran.

Score: HD 95/100.

Published Papers

Aravinda S. Rao, Davood Izadi, Reuben F. Tellis, Samitha W. Ekanayake and Pubudu N. Pathirana,

2009, “Data Monitoring Sensor Network for BigNet Research Testbed”, the Fifth International

Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing, Melbourne Uni,

Melbourne, Australia. Accepted

Yasser Mafinejad, Abbas Kouzani, Khalil Mafinezhad, Davood Izadi, 2009, “Design and Simulation

of a RF MEMS Shunt Switch for Ka and V Bands and the Effects of Varying Its Geometrical

Parameters” The 52nd. IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, Cancún,

México Accepted on 27/May/2009

Professional Development

Certificate of English Academic Program, Deakin University English Language

Institute (DUELI)

Professional Memberships

2009-Current

Member of Engineers Australia with membership Number: 3638190.

Technical Skills

Advance knowledge in EM3DS, Protel, OrCad, Pspice, Matlab Microsoft Office suite,

including Excel, MS Project Management, MS Office Access.

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Advance knowledge in programming database.

Advance knowledge in C, C#, and Visual Studio.

A strong understanding of Ericsson System (Hardware and software)

Advanced knowledge in CISCO and networking computers.

Advance knowledge in PHP and web page designing.

Experience in programming AVR micro controller, HCS08 Microcontrollers and FPGA.

Advanced knowledge in VLSI.

Advance knowledge in Neural Network.

Advance knowledge in RF MEMS.

Supplementary skills

Good written and oral communication skills.

Perfect team player

Self motivated and positive feelings towards works.

Able to be a good analyzer and researcher.

Ability to work under pressure.

Good planning and organizing skill.

High dedication to meet the deadlines on time and achieve targets.

Language skill

English: I am proficient in writing, speaking, listening and reading.

Persian: Native language

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Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Formal Higher Education study

M.Eng degree in Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering, School of Science

and Technology from Deakin university (02/2007-11/2009)

Bsc Electrical Engineering, Sadjad University, Mashad, Iran (2002-2006)

Activity taken by me during my Studies

I was employed by Dr.Pubudu Pathirana for the research Assistant,

Deakin University, Australia (03/2009 to 09/2009)

I was a member of Microcontroller group at Sadjad university

I was working at Electronic Afzar Gorgan Company as graduate engineer (10/2006 to

10/2007).

Seminars and Projects that I have delivered and attend during my academic career

I submitted a final thesis report and presentation on “Embedded Google Map Web

Design Based GPS Data Compression”.

I submitted a final thesis report and presentation on“ Advertising LED board”

I published two conference papers.

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Career Episode 1

(A) Introduction

Chronology: January 2009 to August 2009

Organization: Deakin University.

Position: Post graduate student “Electronic and telecommunication engineer”.

Project: Data Monitoring Sensor Network.

CE 1.1

This project was a three people collaborative project which has been done during my master

course at Deakin University. This project requires knowledge of Microprocessing and

programming techniques. This project required some subjects that I have done during my B.S

and M.S courses which are Computer programming (2nd semester of B.Sc), Microprocessors

and its lab (7th and 8th semester), signal and communication systems (first semester of M.Sc)

and intelligent systems (3th semester of MS.c). The project has been done under the supervision

of A/prof. Pubudu Pathirana ¹. Apart from the system that has been made, a conference paper for

IEEE was another outcome of the project.

(B) Background

CE1.2

These days, the number of cars in the world is increasing sharply. Due to safety management,

controlling traffic, finding stolen cars etc, have become a problem. In this case so many systems

have been created to be able to provide users with locations of vehicles. In this project, an

optimized system with greater capabilities was designed. This system can also be used in zoos

for tracking animals or even it can be useful for parents to be able find their children etc.

1. A/Prof. Pubudu Pathirana. Position: Senior Lecturer .Centre: Faculty of Science & Technology, Deakin University.

8

CE 1.3

I searched the Internet and read so many conference and journal papers and have found that there

are so many system in this areas that has been created. Most of them have some restrictions such

as their high price and limited applications. For example, Chadil (2006) has proposed a system

that can track vehicles but it is so expensive and lacks the ability to cooperate with other sensor

devices. After reading so many books and papers we have found that we can create a tracking

system that can cover most of the restrictions that the others have.

CE 1.4

This project which has been named “Data Monitoring Sensor Network” was supported by the

Australian Research Council through a LIEF grant [LE00883073]. This report will cover the

software element of the project and the compression method that has been applied in this project.

(C) Personal Workplace Activity.

CE 1.5

The technology was created based on GPS and GSM technology. In this project, I used a GSM

modem as a transceiver at the nodes and at the base station as well to send and receive data and

other control signals. Figure 1, illustrates the overall view of the project, which is included of

mobile nodes, base station unit (including the database) and web base applications.

Figure 1, Global Outlook of the entire Tracing system.

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This project was divided into two main parts which are hardware and software. The hardware

part was consisted of two main circuits which were the mobile node and the base station node

that can be seen in figure 2. All the positioning and sensory information are sent by the mobile

node, then the receiving and transferring data is transmitted to the data base by the base station

node. In this project I mostly worked on the software and programming part of the system and

hardware programming.

A.

B.

Figure 2. A. Prototype of Base Station developed our lab & B. Prototype of the mobile Node developed at our lab

C 1.6

Initially, there were so many ideas in my mind for making an interface and embedding a real-

time display map and even I was confused in choosing suitable languages for programming

hardware. My group mates, lab instructor, supervisor and I had some regular meetings to discuss

about every single prospective of the project. During that time, I was searching online and also

reading books that were available at Deakin University‟s library. I collected information about

some software, languages, different databases, the Google map and related interfaces. After that,

I made a task plan which I divided into two main parts. The first section involved designing an

interface website that would be able to connect to the database and retrieve data from that and

show positions on the Google map that had been embedded on the web site. The second section

involved compressing data based on programming neural networks.

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C 1.7

To program an interface and design a secured web page for providing users with a history of

vehicles‟ locations on the Google map is a main part of my tasks. This part needs to be done step

by step. Figure 3, shows the web page and location of cars based on latitudes and longitudes. For

that, I used some software and languages such as HTML, PHP, JavaScript and MYSQL. In

addition to that, I applied Google map API as a supportive for additional features such as plot

lines from one coordinate to the other; set centre of the map to a particular location, make a

balloon as a marker to show current locations. Also, I developed a program to convert the

latitudes and longitudes to addresses and also display the address on a small page. So, a click on

the balloons, the address on the small page can be shown. Afterwards I developed the HTML

program do be able to connect to my database, MYSQL, and retrieve any specific data for any

number of cars. It means any number of cars can be chosen for displaying their locations on the

map.

Figure 3. I embedded the Google map and showed locations on my web page

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Connecting Points

In order to find the history of vehicles‟ locations, not just the present location, I thought the

points of locations can be connected. For this aim, the location data needed to be retrieved from

the database. So, I linked the PHP program and MYSQL to each other. After establishing the

connection, latitudes and longitudes are fetching from the database. Consequently, the data can

be plotted with a regular update. Then, users have the option to have a real time tracking.

Testing

Figure 4 is showing the outcome of the system that was tested on the outskirts of the Deakin

University. The blue colored line is showing the data of the vehicles‟ locations that had sent to

the base station via SMS. In this case, the mobile node was installed in my group mate‟s car and

was powered by the cigarette lighter charger.

Figure 4: Path traversed (blue line) by the mobile Node (i.e. the test vehicle) around Deakin University

CE 1.8

While we were doing the project, I have noticed that all the location‟s points do not need to be

processed. I thought that might be a way to increase the amount of data or compress them for

transferring. This optimizing was so helpful to increase the speed of processing and also save costs

incurred for data transfer including battery energy, bandwidth and required storage space, while

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having an acceptable accuracy. After so much researching, studying books and discussing with

my croup mates, I found some methods. One of my innovative ideas was some alterations in my

algorithm for programming that helped me to compress data for transferring. Next, I applied

some mathematical formulas which were the most reliable method.

Compressing Algorithm

Every single point which has at least 15 characters needed to be retrieved and connected to the

previous one to be able to display the history of locations on the Google map. So, there were so

many characters needed to be transferred. Consequently, the speed of processing was affected. In

this case, I used an algorithm to calculate the deference between two points then encode them

with ASCII codes and transfer them to the base station. I estimated that the transferring encoded

data could be less that 30% of the original one.

Decreasing the Amount of Data

Based on formulas, critical points would be processed instead of the original data. Storing all the

original data, retrieving and displaying them on the Google map will not be necessary. As a

result of eliminating points, as it can be seen from figure 5, accuracy of the project would

decrease. In order to control the accuracy on performance I programmed an intelligent system

and loaded in the microcontroller. Then, based on that, the critical points can be changed. As a

result, based on using the estimation data while having an acceptable accuracy, the performance

of the process was enhanced.

Figure 5. Ignoring points influences the accuracy of performance.

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Mathematical method

I tried to eliminate the uncritical points based on the angle between the line which is connecting

two points and north-south line. For example, as in figure 6 can be seen, the point number 3 is

not a critical point, so it can be removed from the calculation.

Figure 6. Find and eliminate noncritical points.

As a result of the mathematical method, the number of points can be decreased while the

accuracy is acceptable. As it can be compared in figure 7, in a same trip, a huge number of the

unnecessary points can be eliminated.

Figure 7, Eliminating Points with acceptable accuracy.

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Error Measuring

Measuring the error is significantly important in order to find the accuracy of the process. As can

be seen in formula 1, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient (R), the

error of estimating can be found.

RMSE=

R=

Formula 1. Concept of Regression Error.

In case of this project I used the following formulas, formula 2 which were extracted from

formula 1.

1= 2= RMSD ( ) =

RMSD ( )=

Formula2. Find Error of Estimating.

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In this case, I discussed this issue with Dr. Yakov Frayman¹. He introduced me to software that

is called “PRW”. I used the software to train neural network based on sliding windows processed

to be able to find the accuracy of performance easily.

CE 1.9

In this section, I will show the performance of the system with different accuracy and compare

two of the outputs. Figure 8 shows the trained neural network with the accuracy of about 85%. I

wrote the trained neural network in C language and loaded to the microcontroller. During this

process I faced some little problems in programming and optimizing. Consequently, I had to

review my huge codes many times to find and solve the problems. The output of the system is

shown in figure 9.

Figure 8. Trained Neural Network with the accuracy of 85%.

1. Dr. Yakov Frayman .Centre for Intelligent Systems Research. Deakin University.

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Figure 9. Output of the system with accuracy of 85%.

Figures 10 shows another trained neural network with the accuracy of more than 90% and the

result of that is showed by figure 11.

Figure 10. Trained Neural Network with 90% accuracy.

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Figure 11. output of the system with accuracy off 90%.

As a result of that, in order to have more accuracy, more points need to be processed and it is

dependant on the users, who can choose the accuracy of the performance.

CE 1.10

It was a seven month project. This project was presented at Deakin University‟s Open Day 2009.

It worked flawlessly. In this project I needed to study so many relevant books to learn some

programming languages and software. In order to that, I needed to learn MYSQL, PHP, C, API

(Application programming interface), JavaScript and PRW which is used for training Neural

Network.

CE 1.11

I was also working with Dr. Samitha Ekanayake¹, who is experienced in the electronic and

programming field. I gained a lot from his knowledge and ideas during the project life. Also, the

group had a regular meeting with the supervisor for discussing about problems and reporting our

tasks. Finally, the output of the project was what was expected.

1. Dr.Samitha Ekanayake. Lab Assistant in Applied Electronic Subject. Deakin University.

http://www.deakin.edu.au/dro/list/author/Ekanayake%2C+Samitha/

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CE1.12

The project finally concluded a day before the Deakin University Open Day 2009 as planned. On

the day, for testing, my group mate went for a drive with his car, which was equipped with the

mobile node, around the university. Meanwhile, I presented to the audience based on the

documents that I have papered before. In this project I had the opportunity to be involved in most

parts and gave my ideas to my group mates, negotiate with each other about the problems that we

were faced and check each other works. This project was a considerable episode in my career as

an electronic engineer and programmer. In fact it was a good experience in self and time

management and also refined my skills in the context of collaboration.

Some References:

Fausett, L.: Fundamentals of neural networks. Architectures, algorithms, and applications,

Prentice-Hall,462pp. 1994.

Google, Google Maps API Concepts, Retrieved Aug 19 2009,<

http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/#Localization>. 2009.

Sun Microsystems, Top Reasons to Use MySQL, Sun Microsystem, retrieved Aug 17 2009,

< http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/topreasons.html>. 2009.

The PHP Group, what PHP can Do? , the PHP Group, Retrieved Aug 20

2009,<http://au2.php.net/manual/en/history.php.php>. 2009.

Noppadol Chadil, Apirak Russameesawang, Phongsak Keeratiwintakorn, Real-Time

Tracking Managemen System Using GPS, GPRS and Google Earth, from IEEE

Xplore. August 6, 2009.

http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/topreasons.html%3e.%202009

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CAREER EPISODE 2

(A) Introduction

Chronology: May 2006 to Sep 2006

Organization: Sadjad University.

Position: Under Graduated Student- Electronic Engineer.

Project: LED Advertising Board

CE 2.1

This project was my final thesis of my bachelor course at Sadjad University in Iran. The project

was initiated in the 8th

semester of the course in a two person group. This project mostly focused

on Electronic and programming hardware. There were some subjects in my bachelor course that

made me choose this project. Some of the subjects are Computer programming (2nd

semester),

Microprocessors (7th

semester), Logical Circuit (4th

semester) and three subjects in Electrical

circuits. Also, each of them had their special labs which helped me to use a theoretical approach

in a practical environment. For the project, I worked mostly under the supervision of Dr. A.

Golmakani¹.

Background

CE 2.2

Advertisements and the ways of doing that have a significantly important role in today‟s

societies for sale products. Some people believe that it is worth spending millions dollars for

advertising products. At present, advertising companies have become known as industries which

have high level of academic knowledge. One of the most popular ways to advertise is using

digital boards like LED advertising board. The aim of this project was to design and build an

LED advertising board that can be controlled by users.

1. Dr. A. Golmakani. Professor Assistant. Sadjad University. Iran.

http://www.google.com.au/aclk?sa=L&ai=C6tt1eYH8SunSG5HhkAWdp6TCCqa-i3zQq4XMBb7Nxd0QCAAQAiC2VCgDUPmm8vL4_____wFgpcCjgKQByAEBqQLPcAZmb6mDPqoEIE_QODMYKm-wMZkC-OR_dEvDFlw9BN0d1nI08_RwS6oV&sig=AGiWqtzW5oqZkpwrFUAtnwTT1qwVJ7z8Jg&q=http://www.huahai-led.com/en/product.asp%3Fpsid%3D1

20

CE 2.3

The main objective of this project was to design a circuit and make an LED board that can be

controlled by an AVR microcontroller. This project consisted of two main parts which were

software and hardware design. Since I had a good knowledge in programming and working with

microcontrollers, I decided to focus on programming and some hardware part. Also, since I had a

Computer Programming subject before, programming and designing a flow chart was not

difficult for me. Furthermore, during the life of the project, I had the opportunity to negotiate

with Dr. Shirazi¹. At the beginning of the project he suggested some relevant reading material

and encouraged me to connect him whenever required. In addition, I succeed in acquiring

permission from the lab‟s administer to be able to use an electronic lab some hours a day. In

addition, they were quite interested to help us if we had any problem especially in the hardware

element of the project.

Personal Activity

CE 2.4

Initially, the general ideas of designing, operations, component etc of the project were needed to

be analyzed by our professor and ourselves. In the lab and through regular meetings, my group

mate and I finalized the concept of the project and all the different ideas that we generated. We

needed to make a plan, individually, for our tasks. Then, we started the work based on the plan.

According to that, I referred to various books related to Electronic circuitry and components,

microprocessors and C programming². Also, I did so much online research³ to find out some

information about systems that had been produced in this area. In addition, during the project

life, we had a regular meeting with the supervisor for discussing about the problems and

difficulties. I also had to prepare documents and reports with diagrams for describing the

process. After all, I used simulation software which is called “ARES Professional” in the lab to

make sure everything was working alright.

1. Dr. Shirazi. Head of computer and science department of Azad University. Mashhad. Iran.

2. e.g. Tomasz Müldner, 2002, C++ programming with design patterns revealed, Boston.

3. e.g. <http://ieee.org/portal/site > for finding updated papers.

http://ieee.org/portal/site

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CE 2.5

This project was created to show words and sentences on the LED board and give them the

opportunity to be able to move on the board. The sentences that needed to be displayed on the

board can be ordered in two ways. Firstly, by means of a keyboard that can be connected to the

LED board. Alternatively, by using ports through a computer, words can be ordered to the board

to display. For the aim of this project, initially I needed to decide about some major

communication techniques. The first major factor of transferring data is choosing asynchrony or

synchrony mode of data transaction. I applied the synchrony mode because the project was using

a clock to show the letters. Next, in terms of communications, I chose serial communication

because in this system the speed of transferring data is not very important and also the project

would have required more hardware. For example, I estimated that we needed to have ten 8-bit

ports for just turning on the LEDs. Consequently, I used serial communication instead of a

parallel one. Then I started to study about USART which is the Universal Synchronous and

Asynchronous serial Receiver and Transmitter. In the case of doing this project, I had so many

choices in choosing microcontrollers. Finally I chose the AVR microcontroller –Atmega32 and

32L.

CE 2.6

Before I begin the hardware and software section of the project, I would like to discuss the

displaying techniques that I used in this system. This project was designed to control every single

LED on the board. At the beginning, we tried to design every single font on the LEDs. It meant

trying to find the LEDs that needed to be turned on; for example for displaying “L”. Then, if the

letters wanted to move, some of the LEDs needed to be switched off and some of them turned

on. For this purpose, we had to make a two dimensional arrays in BASCOM software which was

a bit difficult. Due to that, I suggested that every LED can have a binary code. I saved the entire

font in EEprom and Flash memory and assigned ASCII code for them. Then, by calling the fonts

from keyboard, they are stored in an array. Finally, after click on enter key all the code will be

converted to binary code and sent to the board for displaying.

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CE 2.7

In terms of the hardware aspect, I divided my responsibility into five main parts which are the

LED board, the LED drivers, decoder circuit, keyboard and LCD and microcontroller. I had to

design and build circuits for them which needed to calculate all the values such as voltage,

current, resistors etc. In this case, the LED board, designing decoder circuit and programming the

microcontroller were my main responsibilities. Firstly, the LED board, as it can be seen in figure

1, is a part of the 16*64 matrix which all the anodes are connected in a same row and the

cathodes in the same column. Based on this design every single LED can be switched on by

users.

Figure 1. LED Board. Anodes are connected in a same row and the cathodes in the same column.

D1LED

D2LED

D3LED

D9LED

D4LED

D5LED

D6LED

D7LED

D8LED

D10LED

D11LED

D12LED

D13LED

D14LED

D15LED

D16LED

D17LED

D18LED

D19LED

D20LED

D21LED

D22LED

D23LED

D24LED

D26LED

D27LED

D28LED

D29LED

D30LED

D31LED

D32LED

D25LED

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Next, since I did not have enough output from the microcontroller, I designed a decoder circuit,

as it can be seen from figure 2. Then, by using 6 outputs of the microcontroller that would be

possible to control all the columns and I connected all the rows directly to the microcontroller.

For designing the circuit, I used one 74155 decoder and four 74154 decoder. In addition to that, I

calculated that I needed to supply 10 mill amperes for every single LED to be able to switch

them ON. So, for all the LEDs I needed to have 160MA. Since logical gate can supply more than

20MA, I designed another circuit which was needed to calculate all the amperes and voltages in

the circuits based on IC‟s different physical characteristic.

Figure 2. Decoder Circuit for increasing the outputs.

Finally, I used AVR Microcontroller, ATMega32, which is an 8-bit microcontroller. It has data

storage memory (RAM) and Flash-ROM for program code. Also, it has 40 Pin Part (DIP40),

Real Time Counter with separate oscillator and 2 wires serial interfaces. As it mentioned before,

I used BASCOM Software which is BASIC Compiler designed for programming Atmel's

microcontrollers.

24

CE 2.8

After searching and collecting all the components with the best price I finished all the designing.

Then, I started making a PCB board with using Orcad software. Next, I soldered and checked

2048 wires of the LEDs which took about 15 days. After that, I made the decoder circuit and

soldered the ICs on that. My group mate and I were checking each other‟s work as well to make

sure everything was optimized at its full functionality.

CE 2.9

The software part of the project was another main responsibility. For this aim, I divided the

software into three main sections and tried to do all the parts individually. Then, they could be

connected to each other. Firstly, I needed to run the LCD - 16*2 - and keyboard which has been

connected to the microcontroller. For this connection, I used some codes, which are shown in

figure 4, to allow the microcontroller to be able to identify the LCD.

regfile = "m32def.dat

crystal = 1000000

Config Lcd = 16 * 2

Config Lcdpin = Pin , Db4 = Portd.3 , Db5 = Portd.5 , Db6 = Portd.6 , Db7 = Portd.7 , E =

Portd.1 , Rs = Portd.0

Config Keyboard = Pind.2 , Data = Pind.4 , Keydata = Keydat

Figure 4. Codes for Identifying the LCD for the AVR microcontroller.

25

After that, I programmed based on my flowchart, figure 5, for connecting the keyboard with the

microcontroller. In this prospective, I tried to connect the keyboard directly to the

microcontroller which is an advantage of the system, because it does not need any computer to

manually change the sentences for displaying. Also, I did not use interrupts for programming

because I did not want to use Miso, Mosi and SCK pin. The pins were used for programming the

microcontroller.

Figure 5. Flowchart LCD Connection.

26 Competency Demonstration Report Davood Izadi

Following this, I wanted to allow users access to the time and programmed a timer based on my

flowchart which is shown in figure 6.

Figure 6. Flowchart for timer.

For that, I could not use the Wait command. There were so many commands that were running in

the microcontroller and can be affected by the command. Consequently, I have used counters and

the following command, which can divide the frequency into 1,8,64,256 and 1024.

Config Timer = Timer,Prescale = | |8|64|256| 1024


Then, when we push start bottom, the timer starts to count. Whenever the Over reached to 60

then, the Min increased by one and the same thing happens for Hour.

CE 2.10

In doing this project there were some problems that I was faced with. Firstly, after installing all

the components on the boards, some parts of the circuits did not work properly. I checked all the

connections in my circuits with my multimeter to make sure they were working properly. While I

was checking that, I noticed that some parts of the circuits were not soldiered properly. Next, I

had shadows on the board when the letters were moving. For this problem, I used the logical

gates for ordering LEDs instead of software solution. That helped me to reduce the size of codes

in programming as well. In addition, programming problem, which was a common issue, made

me review my codes many times, to find and solve them by changing my codes.

(D) Summary

CE 2.11

In this project I focused on designing Electronic circuit area and programming AVR

microcontroller and it was a significant experience in the area for me. This project was

demonstrated for examiners and for the head of Electronic and Telecommunication Department

on the day that was assigned by our supervisor. On that day, my group mate and I presented our

main responsibilities in doing the project. Also, I discussed some ideas that we had for future

work of the project like using AVR ATmega128, which has a different way of programming and

has more memories and more outputs. Figure 7 show a photo of the project on the day of

presentation. For the presentation, since I was in Iran, I had to design letters in Persian. Also, that

would be easy to design and assign codes for letters in English and saved them in memories

which took less room in comparison with letters in Persian. It was a group project and I was

involved in every single prospective of the project from scratch through to the demonstration. I

am sincerely thankful to my colleague, people who helped me and our supervisor who gave me

the opportunity to work with him and trusted me to work based on my ideas.


In general, it was a great experience in self and time management because I had to divide

different aspect such as designing, building, testing and submitting the project into specific time.

Also, I needed to give so much care to the expenses of the project and to organizing our funds

with that. Furthermore, I developed the skills that needed to be learned in handling group work.

This project gave me the opportunity to apply my knowledge in Electronic and

Telecommunication area as an engineer in a practical environment.

Figure 7. Photos of completed system.


CAREER EPISODE 3

(A) Introduction

Chronology: 10/2006 to 2/2007

Organization: Electronic Afzar Gorgan Company.

Position: Graduate Engineer.

Project: Central Control system based on Phone Line

CE 3.1

This project was an experience that I had after my bachelor course, few months before coming to

Australia. This project was carried out in a group during my apprenticeship work in Electronic

Afzar Gorgan Company, Northern Iran. I was working there as a graduate student. The company

was focusing on designing and building electronic systems.

Background

CE 3.2

Creating a system that can connect to operators with industrial equipment in factories, companies

or even shops, have always been a concern. As we know there are so many electronic machines,

heaters, coolers etc that are used in industries and companies. To make sure they work properly

and control them especially in hazardous situations, companies need to hire people for checking

the equipments, which is expensive and time consuming. Due to that, a system has been

suggested, which can be known as a “central control system”, to be able to work through a land

line. The system can be replaced with staff.


CE 3.3

Initially, a general aspect and the aim of the project were described for our group by our

manager. This was a group project of two graduate engineers. I mostly focused on programming

and also designing circuits. Some of my colleagues, who were working at the company,

promised me to help me if I faced problems. This project helped me to develop the ability to

communicate with different people while working as a team. It also taught me that organizations

have their own cultures and how important it is. There was a good understanding between me

and my project partner which lead to successful project output.

Personal Activity

CE 3.4

At the beginning, the ideas of designing circuits, choosing suitable software, components and

microcontrollers, depends on specific tasks which needed to be figured out by us. For that aim, I

referred to so many books in Electronic¹ and programming subjects and did so much online

research² to obtain some knowledge about variation methods and ideas. Next, in order to have

permission to start the project I provided the CEO with a copy of my plan. For that aim, I had to

analyze the time of the project. Also, I contacted different suppliers to get the price of

components to be able to do a cost analysis. Furthermore, during the project life, I needed to

make different documents and reports, based on my understanding and development of the

project, to my manager in our regular meetings.

1. e.g. Adel S. Sedra and K. C. Smith, 1998, microelectronic circuit, Oxford university Press.

2. e.g. < http://www.ieee.org/portal/site >


CE 3.5

In doing this project, as far as I was concerned, there were some basic structures which I needed

to figure out. First, when the equipments did not have sufficient energy, it was considerably

important to find their conditions. For this aim, I used a battery for microcontrollers and ICs.

This made it possible for staff to check the facilities, but disabled them from making any further

alterations. Next, I used serial communication to transfer all the data, such as working and idle

time of machines, to computers. Then, the consumption and history of machines in a factory or

company can be determined easily. Furthermore, the transferring data needed to be in a

synchronized mode because operators needed to save the time period of working and changing

positions.

CE 3.6

Before I started the hardware and software part of the project, I would like to discuss the

advantages and abilities of this project. There are two obvious advantages that need to be

mentioned for this system. First, through automatic services, users have the ability to control

temperature, heat, pressure etc. The changing and controlling can be organized over a phone.

Next, they can use the system to lead to decrease expenses, because the system can be operated

manually.

This system has the ability to:

1. Be ordered more than once through a land line.

2. Change password for users through the land line.

3. Accept more than one signal and send them to operators over the land line.

4. Connect to computers for changing and modification.


CE 3.7

The following graph shows a general view of the system and shows how components are

connected to each other.

Figure 1. An over view of the “Central Control System”.

As can be seen from figure 1, I used two Microcontrollers. Micro 1 is supposed to send all the

data, which are collected from facilities, to Micro 2 on the aim of displaying the temperature,

pressure etc. If they are abnormal, the Micro 2 will call at the number, which I allocated before,

and inform the operators.

When the system is started, a recorded voice asks for the assigned password. Once given, the

system waits for orders. Since all the input signals are voices and not realized by

microcontrollers, a convertor was designed to convert voice to binary codes and vice versa. After

finishing the orders, the operators can be informed of the success of performance with a voice


mail transmission over a phone. In addition, whenever users wanted to make sure that orders had

been applied and the industrial facilities were working properly, they just needed to call the

system or connect to that with a computer and send the codes, which are assigned for different

purposes. Then, a system based on the position of sensors and relays, will inform the conditions.

CE 3.8

In terms of hardware aspect, I divided my responsibility into smaller sections to be able to design

circuits easily. At the conclusion, I connected them together. For that aim, I calculated all the

values of resistors and capacitors based on circuits‟ parameters. The fundamentals of linear

electronics, which I learned during my bachelor course, helped me to do the calculations.

After collecting the entire components and finishing all the designs, I started making a PCB

board with Orcad software. Then, I soldered and checked the connections. My group mate and I

were checking each others‟ work as well to make sure everything was optimized at full

functionality.

1. Circuit of Power the system.

This circuit is adapting the 220V to 5dcV.

Figure 2. Providing Power for the System.


2. Ring detector

To be able to make the micros ready for accepting orders I have create the following

circuit.

Figure 3. Ring Detector.

3. Tone Converter.

For this circuit I used MT8870 to convert voice into binary code. Then, the system can recognize

orders that coming from phones.

Figure 4. Converting Voice and Binary Codes.

4. Order circuit

Since the output of micro cannot be connected directly to industrial machines, I needed to design

a circuit to be able to change the positions of the relays and consequently the machines.


Figure 5. Connecting Microcontrollers to Relays.

5. Detector Free Tone.

I built a circuit to help Micro 2 find the best time for dialing. When the land line was ready for

dialing, a signal with a specific frequency was sent. Based on that, Micro 2 can understand the

suitable time for dialing.

CE 3.9

In addition to the hardware, selecting and working on different software was another

responsibility. In this case, due to some advantages such as its high speed and easy to make

connection with serial ports, I used VISUAL STUDIO C#. In this prospective, I was trying to

design my flow charts based on three main purposes. First, to analyze different aspects of the

system. Next, to design flow charts for any purpose, individually. Finally, to link all the separate

parts of the program and then test entire the program. In the first step, I analyzed the hardware,

their inputs and outputs properly. Following the first step, based on the information that was

obtained, I programmed the system with four separate individual parts. Since two

Microcontrollers were used, I created some separate flowcharts for them. The first flowchart,

figure 6, is focusing on Micro 1. In the first part, I provided operators with passwords to be able

to connect with the system and can control the industrial equipment. In the second part of the

programming, Micro 1 is focusing on passing equipment in order to control them and switch

them OFF and ON.


Figure 6. micro 1. Access and Control the System.

In the third part, figure 7, the system is provided with some emergency numbers and the ability

to call users in hazardous situations. Also, the number can be changed easily.

As it can be understood from the fourth part, figure 7, I have assigned a reference temperature,

pressure etc for the system to be able to recognize the hazardous situations, call at the numbers

that were mentioned before and send the information to the computers.


Figure 7. Micro2. Recognize Hazardous Situations and Informs.

In the last step of the programming process, I connected all the separated parts and made a unit

program. In this case I created a main menu, which allows the user computer access to every

single part of the system easily and without any specific knowledge.

CE 3.10

There were so many challenging problems that I had to solve. In this section, I am illustrating

some problems that I faced with while I was working on the project. After I finished my tasks, I

started to test the circuits and performance of the system in the lab. First, some parts of the

circuit did not work properly due to their connections to the PCB board, which is quite common

in building circuits. Next, noise was another problem that made problems in calling and

converting the binary codes. In this case, after discussing with my group mate and some of my

colleagues, and after further research, I found that I needed to have an isolated ground for

telephone and microcontrollers. Due to that, I used an Opto-coupler. Furthermore, I had some

little problems in programming. For example, Micro 2 had problems in calling at the specific

time, so I had to review my codes and use some innovative methods to get the acceptable result.


(D) Summary

CE 3.11

In this project I focused on creating Electronic circuits and programming hardware. I explored

USART, methods for programming, languages, microcontrollers and some ICs. It was a

significant experience in that area for me. This project was demonstrated based on our

documents and power points as planned. We presented for Quality and Risk management from

another company, which ordered the system, and our CEO as well. My group mate and I

presented our main responsibilities. Also, I discussed some ideas that we had for future work on

the project, such as a master and slave system. Then, users can obtain all the information in

deferent companies or factories in just calling to the master system. It was a group project and

since I was involved in every single aspect of the project, it helped me to develop my skills in

handling group work and communication skills to find the most effective solutions for problems

with my work mate. I applied my knowledge in Electronic and Telecommunication area as an

engineer in a practical environment and got the chance to work based on my own ideas. It was a

great experience in teamwork, self and time management which will have a positive effect on my

future work.

competency demonstration report

Documents