NewTlug Meetings:2007-01-23
From GTALUG
This month's NewTLUG meeting will be held Tues Jan 23rd, at Seneca College on the YorkU campus.
Date: Tues Jan 23 Time: 7 - 10pm
Topics:
1) a NewTLUG version of a previous TLUG talk by Peter Hiscocks re USB port interface and Tcl/Tk programming. Also, some history and evolution of serial and parallel ports plus the advantages and challenges of using USB ...see Peter's outline below
2) Command Line 101: a look at some basic tricks for moving around between Linux directories and executing commands with a minimum of keystrokes.
Presenter:
Peter Hiscocks <phiscock@ee.ryerson.ca> Syscomp Electronic Design Limited. <http://www.syscompdesign.com> Peter recently retired from a lengthy career of lecturing and operating labs in Electrical Engineering at Ryerson University to pursue the Open Instrumentation Project. He has extensive experience in Engineering Education and consulting in electronic circuit design.
Location:
Seneca College on the YorkU campus in room S2168 (SEQ building) http://www.yorku.ca/web/futurestudents/map/KeeleMasterMap.pdf The Seneca@York Campus, which is physically located in the south east part of York University, at Keele/Steeles.
Directions:
For detailed directions and info on public transit, please see: http://cs.senecac.on.ca/~praveen.mitera/seneca-directions.html
Parking:
Paid parking is available on campus (about: $8). Building #84 on the map above is a close-by parking garage. - note #87 the parking lot is no longer for visitors so PLEASE use the parking garage (#84)
Outline:
The Open Instrumentation Project (OIP) makes low cost measurement equipment -- hardware and Open Source Software -- available to engineers, hobbiests and students.
First, we describe programming in the Tcl/Tk language with special emphasis on rapid creation of a graphical user interface. We show it has been used in the OIP, and how its capabilities can be applied to other instrument and control projects.
We then provide some background on methods of interfacing to the PC and the functions of the legacy serial, printer and bus ports. The USB port is rapidly replacing these methods, and so we explain the advantages and challenges of using USB. We describe the hardware and software of a simple approach to the USB interface, and provide pointers to some USB debugging tools. This will be of interest to anyone building hardware that talks to a the USB interface.
We will demonstrate Tcl/Tk and the USB interface with a 20MSample/second dual channel oscilloscope, and a 100kHz arbitrary waveform generator. We will show how these instruments can be operated together by an open-source program to form a vector network analyser.
As our contribution to Command Line 101, we'll open with some basic tricks for moving around between Linux directories and executing commands with a minimum of keystrokes.
Herb Richter <hgr@buynet.com> Richter Equipment, Toronto, Ontario http://PartsAndService.com http://PartsAndService.ca
