On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 8:18 PM, Don Latham <d...@montana.com> wrote: > Hi Tom et.al. Isn't the simulator "easily" convertible to the real thing? > That is, data inputs should be convertible somehow to data streams from > physical devices? > Don
This is a very common development method, not just with GSPDOs but with anything like say a couple robots I'm building. At first you simulate the physical hardware. I can write a function called "GetMotorSpeed()" and at first it simply always returns a constant "5.0" and that is good enough. Later I make it read a file and finally I make it read some hardware interface that connects to a sensor but the sensor is just a test fixture on my desk. Later I integrate the sensor in to the robot. I have a few sensors on my desk right new (sonar and IR distance sensors) Almost 100% of professional level work is done this way. At work I've seen this same method used for air defense missiles, radars and "everything". At first you write the code and run it on a desktop computer because it is so easy to do, But as the software matures you need more and more realistic hardware until finally you are running one the actually target hardware on a real (inert) missile. Actually most projects keep the test environment with all the sensors on the desk connected with the rats nest of wires because you can test some scenarios and odd cases that are hard otherwise, like automated fault detection, cooling system failures, EMI problems and so on. It's a pretty common way to build stuff, the software begins it's life on a Linux or UNIX PC then eventually gets put into some tiny micro controller. When you make a change you first test on the PC before mooing the change down to the target environment. All that said a GPSDO can simple enough that yu can short cut this and go straight to the target hardware. But I think or hope we will see a more complex generation of GPSDO that have a LCD display, user interface and built-in network services. You can't short cut something like that. -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.