Second meeting with supervisor and draft design 31-01-2014

Today we met our supervisor for the second time. In the meeting, our supervisor raised several points in the project.

1.  We should think about inputs and outputs  firstly.
2.  There should be 5 blocks : coin receiver, products selector, controller, output change and output products.
3. The design in each block should be specific and detailed.
4.  All the blocks must be linked together at last.

Also, every group member is responsible for one part of the vending machine.

Junlin Guo
In the first lab session of this semester, I was given the responsibility of the design of coin returner. During the time in computer laboratory, I created a Word document of the general requirement of the coin returner module, which includes the input and the output of the device. In addition, I searched for some information of  VHDL language. After I read them I have gained a basic view of how to realize some fundamental functions using VHDL and implement them on the FPGA board.

Xiaotian Zhang

After the responsibility assignment, I'm currently in charge of the LCD display part.

The LCD on DE2 board is a 16*2 one according to the official reference manual, the entire display module in built in a LSI controller which mainly contains three storage components namely:

Display Data RAM (DDRAM)
Character Generator ROM (CGROM)
Character Generator RAM (CGRAM)

In the first lab day, basic knowledge on the connection of the controller as well as the functions of them. Datasheet is printed for future coding work.Several examples are also viewed in order to enhance the comprehension.

Ye Zhu
I am responsible for coin receiver. Before starting my part, I searched on the internet about vending machine and knew the basic information.I watched the video on Youtube about the working principles of vending machine. Apart from this, I searched many articles and files about the coin receiver. At last,I decided to draw the state diagram to make the first step.

Yuhao Gu
Our team needs a 4*4 keypads and I take responsibility for that keypad.
As I know nothing about this, I search the Internet for some source. Because of time limits, I just know the fundamental principle of the keypad, and the further design and study will be continued later.

First meeting with supervisor 13-12-2013

Our project is Development of a vending machine controller on FGPA.

The purpose of the project is to create the VDHL code to satisfy the functions of a vending machine. 

Before starting the project, we met the supervisor and he gave us some guidance on the project.

• design the project from top level
• separate blocks into five parts
• know what our inputs and outputs are