Month: May 2025

BHE3233 – Week 9 – Finite State Machine

Today’s class focused on one of the core topics in digital system design—Finite State Machines (FSM)—through an engaging and practical activity: building a 101 sequence detector using a Moore machine.

We began with a recap of FSM fundamentals—specifically the Moore machine, where outputs are solely determined by the current state. This conceptual understanding paved the way for the day’s main activity: designing and testing a sequence detector that identifies the binary pattern 101.

Key areas explored:

  1. State transition diagrams and state encoding

  2. Implementation using case statements

  3. Exploring both dataflow-style FSM and conditional (if-else) statement-based FSMs

  4. Synthesizing and testing using Quartus Prime

Students designed the FSM in Verilog using Quartus. The Moore machine was structured with three states to detect the pattern:

  1. S0 – Initial state

  2. S1 – Received ‘1’

  3. S2 – Received ‘10’

When the full sequence 101 was detected, the FSM output went high.

always @(posedge clk or posedge reset) begin
if (reset)
state <= S0;
else begin
case(state)
S0: state <= (in == 1) ? S1 : S0;
S1: state <= (in == 0) ? S2 : S1;
S2: state <= (in == 1) ? S1 : S0;
endcase
end
end

Simulation and Testbench Creation

To validate the design, students created testbenches that simulated input sequences. Using ModelSim, they:

  • Applied a sequence of 0s and 1s to the in input

  • Monitored state transitions

  • Verified output pulses when 101 was detected

This phase helped students understand the role of simulation in design verification and how FSMs react to clocked inputs in real time.

The case statement simplified FSM implementation, especially when compared to nested conditional (if-else) logic. They also discussed how a well-structured FSM can lead to clean, readable, and maintainable RTL code—an essential practice in real-world design.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the session, students were able to:

  1. Describe and implement Moore FSMs in Verilog

  2. Translate a sequence detection problem into state transitions

  3. Use Quartus for synthesis and ModelSim for simulation

  4. Compare dataflow FSM vs. conditional FSM modeling

BTE1522 Week 9 Working with Sensors

This week brought us deeper into the world of physical computing as we explored the integration of two essential sensors: the OLED SSD1306 display and the MPU6050 accelerometer-gyroscope module. This hands-on session emphasized how different devices communicate with a microcontroller, helping students solidify their understanding of communication protocols and library dependencies—two vital concepts in embedded systems development.

Part 1: Getting Started with the OLED SSD1306

We kicked off the session by working with the OLED SSD1306, a compact I2C display module. The key learning outcomes from this segment included:

  • Understanding I2C protocol and how to enable it on Raspberry Pi.

  • Installing the Adafruit CircuitPython SSD1306 and Pillow libraries.

  • Writing and modifying Python scripts to display text such as “Hello” and “MicroPython” on the screen.

  • Recognizing how display buffers work in conjunction with ImageDraw and ImageFont.

This gave students the confidence to interact with a visual output device and understand how pixel-based rendering works in Python.

Part 2: Reading Motion Data with MPU6050

Next, we connected the MPU6050, a 6-axis motion sensor capable of detecting acceleration and angular velocity. Students worked through:

  • Wiring the MPU6050 module correctly using the I2C pins.

  • Installing and using the mpu6050 Python library (or equivalent like smbus and i2cdev depending on setup).

  • Writing code to retrieve:

    • 3-axis accelerometer data (accel_x, accel_y, accel_z)

    • 3-axis gyroscope data (gyro_x, gyro_y, gyro_z)

    • Temperature reading

This activity allowed students to appreciate how raw sensor data can be captured, processed, and used to build context-aware applications like motion-based controls or orientation tracking.

Throughout the session, students faced challenges such as installing the correct libraries, identifying I2C addresses using i2cdetect, and debugging I2C communication issues. These challenges were treated as learning opportunities that mimic real-world embedded systems development.

By the end of the class, students were able to:

  • Display custom messages on an OLED screen.

  • Capture and print real-time motion data from the MPU6050 sensor.

  • Understand how communication protocols (I2C) function in real applications.

  • Connect theory with practice through experiential learning.

Today’s activities not only strengthened students’ coding and hardware integration skills but also encouraged logical troubleshooting, critical thinking, and problem-solving—all key aspects of becoming a proficient developer. We’re building toward more advanced sensor-based projects in the coming weeks, and this session laid an excellent foundation.

As always, proud of the students’ persistence and teamwork as they explored and completed the activities.

BTE1522 – Week 8 – Raspberry Pi Programming

This week, we kicked off with Microcredential 2 and 3 focusing on hands-on Raspberry Pi segment

We started off with the fundamentals – configuring the Raspberry Pi environment. Students explored the process of setting up the Raspberry Pi 4, learning how to boot the system, OS installation, update packages, and enable interfaces like SSH and I2C. This step was crucial to ensure their boards were fully prepared for the upcoming hardware experiments.

MC 2 – Chapter 1 -5 Raspberry Pi Installation and Setting Up

Alongside this, we discussed key differences between Raspberry Pi 4 (a microprocessor-based platform) and Raspberry Pi Pico (a microcontroller-based platform). This opened up meaningful discussions on the architecture, applications, and performance of both systems.

MC 3 – Chapter 1 & 2: Hardware Warm-Up Activities

The class then moved into Microcredential 3, tackling Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, which introduced basic hardware control using Python and MicroPython. Over these two chapters, students completed four practical activities:

  1. Lighting up an LED (Act 1) – their very first GPIO output!

  2. LED Blinking (Act 2) – introducing timing and control loops.

  3. Reading Digital Input with Push Button (Act 3) – detecting user input via GPIO.

  4. Push Button to Control LED (Act 4) – combining input and output for basic interaction.

These warm-up activities weren’t just about turning lights on and off. They were designed to help students:

  1. Compare Python 3 (used on Pi 4) vs MicroPython (used on Pico).

  2. Understand how different hardware platforms influence programming paradigms.

  3. Build a mental model of how microprocessors and microcontrollers handle digital I/O.

Learning Through Doing

At UMPSA STEM Lab, we strongly believe in embodied learning – and this week was a great reflection of that. Students didn’t just hear about hardware or programming; they wired it, coded it, debugged it, and saw the immediate outcome of their logic and effort. It was beautiful to see LEDs blinking and eyes lighting up in sync.

Next week, we’ll continue building on this foundation by introducing OLED displays and sensor integration — more advanced interactions await!

Btw sharing with you the production of Rasp Pi in their facilities in the UK:-

Congratulations Dr Nurulfadzilah Hassan

Nurulfadzilah did her PhD research in developing a novel composite – Epoxy Barium Titanate for the use of microstrip  patch antenna design. In this work she explored and characterized BTo targeting for application in 2.4 GHz antenna.

With 6 publications throughout the research, she successfully defended her thesis with minor revision required.

Congratulations once again.