Discussion on new FSM chapter

Thread Starter

tshuck

Joined Oct 18, 2012
3,534
Okay, that odd "always" will leave too.

As of now, I don't have the material or the motivation to write a new article. The first one was my reply to a large number of students asking about FSMs on AAC during exams period.

But, I can see myself solving a nice puzzle, employing all the aforementioned advanced techniques if you can provide it.
I suppose I already have a new entry to the e-book to write:p
 

Georacer

Joined Nov 25, 2009
5,182
I asked only for the incentive, not the solution. Give me a hard problem with demanding specs and I 'll see how I can implement the knowledge from your links.
 

Thread Starter

tshuck

Joined Oct 18, 2012
3,534
I asked only for the incentive, not the solution. Give me a hard problem with demanding specs and I'll see how I can implement the knowledge from your links.
These techniques can be applied to any FSM, not just the hard ones....

How about a UART controller that allows for half-duplex communication?

If you want a better question, I'll have to think about it a bit....
 

Georacer

Joined Nov 25, 2009
5,182
Since I 'll have to look up for the standard, it means that I don't know a thing about it. I think it's an adequate challenge, but I won't tie myself to a deadline.
 

Thread Starter

tshuck

Joined Oct 18, 2012
3,534
Perhaps we should move the discussion of topics to another thread and leave the corrections here for Dennis, so he doesn't have to sift through the discussion to find the corrections. I don't want to leave more work for him than he already has...
 

Thread Starter

tshuck

Joined Oct 18, 2012
3,534
As an aside, I don't want you to think I started reading this because I realized you wrote the article(from my question regarding e-book contributions), I simply read articles that stand out to me at any point I'm browsing the e-book, and the FSM section stood out recently. This was purely coincidence.
 

Thread Starter

tshuck

Joined Oct 18, 2012
3,534
It wouldn't change anything even if you did it on purpose.
I just don't want you to think I picked the topic because I wanted to see if I could find problems with your entry. It wouldn't be a huge leap to think I was being malicious;)
 

thatoneguy

Joined Feb 19, 2009
6,359
Saw the topic. Two FSM solutions that keep popping up with questions are the good old Traffic Light and Elevator Problems.

Not sure if handing out solutions would be the answer, but perhaps a basic version of both?

In case you are out of ideas... :D
 

Thread Starter

tshuck

Joined Oct 18, 2012
3,534
Saw the topic. Two FSM solutions that keep popping up with questions are the good old Traffic Light and Elevator Problems.

Not sure if handing out solutions would be the answer, but perhaps a basic version of both?

In case you are out of ideas... :D
Yeah, I did the traffic light route back in school....

Most of those elevator FSMs for school are more than 3 'floors', right?
 

Georacer

Joined Nov 25, 2009
5,182
Those elevator circuits can be quite complex. Anything more than two three floors and basic call priorities and you have yourself a not-so-trivial problem.
 

thatoneguy

Joined Feb 19, 2009
6,359
Yeah, I did the traffic light route back in school....

Most of those elevator FSMs for school are more than 3 'floors', right?
I'd put it at 3, enough to get the idea, but not enough to complete the project.

Going to a large number of floors goes NP, like the knapsack problem.
 

thatoneguy

Joined Feb 19, 2009
6,359
NP is the same type of problem when routing PC Boards for high speed and thermal management.

Multiple correct options, but with the additional constraint of "minimum size", it takes forever for a computer to essentially solve by brute force.
 

Thread Starter

tshuck

Joined Oct 18, 2012
3,534
Hey, Geo, this isn't XCircuit, is it? If not, what program did you use here(from the FSM section)?
Looks like LTSpice, maybe...
 

thatoneguy

Joined Feb 19, 2009
6,359
Multisim is about as far as you can get from free. $5k for the full edition.

It's built to be integrated with LabVIEW which is also far from free.

It uses slightly different simulation engine, but LTSpice is easy to use once you add enough models manually from the Spice group download.

MultiSim comes with UltiBoard, a PCB Routing utility that is pretty decent, supporting lots of layers, though hand routing is generally faster for small circuits, even on a fast machine (for reasons given above).

Each sim has their own pros and cons, but LTSpice is the best free simulator around. The ease of plotting outputs by clicking is nice. In multisim, an oscilloscope or function generator need to be connected as a physical one would, but then you have a realtime adjustment of both function gen and scope while simulation is running. In LTSpice, adding sweep steps and plotting the output is the closest it can come to the same functionality. The real "instruments" and realtime modification of signals, in addition to PIC MCU hex code runtime simulation (Which Proteus, another non-free tool offers), boost the cost a good deal.
 
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