ALTERA DE-1 FPGA BOARD
The DE1 board features a powerful Cyclone R II FPGA chip. All important components on the board are
connected to the pins of this chip, allowing the user to configure the connection between the various components as
desired.
The following hardware is provided on the DE1 board:
 Altera Cyclone® II 2C20 FPGA device
 Altera Serial Configuration device – EPCS4
 USB Blaster (on board) for programming and user API control; both JTAG and Active Serial
 (AS) programming modes are supported
 512-Kbyte SRAM
 8-Mbyte SDRAM
 4-Mbyte Flash memory
 SD Card socket
 4 pushbutton switches
 10 toggle switches
 10 red user LEDs
 8 green user LEDs
 50-MHz oscillator, 27-MHz oscillator and 24-MHz oscillator for clock sources
 24-bit CD-quality audio CODEC with line-in, line-out, and microphone-in jacks
 VGA DAC (4-bit resistor network) with VGA-out connector
 RS-232 transceiver and 9-pin connector
 PS/2 mouse/keyboard connector
 Two 40-pin Expansion Headers with resistor protection
 Powered by either a 7.5V DC adapter or a USB cable
FIGARO TGS203 CO SENSOR
This sensor is very sensitive to Carbon Monoxide despite the presence of other gases such as Nitogen
Oxide. The sensor is controlled by voltage levels; there are two heaters at the sides of the sensor to which high or
low voltage levels are applied. By applying a high voltage across the circuit element for a period of 60 seconds the
sensor heats up thus cleaning the sensor by purging humidity. A low voltage level for 90 seconds reduces the sensor
temperature for optimal CO sensing. The sensor signal (measurement) can be measured by reading the voltage drop
across the sensor’s load resistance.
CM-R HUMIDITY SENSOR
This sensor can measure up to 95% Relative Humidity (RH) operating at temperatures ranging from -20 to
70 °C. RH can be obtained by measuring the resistance of the sensor. A high resistance value corresponds to a low
%RH value and vice versa. The standard CM-R characteristics are as follows:
%RH
Resistance
(in Kohm)
20
5000
30
1300
40
310
50
87
60
31
70
13
80
5.7
90
2.7
HOLUX GM-83 GPS ENGINE BOARD
Using the Holux GM-83 GPS Engine Board, the module can be tracked with an accuracy of 5-25 meters.
Using a serial interface to the main FPGA board, the GM-83 sends data such as longitude, latitude, elevation, and
time. This is done through the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) standard. The board sends a
variety of output messages (e.g. “$GPPGA.....”) followed by a series of values (e.g. location).
This data, together with the data collected from the sensors, can be saved to the DE1 board’s memory (such
as flash, EEPROM, or SD Card). It can be sent or downloaded to a PC and a simple program could then parse the
data into KML format. Once in KML format, each data point could be mapped on to Google Earth thus providing an
accurate visual representation of the data.
KML (Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.)
KML is a file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser such as Google Earth, Google
Maps, and Google Maps for mobile. Each place always has a longitude and a latitude. Other data can make the view
more specific, such as tilt, heading, altitude, which together define a "camera view". Other features include
placemarks , descriptions, ground overlays, paths, and polygons. KML uses a tag-based structure with nested
elements and attributes and is based on the XML standard.
An example is this code is shown below:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2">
<Placemark>
<name>Simple placemark</name>
<description>Attached to the ground. Intelligently places itself
at the height of the underlying terrain.</description>
<Point>
<coordinates>-122.0822035425683,37.42228990140251,0</coordinates>
</Point>
</Placemark>
</kml>
BLUETOOTH
As a brief definition, Bluetooth is a wireless method used to connect devices in short ranges. Although this
method may be complex, “[t]his bluetooth module takes all these collosal work away from you. It simplifies
bluetooth integration by presenting itself as a simple UART channel to its host. Sending and receiving data to and
from another Bluetooth device is reduced to a simple task of reading and writing to the equivalent UART channel.
All complex bluetooth tasks involved – authentication, encryption, transport, channel hopping, etc, are automatically
performed and hidden from your view by the EGBC-04.” (e-gizmo, 2007)