8.
Result
In order to prevent the PCB from becoming more complex by having two layers, wires were used along with component layout. At the testing stages this lead to difficult situation. The difficulties in mounting the setup are caused by the presence of numerous wires, which can get entangled and come loose. Once the PCB layout was finalized with all the interconnections, it was a matter of replacing the wires with straight jumpers from component layout side. There are still many areas of the RIVD that can be upgraded in following areas.
· Further addition of similar RIVDs to one PC with multi serial ports .
· Development of more featured database with additional information.
· Enhancement of GUI (Graphical User Interface)
· More control commands at the PC end and remote end.
· Embedding RIVD in to one piece with hot plugable feature.
· Incorporating a help manual for the user
· Bit manipulation in a predefined format to avoid intercepting data
9.
Problems encounted
Besides
the problem mentioned previously, the following is a list of other difficulties
met along the way and some of the solutions.
1)
When creating the VB serial program,
initially the idea was to create a C program to
control the RIVD. However, over countless hours it was found that C
language has too many functions to initialize a serial port with a un-graphical
program. Therefore, the C interface was found not to be usable for serial data
communication as mentioned in the
project proposal. With research it is found that a few simple lines of code
could not only open ,close and write to the serial port but with a graphical
view of the program as well. In addition it was very easy to access a database
with more powerful feature like ADOs in Visual Basic 6.
2).RIVD
should be tested for considerable amount of time period before its commercial
implementation.
3).
A period of 4 weeks had spent for the development of C which was found not
feasible and waste of project time.
4).
For long distance applications, modems should be used. However, RIVD can
tolerate considerable distance with a lower baud rate.
5).
The wires driven to PC from the remote end were more prone to electrical
interference. Therefore, RIVD should be electrically shielded or adequate
protection should be provided for lightening.