Category Archives: Projects

Phil 1.11.11

7:30 – 5:30VISIBILITY

  • We should do something to celebrate at 1:11 this afternoon
  • Wrote up a quick estimate of the effort required for the S2/SV effort
  • Working on the VIS4 plan – finished initial. Need to break into a set of traceable requirements
  • Looking for a requirements tracking package. Eclipse has some nice vaporware (useme), and there are a lot of bug trackers like jira, but nothing else I can find. Grr.

Tom.DeVito 1.10.10

Attempting to figure out a way to have the computer control the volume of an audio amplifier:

  • Reference for electronic diagram symbols:  http://library.thinkquest.org/10784/circuit_symbols.html
  • Reference for how to use a multi-tester: http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Multimeter
  • The amplifier potentiometer gives the best volumes between  992- 950 ohms.
  • To measure current, the multi-tester needs to be in series with the circuit.  I am removing the potentiometer from the amplifier circuit so I can put the multi tester in series after it and read the range of current.  How many amps the current is will determine if I need to use a jfet or mosfet transistor for the voltage controlled resistor.

After taking off the potentiometer, we realised that this may not be the best way to have our speakers volume controlled.  We are looking into a couple of different IC amplifiers with programmable gain control.  See tomorrows entry for more details on this.

Other uses for capacitors besides storing energy to be released in burst or dimming lights.

Phil 1.10.2011

8:00 – 4:30VISIBILITY

  • Ann made a nice big spreadsheet of + data, which I broke up into nice-sized bits and ingested. I added Matt and Anne to the role and told them that the data was up. We’ll see what happens next.
  • Writing up requirements for VIS4
  • Finally did the 312 briefing
  • Pointed Tom at programmable amplifier IC chips

Dong Shin 01.10.2011

  • PPM Database Update Procedures with the script,  DBUpdateSQLs.sql
    • backup the database using following command from command line
      • mysqldump -d -u root -p project_portfolio > project_portfolio_backup.sql
    • login to database from command line at the directory where the DBUpdateSQLs.sql is located
      • mysql -u root -p
    • select database to modify at the mysql prompt
      • use project_portfolio;
    • run the script from the mysql prompt
      • source DBUpdateSQLs.sql;
    • if anything goes wrong, you can revert to old database by restoring the database from the backed up file
      • mysql -u root -p to get mysql prompt from command line
      • drop database project_portfolio; in mysql prompt
      • create database project_portfolio; in mysql prompt
      • source project_portfolio_backup.sql; in mysql prompt
  • PPM Changes
    • changing code to work with new DB structure….
    • 1 Year projects support added
    • complete database schema created, but not implemented on the current database

Phil 1.7.2011

8:00 – 4:30 VISIBILITY

  • Pinged Katie G about a T09 demo
  • Worked on getting some + demo data with Anne.
  • Writing up some grist for VISIBILITY4 development effort. Got through intro, framework, formbuilder, and scripting.
  • Ingested some data for Brian to demo
  • Came back from the ride knowing how to put all the pieces together, so here it is:
  • That’s a java app, using the DJ framework, talking through a servlet, interacting with the host OS, all using object serialization :-). I can now have a nice weekend.

Dong Shin 01.07.2011

  • PPM changes
    • thinking of using tables’ comments field for editable/non-editable indicator
      • ALTER TABLE tablename COMMENT = 'editble';
    • fixed itemRenderer issue by setting icon at set data method, not at creationComplete method
    • changed all the tables to have InnoDB engine
    • backed up database to project_portfolio
    • set editable tables by ALTER TABLE <table name> COMMENT = ‘editable’;
      • budget_center_names (budget_centers)
      • budget_center_number (budget_centers)
      • capabilities (budget_centers)
      • expenditure_centers (budget_centers)
      • funding_transaction_names (budget_centers)
      • funding_transaction_numbers (budget_centers)
      • funding_transaction_types (budget_centers)
      • investment_portfolios (budget_centers)
      • users
    • setting relationiships for foreign keys in the database
      • projects and users done.
      • budget_centers related tables done (budget_center_names, budget_center_number, capabilities, expenditure_centers, funding_transaction_names, funding_transaction_numbers, funding_transaction_types, investment_portfolios)
    • added warning dialog – cancel closes the panel
    • added dataToolTips for the datagrid

Tom.DeVito 1.06.11

  • Ground off the epoxy so that I can start reattaching the strain gauges.
  • After much searching, I found this site http://www.educypedia.be/electronics/composemijfet.htm.  This seems like a really good reference site for electronics.
  • I am going to read the article on FETs As Voltage Controlled Resistors and JFETs as variable resistors tonight and post what I learned here either tonight or tomorrow morning.  These have a more in depth explanation then http://graffiti.virgin.net/ljmayes.mal/comp/vcr.htm has.
  • Because I will probably need to buy a couple components to make a VCR, I am going to hold off on going to the electronics store for the speaker until i know what else I need.  I hope to know what that is tonight after reading through those articles more thoroughly.
  • Some thing to note Vds = voltage drain to source and Vgs = voltage gate to source.

Dong Shin 01.6.2011

  • PPM Enhancement
    • DB Mgmt
      • added icons for editable/non-editable tables in the tables list
      • added Record numbers text
      • Begin, Prev, Next, End buttons working
      • mx:Label for AdvancedDataGridItemRenderer is too slow for large sets of data?, tried to extend AdvancedDataGridItemRenderer. no success. changed Label to Text component, it’s a lot faster now
      • added toolTips
      • added Key information on the DataGrid column header

Phil 1.6.2011

7:30 – 4:30 VISIBILITY

  • Working on a simple “echo” Java GUI in SWT
  • Eclipse Labs on Google code: http://code.google.com/a/eclipselabs.org/hosting/
  • Talking to the servlet in the GUI. Switching from echo to implementing exec() in the servlet and getting the response into the GUI. For something that takes a while, like a maven build, I’ll need to do something to show progress. Also will need to handle error messages as separate entities in the message wrapper?
    • Cleaning up ExecShell() to make it work with the GUI.
    • Spent a good deal of time trying to figure out when to inform the client that the command was finished executing. Wound up looking for elements of the command prompt for now (this assumes “C:”). It’s working now. I expect I should be able to roll it in to the servlet tomorrow.
      • As an aside, it should be possible to send back intermediate data to the client, as long as the client sends a “send more output” request to the server with the same session id until the server is done.

Phil 1.5.2011

7:30 – 4:30 VISIBILITY

  • Rode the motorcycle in today – brr.
  • Working on making the binary communication classes useful.
  • Good link on how to hook up the eclipse debugger to a servlet running in tomcat: http://wikijava.org/wiki/Debugging_a_servlet_with_tomcat_and_Eclipse_tutorial
    • If you’re using the launcher in windows, add the following argument to your tomcat->config->java tab:
      • -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=8000,server=y,suspend=n
  • Sending wrapped serialized objects. The “toString” method for printing works as well.
  • Starting the client IDE. I’m thinking SWT, since we’ll probably raid Eclipse for components.
  • Connected to the Eclipse CVS repo

Phil 1.4.2011

7:30 – 4:00 VISIBILITY

  • Deployed the new PPM to rave reviews! Well, not really. But no one complained either 🙂
  • Lots of activity on VISIBILITY logs today
  • Had to bounce the fgmdev tomcat server. There was a service available problem.
  • Working on Data xfer
    • Binary data wasn’t getting to the servlet as a parameter. Testing Ascii data using POST. Yep, that works.
    • Found a better example for binary communication: http://www.j-nine.com/pubs/applet2servlet/Applet2Servlet.html
    • Binary is now working. Need to expand it out to a workable library.
    • Added logging to the doGet() method, so you can go to the servlet html and see what it’s doing

Dong Shin 01.04.2010

  • PPM Changes
    • fixed Save Confirmation – set flag to false before Query execution so that it forces state to saved
    • unable to duplicate Project Names disappearing from Create Project Panel….
    • dump current database schema and data to ProjPortfolioMgr server – webapp/scripts/project_portfolio_01042011.sql
    • copied project_portfolio database to project_portfolio_01042011
    • working on DBMgmtUtils….
  • forcing foreign key updates
    • ALTER TABLE table1 ADD
      CONSTRAINT fk_keyfield
      FOREIGN KEY(keyfield)
      REFERENCES table2(keyfield)
      ON DELETE REJECT
      ON UPDATE CASCADE

Dong Shin 01.03.2011

  • PPM Changes
    • fixed a bug not updating Summary Data for Year 2, 3, so on when editing Financial Data
    • added formatter for invoice amounts
      • InvoiceSelectWindow
      • InvoiceFormWindow
    • allow negative values for invoice amounts
      • red for negative amounts
    • bigger comments area for invoices
    • added comments indicator – number of comments and last updated (tooltip)

Phil 1.3.2011

7:30 – 4:00 VISIBILITY

Phil 12.30.2010

7:30 – 4:00 VISIBILITY

  • Imported Anne’s spreadsheet. One column had paragraph-length descriptions, which wouldn’t fit in the DB. Not sure if this needs to be fixed or not…
  • Working with Christie to see if her mavanized air app will compile and run on my machine. Close – It compiles but the air app does not install properly. Also an issue with getting the assets directory and its contents into the project
  • Got my sandbox applet up and running. Much easier when you know what you’re doing. Next step is to upload and download binary data.