Selecting board with easy GUI capabilities!!!!

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1

Hello Everyone,

I'm recently became interested into microcontrollers, so I do not know much about it. I was looking for something like a board that has easy interfacing the computer and that allows me to do some nice calculations with signals. I want to make something that does the following:

  1. I have a black box from which I can only get 4 analog signal at a rate of 2us ( this signals are my inputs ).
  2. I need to read those inputs and change then to digital ( basically, I need to have ADC -- i know what it is but do not know how to work it yet )
  3. After I get my signals ready, I need to do all kinds of processing: frequencies, energy, stability, etc...
    THE HARDEST PART
  4. Make a GUI that allows the users to get the inputs just by connecting the 4 cables giving the analog signals, click a button and get the results. ( i.e the default calculator in the computers accessories folder )

Can any one give me any comments? Is arduino the best board to do this? any recommendations of what to buy? can i execute anything programmed in arduino from an intefaceable code made in c#?

I will really appreciate your help.

Reynaldo

2

if your language of choice supports reading / writing a serial port your ok to go

3

4 analog signal at a rate of 2us

2us? On four channels? With calculations?

Let's do some math...

1/2e-6 = 500,000 samples per second per channel

500,000 * 4 = 2,000,000 samples per second

frequencies, energy, stability

Let's assume that each of these requires just a single floating-point math operation; a ridiculously low assumption...

3 * 2,000,000 = 6,000,000 FLOPS

I don't think even an ATmega2560 / 20 MHz is going to be able to handle that workload. You're in the wrong place.

4

I need to do all kinds of processing: frequencies, energy, stability, etc..

you need a DSP (digital signal processor), not a microcontroller. Could perhaps be done on an FPGA too.

This is waaay too much for a beginner project.

5

thanks a lot for your reply. if i get the circuit modified ( the blackbox) and get the output to be at 1ms, could i do it with arduino?? i still do not know if i can link arduino with a program made in something line c#. Can any body recommend a suitable DSP?

6

by the way, if i could link the arduino to a program made in c#. how could i even do that?

7

if i get the circuit modified ( the blackbox)

I misunderstood your first post. The "blackbox" is something that already exists and you're trying to get data out of it?

  1. After I get my signals ready, I need to do all kinds of processing: frequencies, energy, stability, etc...

and get the output to be at 1ms, could i do it with arduino??

No one here will be able to answer your question. There's too much information in your head that isn't in your post.

if i could link the arduino to a program made in c#. how could i even do that?

The Arduino is presented to the computer as a standard serial port. Your C# application interacts with it through a serial port.

8

Now that (Coding Badly) you mentioned, yeah my post might be kind of confusing.

  1. the blackbox is where i get the data from at a rate of 1ms (or at least it can be modified to output at 1ms).
  2. I will need to frequency studies, energy studies, stability studies, etc... to the signal read from the blackbox
  3. Can I do my computing with a atmega328?
  4. If my c# program interacts with serial ports, can i link the arduino? Has anybody done Arduino linking with C#?