EXPERIENCE THE MUSE

Introduction:
Experience the Muse is designed to aid hands-on learning of the fundamental concepts and tools of wireless sensor network design and performance analysis. It includes demonstrations of and experiments for

    - simulation of wireless circuits and systems

    - embedded software design

    - characterization of wireless communication links and antennas

You can use these independently or alone with the video lectures. All hardware and software designs are available for use both as-is and as templates for new experiments of designs.

 

The CLIO Wireless Sensor Node Development Tool:
The CLIO is a board designed to make it easy and fun to build both the hardware and software of a basic wireless sensor node. It consists of four components.

 1. The first is the eZ430-RF2500 Wireless Development Tool---we call it the eZ430--- from Texas Instruments (picture here). It integrates a TI MSP430F2274 ultra-low power MCU and a TI CC2500 single-chip 2.4 GHz radio transceiver, and exports 18 I/O pins to a pad that can be populated with a header.

 2. While you can use many different development tool chains to write embedded C and assembly code for the eZ430, our experiments use (and we recommend) TI's Code Composer Studio Microcontroller integrated design environment (IDE). Be sure to get CCStudio Microcontroller: Core Edition 32KB IDE for C28x; 16KB IDE for MSP430, which is a free, memory-limited version.  It is available here.  

 3. Once you attach a header to the eZ430 (see below), it snaps into the CLIO module. CLIO provides a way to expand the eZ430 by connecting an almost infinite variety of transducers, actuators or other peripherals.  CLIO runs on selectable USB or snap-in battery power and provides power to the eZ430.  CLIO provides plenty of expansion, with up to four headers (with power and ground) to attach peripheral boards.  

 4. CLIO-SL is a demonstration light sensor peripheral board that plugs into CLIO. You can interface it to the MSP430's on-chip A/D converter via jumper wires to make a basic sensor node.  It uses a simple photodiode and amplifier to generate an input signal to the eZ430 A/D converter.  CLIO-SL can be easily converted to a general purpose analog input board with a non-inverting op amp for signal conditioning.  And we provide the schematic, layout, and bill of materials so you can build a CLIO-SL yourself, or use it as a starting point for the design of any number of new CLIO peripherals. Learn more.

AWR Corporation (AWR Design Environment - AWRDE)
We use AWRDE to build simulation models of communication circuits and systems. Very briefly, AWR DE integrates circuit- and system- level models and design tools. This means that you can explore models across traditional circuit/system design layers. It also has tools that make system characterization easy. For Example, it is possible to sweep parameter values and view results both time- and frequency domains.

For Instructors:

If you are interested in adopting the CLIO wireless sensor node platform or the AWR DE simulation environment in a course, please fill out the following form and email to muse@uvm.edu
Experience the MUSE Application Form