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.

Applied Wave Research Design Environment
We use AWR DE 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