Sunday, March 4, 2012

Insect detector

* Detection:
** Distance sensor: Is it precise enough for insect size/motion (esp. the small silver bug)?
** Trap with infrared LED+photo transistor: When insect passes through tube, detection should happen. Is LED+transistor precise enough for insect sized objects?
** Image processing?

Arduino Simulator

Existing:

* Virtual Breadboard:
** See demo (includes servo example)
** Has no voltage/current transient behavior (they call it discretes).
** You can check how your algorithm will work

* Simulink SimPowerSystems

* ArduLab
** Spanish

* Labcenter products:
** Proteus VSM for AVR [item 315] (no PCB design, only microcontroller sim for Atmel AVR) = 479$
** Advanced Simulation Features [item 234] (required for transient analysis) = 319$
** Total: 800$

* emulware

* Spice (circuit simulator)

* Circuit playground (not a simulator, it's a basic calculator of electrical stuff)