Results & Conclusions

Our design worked the way we expected. We had to configure the MPC823 at a 10MHz clock to make the writing to the character display easier. We tried to keep the clock at 25MHz, but it became difficult to design the timing that the character display requires to function correctly. However, 10MHz was still fast enough to handle the interrupt routines for the lasers without compromising functionality.

A major source of difficulty in our project resulted from the lasers and photo-sensors. The lasers grew increasingly dim over the course of our project and had to be replaced several times. A slight bump to the table could knock the lasers out of alignment, and would prevent the edge-sensitive interrupts from occurring.

Most of our design relied on specific timing requirements to be met for functionality. This included the rate at which signals were driven to the stepper motor, the delay for the character display and the Nintendo controller, and the timing for one second timer interrupts. An estimate of timing was found through rough calculations and then we fine tuned the design through trial and error, changing the timing delays until we were satisfied.