===== Asteroid Team Meeting #4 - February 8, 2016=====
Attended: Kevin, Nathan, Gordon, Brian

==== Reminders ====

  * Eagle tutorials due by February 15, finish by end of week
  * Begin microprocessor module
  * Begin BOM and Power Budget


==== Updates ====

  * Continuing Arduino and Eagle tutorials
  * Finished Gantt chart
  * Data sheets on Google Drive


==== Problems ====
  
  * None

=== Meeting Dates ===

  * Next week meeting changed to Wednesday February 17 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM since Monday is holiday
  * Lab hours for next week Wednesday, Thursday, and or Friday 2:30 PM and on
==== Discussions ===
  
   1.  What is an embedded system?
       - The integration of sensors, actuators and intelligence into a system
       - Allows the system to produce more capable and robust performance
   2.  What is a microcontroller?
       - A microcontroller is esentially a small computer on a single circuit board
       - Usually contains a processor, memory and programmable I/O
   3.  SPI, ADC, UART, I2C
       - I2C stands for inter-integrated circuit and is a serial computer bus
       - Used for attaching lower-speed peripheral I2C to microcontrollers
       - UART is a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter 
       - Translates data between serial/parallel forms.
       - It is used for serial communications over a computer or serial device port.
       - Analog to digital converter (ADC) is a device that converts a physical quantity (voltage) to a digital form
       - Enables the conversion of a physical quantity to a digital number 
       - Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus is a synchronous serial communication interface specification 
       - Used for short distance communication, primarily in embedded systems
   4. How do you think this information will relate to this lab?
       - They are all communication protocols
       - These capabilities are integrated into the embedded system 

==== Arduino Assignments ====
   1. What is Arduino?
       - An “Arduino” is a microcontroller platform 
       - Allows you to write programs to interact with the world via sensors
       - Provides I/O pins that can be interfaced and communication ports
   2. What is an Arduino Uno?
       - It is a very commonly used model
   3. What kind of programming language does the Arduino IDE support?
       - C/C++/Python and many others
   4.  What are the two functions that are present in an Arduino program?
       - The "setup()" and "loop()" function are essential
   5. How is it different from a regular microcontroller?
       - It wraps programming into a easy to use package
       - Open source, inexpensive, simple IDE, cross platform
   6. Why do people use the Arduino?
       - Simple and accessible user experience
       - Advantages include easy-to-use software for beginners
       - Disadvantages include limitation of MCU (Atmel AVR)

   1. Were you able to program the Arduino?
       - Yes we complied, uploaded and tested the examples
   2. Did you have any problems during the Arduino process?
       - It initially would not upload onto the board
   3. What you think is the next step after this?
       - Learn the functions that interact with the board
    
==== Tasks Completed Today ===

  * 
==== Follow-up ====

  * Finish Eagle tutorials

=== Hours ===
Meeting was from 10:30 - 10:45