Introduction to BIXS-V1.5: Software

The software ran on the BIXS-V1.5 avionics systems was developed by the avionics team at Space Technology Laboratory. The system was designed to meet a specific mission profile which means that this is not a general purposed flight computer of all scenarios of applications.

Source Code

The official source code repsentation of the software is available at the following link:

• BIXS-V1.5

Software Design Principles

The software design principles of the BIXS computer are based on the following,

• Modular
• Reusable
• Configurable

Software Architecture

Setup and Initalization

• System Initialization
• Sensors Initialization
  • IMU
  • Altimeter

    Loop function

• Main Loop
  • Update Sensors

Loop and Update

• Alt_Update()
• IMU_Update()

Directory Structure

• Root
  • .pio //Kernel and Firmware Build
  • .vscode //Environment Configuration in JSON format
  • include // Where you include external header file
  • lib //Where you include external dependencies
  • src //Where you put your source code
  • test //Unit Test
  • platformio.ini //Initalization File

Development Environments

The development of the software was done in the following environments,

• Platform IO
• Arduino IDE
• GCC
• GitHub
• Git To find out more about the installation process, please refer to the following link,
• Environment Setup

API Documentation

The API documentation enables engineers and manager to better understand the sources code in the systems. To better the understanding of the documentation, the software engineer design the API documentation as the following manner.

• Introduction to the API
  • Name
  • Scope
  • Properties
  • Parameters
• Concepts
• API

• Sample Code

  Serial Commmunication and System Functions

  System Communication Initialization

• Name: System Communication Initialization
• Scope: Initalization Function
• Properties: None
• Parameters: Baud Rate
• Concept: The function invoke the Arduino board to begin serial communication. The parameter is the baudrate of the serial communication which is set to 9600 by default and define by the following manner.

  API

  void SysCom_Init(BAUDRATE);
  

  Sample Code

  ```C #include

#define BAUDRATE 9600

void setup() { Serial.begin(BAUDRATE); }

--------------------------------
## Sensors
### Sensor Initialization 
- Name: Sensor Initialization
- Scope: Initalization Function
- Properties: None
- Parameters: None
- Concept: The function is used to initialize the sensors. The function is invoked by the set-up function.

##### API
```C
void Alt_Init(); //Altimeter initialization

void IMU_Init(); //IMU initialization

---

IMU

• Name: IMU
• Scope: Loop function
• Properties: None
• Parameters: None
• Concept: The function is used to update the IMU data. The function is invoked by the loop function.

  API

  void IMU_Update();
  

  Sample Code

  void loop(){
    IMU_Update();
  }
  

  ---

  Altitude Meter

• Name: Altitude Meter
• Scope: Loop function
• Properties: None
• Parameters: None
• Concept: The function is used to update the altitude data. The function is invoked by the loop function.

  API

  void Alt_Update();
  

  Sample Code

  void loop(){
    Alt_Update();
  }
  

  ---

  System Utilities

  System Clock

• Name: System Clock
• Scope: Loop function
• Properties: None
• Parameters: None
• Concept: The function is used to read the system clock data from the microprocessor. The function is invoked by the loop function. The unit of the clock is in ms

  API

  void System_Clock();
  

  Sample Code

  void loop(){
    System_Clock();
  }