Master Control Unit
Final Report
Project Team: May01-13
Submitted: April 16, 2001
Client: ISU Engineering Distance Education
Paul Jewell
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Edwin Jones
Team Makeup:
David Douglas (CprE)
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Matthew Engelbart (EE)
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Hank Huang (EE)
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William Ogier (CprE)
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Executive Summary
The Engineering Distance Education program at Iowa State University in Howe Hall is dealing with the issue of multiple VCRs that cause problems when recording or duplicating many tapes simultaneously. The current recording facilities consist of thirty-seven different VCRs from three different manufacturers in two different rooms. It is necessary for the individual in charge of recording lectures to manually press the buttons on each VCR since using a single remote control will not work. This is highly inefficient and results in timing discrepancies between the different tapes in each VCR. A solution is necessary that allows the individual in charge of operating the VCRs to do so without timing discrepancies between the tapes. The solution designed will save time, increase the efficiency of VCR operators, and reduce the recording errors made during the copying of lectures each day.
The project was fueled by the requests of the Engineering Distance Education program and all decisions made were an attempt to meet those requests. Based on planning and designing throughout the first semester, the design team began working on the solution in January 2001. Although some ideas from the original design did not make the final design, many of them were kept in the design and are reflected in the final work. The overall idea of the solution was retained, but some of the details were changed when differences in theoretical design and actual design occurred during development.
This project consists of a hardware/software solution
References: Messmer, H. The Indispensable PC Hardware Book. London, 3rd Ed. 1997. Addison-Wesley.