VisSim/ECD: Chips Challenge
Surak Perera
Application Support Engineer
Modelling embedded
control systems is a
task that calls for a very
special software tool.
It’s called VisSim/ECD.
Simulating a dynamic system
traditionally involved a lot of code writing. VisSim changed all that
when it introduced an entirely visual
interface, where pre-built blocks
representing mathematical operations or
components are selected from a menu or
toolbar. These are simply dragged into
place on a worksheet and wired together
to specify the flow of a simulation.
There are a number of different
configurations of VisSim available today,
and one of the most broadly useful is
VisSim/Embedded Controls Developer
(VisSim/ECD for short) which, as its name
suggests, is an environment for model-based
development of embedded control systems.
What VisSim/ECD offers is an extensive
collection of target-specific blocks for a
wide range of Texas Instruments C2000
and MSP430 digital microcontroller chips,
including the latest F280x, F283x (Delfino)
and F280xx (Piccolo) C2000 families.
You just drag these into your model,
define any parameters and connect them
on screen. It's as simple as that.
It's very easy to switch targets within a
chip family, simply by changing the target
selector in a dialogue box. VisSim/ECD
recognises the differences between
devices and generates the appropriate
code. All the many small differences
between devices in the Delfino and
Piccolo families are handled automatically
by VisSim/ECD so you can focus on
algorithm development and tuning.
The block diagram approach makes it
quick and easy to create a working, floating-point model of your control system, be it a
simple PID control or a multi-phase vector
controller with packet-based RS485 protocol
and dynamic IIC EEPROM read/write.
Because you’re simulating at a high
system level, you can optimise, prototype
and debug your model before generating
code for the target. In fact, you don’t need
to know C/C++ at all. When you're satisfied
with the performance, just click a button
and VisSim/ECD generates and compiles
highly efficient C-code automatically.
You can then run this on the embedded target
against the real plant, while communicating
in real-time with your PC for interactive gain
changes and digital scope plotting.
As well as the VisSim simulator itself,
VisSim/ECD comes complete with the TI
motor control block set, fixed point block
set, full target support and C-code generator.
Downlaod the VisSim Product Guide, or visit the VisSim home page.
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