Flowcode - Visual Programming Language

Flowcode in Education

Flowcode allows students to develop highly functional electrical, electronic and electromechanical systems for embedded microcontroller-based systems. It is used to support learning in a range of technical disciplines throughout the world in schools (14+), colleges and universities.

We have a large portfolio of dedicated hardware for education with features optimised for learning. For our E-blocks products this includes on-board instruments (oscilloscope and data recorder), In Circuit Debug, In Circuit Test, rugged construction, and storage trays.

These are available from more than 60 educational specialist retailers around the World. Please visit the Matrix TSL web site for details.

Industrial companies that want to use our hardware products for development and in-house training can also buy selected products directly from the Matrix web site.

Within the Education sector Flowcode is used in 7 separate disciplines:

Embedded Software Development
Electrical / Electronic Test
Robotics & Mechatronics
Automotive Engineering
Embedded Music Technology
Digital Signal Processing (DSP)
Communications

matrix hardware eblocks actuator and robot arm

Curriculum

There are a number of comprehensive courses available for a number of powerful technologies which use Flowcode and specifically designed hardware to create an integrated experience to teach prospective students about the desired technology. Below are four examples of these courses, most are around 20 hours long and are designed to use the integrated hardware and Flowcode solution to teach the subject quickly and efficiently.

Can Bus

GSM

RFID

Zigbee

You can find many more of these guides on the Learning Centre of the Matrix TSL site.

Embedded Software Development

Our E-blocks suite of boards is ideal for learning about, and developing, Embedded systems. You can buy these from the matrix web site and from our network of dealers around the World.

The development boards provide a neat and simple solution for teaching embedded systems, they can all be programmed with Flowcode and integrate quickly and easily with your Flowcode software.

Electrical / Electronic Test

There are plenty of low cost hardware interfaces suitable for test from an Arduino Uno through to a RPi and you can make your own based on the Application Programming Interfaces we provide.

You can use the built in tools in Flowcode for testing to work with your hardware, including the data recorder and oscilloscope.

Robotics & Mechatronics

Our Allcode buggy is a fantastic motivating way of getting involved in programming with a range of exercises from simple line following through to maze solving. It uses a powerful dsPIC processor and has accurate metal-geared motors and a bunch of sensors. You can program this with just about any programming language using the on-board Application Programming Interface and you can also go right back to basics and reprogram the dsPIC as an embedded target.

Similarly our robot arm allows students to program with any software or program the embedded dsPIC directly and learn about Mechatronics system control in an embedded context.

Solidworks

Flowcode integrates with Solidworks to allow you to design a mechatronic system in Solidworks, export your design, import it into Flowcode and characterise the movement of the model with motors. This allows you to validate your mechatronics system before creating mechanics and electronics. Details on how to do this are given in our Solidworks Getting Started Guide.

Automotive Engineering

MIAC NXT

Our MIAC NXT box is an ideal test interface in education as it is fitted with 4mm ‘banana’ connectors and it is electrically and mechanically rugged. The new automotive components in Flowcode include a full J1939 CAN bus stack and a full J1979 OBDII stack for interfacing to scan tools with a CAN bus interface.

Real automotive componentry
Supports J1939 open CAN standard
8 inputs
2 relays
6 transistor outputs
3 x CAN bus
1 x LIN bus
USB, Bluetooth, Wifi and LAN
Full API provided
Flowcode compatible

We publish a full suite of curriculum for Automotive technicians which you can see on the Matrix site. We don’t have anything developed to teach Automotive engineering students specifically about the CAN bus in an embedded context. Perhaps if you have ideas you could get in touch?

Embedded Music Technology

SYSBLOCKS

Our new Sysblock board consists of a powerful PIC32 processor with A/D and D/A interfaces and a modest amount of control and interfacing circuitry. It’s a flexible high power signal processing system which is great for teaching programming and music technology.

The Music Technology pack uses a single Sysblock and Flowcode Embedded to allow students to quickly construct a wide variety of digital music applications and understand the principles of digital music manipulation for musical effects and manipulation. Students will gain an appreciation of D/A conversion and A/D conversion and Digital Signal Processing Techniques that allow music to be sampled, delayed, manipulated and produces in the digital domain.

Digital Signal Processing

Our new Sysblock board consists of a powerful PIC32 processor with A/D and D/A interfaces and a modest amount of control and interfacing circuitry. It’s a flexible high power signal processing system which is great for teaching DSP.

The Systems, signals, DSP and FFT pack introduces students to a number concepts in digital systems including A/D and D/A conversion, Nyquist, Digital Signal Processing, signal manipulation, Fourier analysis of signals and the FFT algorithm, and Digital Filters. Students perform a range of experiments that teach them about the details of signal manipulation using a single Sysblock and pre- written programs created in Flowcode embedded.

Communications

Our new Sysblock board consists of a powerful PIC32 processor with A/D and D/A interfaces and a modest amount of control and interfacing circuitry. It’s a flexible high power signal processing system which is great for teaching communications.

Students use a panel with three Sysblocks on to create a sequence of communications modulators and encoders, add noise, and then demodulate / decode the resulting signals. In doing so students understand the parameters of communications systems including Phase Locked Loop performance, signal to noise ratios, bit error rates and the principles of software defined radio. The communications systems students investigate include AM, FM, PLLs, QPSK, XPSK, APSK, FSK, and OOK.

Sysblocks videos

Legacy Courses for Programming Microcontrollers

Many years ago we developed several ranges of multimedia CD-ROMs to support the teaching of subjects such as Mathematics, Geography and Electronics. A few remain in on-line form and we are making the following available to current educators and others who may benefit from them.

Assembly for PIC Microcontrollers is a complete course in programming 16F series microcontrollers from Microchip Technology. It comprises 45 tutorials that begin at the very basics of microcontroller programming and includes a basic IDE alongside a Virtual PIC to simulate and show data flow within the microcontroller.

C for PIC Microcontrollers consists of 10 'labs' showing the basics of C programming for embedded devices. Each lab starts with a project idea and gradually develops a practical solution for it over several pages and programs.