Embedded Linux Board Farms 101: The Requirements That Actually Matter
When you keep your embedded Linux boards in a rack or remote lab, the "plug in HDMI" workflow breaks down fast. One bad kernel push and SSH never comes back. This post lays out the core requirements for a real board farm: out-of-band serial console access, remote power cycling, and scripted reimaging so you never need someone on-site who knows Linux. Once those primitives are in place, everyday smart home devices — Tasmota switches, Home Assistant, environmental sensors — become legitimate development tools that bring enterprise lab capabilities to a hobbyist budget. Includes a pre-flight checklist for transitioning from KVM-style access to a fully remote setup, and a preview of the full implementation presented at the Embedded Online Conference in May.
Debug, visualize and test embedded C/C++ through instrumentation
Instrumenting a firmware is a highly effective methodology for debugging and testing an embedded softwares. In this article, I will present a way of achieving this using Scrutiny, an open-source software suite developed as a personal initiative, designed to streamline debugging, telemetry, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing for embedded devices.
Painting with Light to Measure Time
When Jason Sachs needed to verify a first-order sigma-delta LED dimming implementation but had no oscilloscope, he turned to long-exposure "light painting" to turn time into space on a photograph. By sweeping the camera across blinking LEDs he captured pulse trains, read the bit patterns from the light trail, and confirmed the result with a tiny Python accumulator model. The post shares practical tips on timing accuracy, exposure, and avoiding ambient-light artifacts.
Metal detection: building the detector
Fabien Le Mentec turns a bench-validated BFO stage into a field-ready metal detector using scavenged parts and straightforward fabrication. He moves the circuit from breadboard to a through-hole prototyping PCB, swaps the Arduino Nano for a lower-power Mini, and builds an ABS control box with buttons and a buzzer. The build uses a 2S LiPo pack with a 5V LDO and a nonmagnetic coil mount, with practical notes on tradeoffs and safety.
10 Items of Test Equipment You Should Know
Jason Sachs walks through ten often-overlooked pieces of test gear that make debugging embedded hardware faster, safer, and more precise. From clamp-on and Rogowski current probes to spring-tip probes, IC test clips, and compact DAQ systems, each tool targets a common bench frustration. Practical buying notes and use cases help you choose tools that save time and reduce guesswork.
April is Oscilloscope Month: In Which We Discover Agilent Offers Us a Happy Deal and a Sad Name
Jason Sachs grabbed an MSOX3034 during Agilent's bandwidth deal, used a 30-day trial to debug UART issues, and then discovered Agilent's 'Happy Deal' lets you enable all MSOX software for the price of a single option. He walks through which MSOX3000 modules are worth buying, explains memory and waveform features, and delivers a wry take on the company's new Keysight name.
March is Oscilloscope Month — and at Tim Scale!
Jason Sachs just upgraded his lab with an Agilent MSOX3034A after snagging a vendor promotion, and he walks through first-day wins from probe compensation to scripting. He shows why 10x probes need capacitive matching and how to use the scope's calibration square wave to compensate them. He also covers connecting the MSOX3000 to Python via pyvisa and SCPI, including decoding waveform data for export.
Oscilloscope review: Hameg HMO2024
Jason Sachs tests the Hameg HMO2024, a 200MHz 4-channel mixed-signal oscilloscope that promises Agilent-like features at a lower price. He finds strong analog noise performance, useful hi-res and zoom modes, and inexpensive serial-decode options, but warns of clumsy digital-input handling, awkward data-transfer software, and missing per-channel thresholds and Ethernet waveform export. The review helps budget-conscious embedded engineers weigh the trade-offs.
A Useful Current Profiling Method
Dr Cagri Tanriover shares a practical, low-cost way to capture millisecond-scale current profiles when you do not have a DSO. The method uses a 0.3 ohm shunt, an LM324 amplifier with roughly 11x gain, and a microcontroller ADC to log 10-bit samples at 20 kHz, giving sub-millisecond timing and about 1.15 mA sensitivity for embedded radio measurements.
Oscilloscope Dreams
Jason Sachs walks through practical oscilloscope buying criteria for embedded engineers, focusing on bandwidth, channel count, hi-res acquisition, and probing. He explains why mixed-signal scopes and hi-res mode matter, when a 100 MHz scope is sufficient and when to keep a higher-bandwidth instrument, and how probe grounding and waveform export can ruin measurements. Real-world brand notes and try-before-you-buy advice round out the guidance.
Debug, visualize and test embedded C/C++ through instrumentation
Instrumenting a firmware is a highly effective methodology for debugging and testing an embedded softwares. In this article, I will present a way of achieving this using Scrutiny, an open-source software suite developed as a personal initiative, designed to streamline debugging, telemetry, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing for embedded devices.
Embedded Linux Board Farms 101: The Requirements That Actually Matter
When you keep your embedded Linux boards in a rack or remote lab, the "plug in HDMI" workflow breaks down fast. One bad kernel push and SSH never comes back. This post lays out the core requirements for a real board farm: out-of-band serial console access, remote power cycling, and scripted reimaging so you never need someone on-site who knows Linux. Once those primitives are in place, everyday smart home devices — Tasmota switches, Home Assistant, environmental sensors — become legitimate development tools that bring enterprise lab capabilities to a hobbyist budget. Includes a pre-flight checklist for transitioning from KVM-style access to a fully remote setup, and a preview of the full implementation presented at the Embedded Online Conference in May.
Oscilloscope Dreams
Jason Sachs walks through practical oscilloscope buying criteria for embedded engineers, focusing on bandwidth, channel count, hi-res acquisition, and probing. He explains why mixed-signal scopes and hi-res mode matter, when a 100 MHz scope is sufficient and when to keep a higher-bandwidth instrument, and how probe grounding and waveform export can ruin measurements. Real-world brand notes and try-before-you-buy advice round out the guidance.
Oscilloscope review: Hameg HMO2024
Jason Sachs tests the Hameg HMO2024, a 200MHz 4-channel mixed-signal oscilloscope that promises Agilent-like features at a lower price. He finds strong analog noise performance, useful hi-res and zoom modes, and inexpensive serial-decode options, but warns of clumsy digital-input handling, awkward data-transfer software, and missing per-channel thresholds and Ethernet waveform export. The review helps budget-conscious embedded engineers weigh the trade-offs.
10 Items of Test Equipment You Should Know
Jason Sachs walks through ten often-overlooked pieces of test gear that make debugging embedded hardware faster, safer, and more precise. From clamp-on and Rogowski current probes to spring-tip probes, IC test clips, and compact DAQ systems, each tool targets a common bench frustration. Practical buying notes and use cases help you choose tools that save time and reduce guesswork.
Metal detection: building the detector
Fabien Le Mentec turns a bench-validated BFO stage into a field-ready metal detector using scavenged parts and straightforward fabrication. He moves the circuit from breadboard to a through-hole prototyping PCB, swaps the Arduino Nano for a lower-power Mini, and builds an ABS control box with buttons and a buzzer. The build uses a 2S LiPo pack with a 5V LDO and a nonmagnetic coil mount, with practical notes on tradeoffs and safety.
March is Oscilloscope Month — and at Tim Scale!
Jason Sachs just upgraded his lab with an Agilent MSOX3034A after snagging a vendor promotion, and he walks through first-day wins from probe compensation to scripting. He shows why 10x probes need capacitive matching and how to use the scope's calibration square wave to compensate them. He also covers connecting the MSOX3000 to Python via pyvisa and SCPI, including decoding waveform data for export.
A Useful Current Profiling Method
Dr Cagri Tanriover shares a practical, low-cost way to capture millisecond-scale current profiles when you do not have a DSO. The method uses a 0.3 ohm shunt, an LM324 amplifier with roughly 11x gain, and a microcontroller ADC to log 10-bit samples at 20 kHz, giving sub-millisecond timing and about 1.15 mA sensitivity for embedded radio measurements.
April is Oscilloscope Month: In Which We Discover Agilent Offers Us a Happy Deal and a Sad Name
Jason Sachs grabbed an MSOX3034 during Agilent's bandwidth deal, used a 30-day trial to debug UART issues, and then discovered Agilent's 'Happy Deal' lets you enable all MSOX software for the price of a single option. He walks through which MSOX3000 modules are worth buying, explains memory and waveform features, and delivers a wry take on the company's new Keysight name.
Painting with Light to Measure Time
When Jason Sachs needed to verify a first-order sigma-delta LED dimming implementation but had no oscilloscope, he turned to long-exposure "light painting" to turn time into space on a photograph. By sweeping the camera across blinking LEDs he captured pulse trains, read the bit patterns from the light trail, and confirmed the result with a tiny Python accumulator model. The post shares practical tips on timing accuracy, exposure, and avoiding ambient-light artifacts.
Oscilloscope Dreams
Jason Sachs walks through practical oscilloscope buying criteria for embedded engineers, focusing on bandwidth, channel count, hi-res acquisition, and probing. He explains why mixed-signal scopes and hi-res mode matter, when a 100 MHz scope is sufficient and when to keep a higher-bandwidth instrument, and how probe grounding and waveform export can ruin measurements. Real-world brand notes and try-before-you-buy advice round out the guidance.
10 Items of Test Equipment You Should Know
Jason Sachs walks through ten often-overlooked pieces of test gear that make debugging embedded hardware faster, safer, and more precise. From clamp-on and Rogowski current probes to spring-tip probes, IC test clips, and compact DAQ systems, each tool targets a common bench frustration. Practical buying notes and use cases help you choose tools that save time and reduce guesswork.
Oscilloscope review: Hameg HMO2024
Jason Sachs tests the Hameg HMO2024, a 200MHz 4-channel mixed-signal oscilloscope that promises Agilent-like features at a lower price. He finds strong analog noise performance, useful hi-res and zoom modes, and inexpensive serial-decode options, but warns of clumsy digital-input handling, awkward data-transfer software, and missing per-channel thresholds and Ethernet waveform export. The review helps budget-conscious embedded engineers weigh the trade-offs.
March is Oscilloscope Month — and at Tim Scale!
Jason Sachs just upgraded his lab with an Agilent MSOX3034A after snagging a vendor promotion, and he walks through first-day wins from probe compensation to scripting. He shows why 10x probes need capacitive matching and how to use the scope's calibration square wave to compensate them. He also covers connecting the MSOX3000 to Python via pyvisa and SCPI, including decoding waveform data for export.
April is Oscilloscope Month: In Which We Discover Agilent Offers Us a Happy Deal and a Sad Name
Jason Sachs grabbed an MSOX3034 during Agilent's bandwidth deal, used a 30-day trial to debug UART issues, and then discovered Agilent's 'Happy Deal' lets you enable all MSOX software for the price of a single option. He walks through which MSOX3000 modules are worth buying, explains memory and waveform features, and delivers a wry take on the company's new Keysight name.
Metal detection: building the detector
Fabien Le Mentec turns a bench-validated BFO stage into a field-ready metal detector using scavenged parts and straightforward fabrication. He moves the circuit from breadboard to a through-hole prototyping PCB, swaps the Arduino Nano for a lower-power Mini, and builds an ABS control box with buttons and a buzzer. The build uses a 2S LiPo pack with a 5V LDO and a nonmagnetic coil mount, with practical notes on tradeoffs and safety.
A Useful Current Profiling Method
Dr Cagri Tanriover shares a practical, low-cost way to capture millisecond-scale current profiles when you do not have a DSO. The method uses a 0.3 ohm shunt, an LM324 amplifier with roughly 11x gain, and a microcontroller ADC to log 10-bit samples at 20 kHz, giving sub-millisecond timing and about 1.15 mA sensitivity for embedded radio measurements.
Painting with Light to Measure Time
When Jason Sachs needed to verify a first-order sigma-delta LED dimming implementation but had no oscilloscope, he turned to long-exposure "light painting" to turn time into space on a photograph. By sweeping the camera across blinking LEDs he captured pulse trains, read the bit patterns from the light trail, and confirmed the result with a tiny Python accumulator model. The post shares practical tips on timing accuracy, exposure, and avoiding ambient-light artifacts.
Debug, visualize and test embedded C/C++ through instrumentation
Instrumenting a firmware is a highly effective methodology for debugging and testing an embedded softwares. In this article, I will present a way of achieving this using Scrutiny, an open-source software suite developed as a personal initiative, designed to streamline debugging, telemetry, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing for embedded devices.
Embedded Linux Board Farms 101: The Requirements That Actually Matter
When you keep your embedded Linux boards in a rack or remote lab, the "plug in HDMI" workflow breaks down fast. One bad kernel push and SSH never comes back. This post lays out the core requirements for a real board farm: out-of-band serial console access, remote power cycling, and scripted reimaging so you never need someone on-site who knows Linux. Once those primitives are in place, everyday smart home devices — Tasmota switches, Home Assistant, environmental sensors — become legitimate development tools that bring enterprise lab capabilities to a hobbyist budget. Includes a pre-flight checklist for transitioning from KVM-style access to a fully remote setup, and a preview of the full implementation presented at the Embedded Online Conference in May.
