On optimizing manual soldering
When faced with manual soldering of thousands of components, speed and efficiency become pivotal. Here are some takeaways from my own experience attempting to optimize such a process.
On hardware state machines: How to write a simple MAC controller using the RP2040 PIOs
Hardware state machines are nice, and the RP2040 has two blocks with up to four machines each. Their instruction set is limited, but powerful, and they can execute an instruction per cycle, pushing and popping from their FIFOs and shifting bytes in and out. The Raspberry Pi Pico does not have an Ethernet connection, but there are many PHY boards available… take a LAN8720 board and connect it to the Pico; you’re done. The firmware ? Introducing Mongoose…
Graphical medicine
Although an appealing user interface is a good option for any device, in medical applications it can be a life saver.
Pay it Forward
A popular car bumper sticker reads, "If you can read this, thank a teacher!" I might say, "If you can read THIS (article on Embedded Related), then you've been blessed with great experiences and/or great educators or volunteers that got you excited about tech and helped you believe that you had a future in this field!" Why not pay it forward by helping other children have those same great experiences? As we enter another season of giving, I hope you consider doing what you can to support the hundreds or thousands of non-profit organizations, educators, and volunteers around the world who are getting kids excited about tech the same way YOU got excited about tech. In this article, I'll share with you a handful of organizations that I know of or donate to that have this mission. How do you like to give back?
Zephyr: West Manifest For Application Development
In this blog post, I show a simpler way to create custom West manifest files. This technique eliminates the need to duplicate the complex West manifest from upstream Zephyr. I also show how we can use the West manifest to include out-of-tree board and SoC definitions, and include our own out-of-tree drivers.
Simulating Your Embedded Project on Your Computer (Part 2)
Having a simulation of your embedded project is like having a superpower that improves the quality and pace of your development ten times over! To be useful, though, it can't take longer to develop the simulation than it takes to develop the application code and for many simulation techniques "the juice isn't worth the squeeze"! In the last article, I showed you how to use the terminal (i.e. printf/getchar) to easily make a completely functional simulation. In this article, we'll take simulation to the next level, either in terms of realism (by using virtual hardware) or in terms of user experience (by using a GUI to simulate our hardware, instead of using the terminal).
The Other Kind of Bypass Capacitor
There’s a type of bypass capacitor I’d like to talk about today. It’s not the usual power supply bypass capacitor, aka decoupling capacitor, which is used to provide local charge storage to an integrated circuit, so that the...
Simulating Your Embedded Project on Your Computer (Part 1)
Having a simulation of your embedded project is like having a superpower that improves the quality and pace of your development ten times over! To be useful, though, it can't take longer to develop the simulation than it takes to develop the application code and for many simulation techniques "the juice isn't worth the squeeze"! In this two-part blog series, I'll share with you the arguments in favor of simulation (so, hopefully, you too believe in its value) and I'll show you what works (and what doesn't work) to help you to simply, easily, and quickly simulate your embedded project on your computer.
Cortex-M Exception Handling (Part 1)
This article describes how Cortex-M processors handle interrupts and, more generally, exceptions, a concept that plays a central role in the design and implementation of most embedded systems.
Supply Chain Games: What Have We Learned From the Great Semiconductor Shortage of 2021? (Part 1)
So by now I’m sure you’ve heard about the semiconductor shortage of 2021. For a few complicated reasons, demand is greater than supply, and not everybody who wants to buy integrated circuits can do so. Today we’re going to try...
Elliptic Curve Cryptography - Basic Math
An introduction to the math of elliptic curves for cryptography. Covers the basic equations of points on an elliptic curve and the concept of point addition as well as multiplication.
Getting Started With Zephyr: Devicetree Overlays
In this blog post, I show how the Devicetree overlay is a valuable construct in The Zephyr Project RTOS. Overlays allow embedded software engineers to override the default pin configuration specified in Zephyr for a particular board. In this blog post, I use I2C as an example. Specifically, I showed the default I2C pins used for the nRF52840 development kit in the nominal Zephyr Devicetree. Then, I demonstrated how an overlay can be used to override this pin configuration and the final result.
C to C++: 5 Tips for Refactoring C Code into C++
The article titled "Simple Tips to Refactor C Code into C++: Improve Embedded Development" provides essential guidance for embedded developers transitioning from C to C++. The series covers fundamental details necessary for a seamless transition and emphasizes utilizing C++ as a better C rather than diving into complex language features. The article introduces five practical tips for refactoring C code into C++. Replace #define with constexpr and const: Discouraging the use of #define macros, the article advocates for safer alternatives like constexpr and const to improve type safety, debugging, namespaces, and compile-time computation. Use Namespaces: Demonstrating the benefits of organizing code into separate logical groupings through namespaces, the article explains how namespaces help avoid naming conflicts and improve code readability. Replace C-style Pointers with Smart Pointers and References: Emphasizing the significance of avoiding raw pointers, the article suggests replacing them with C++ smart pointers (unique_ptr, shared_ptr, weak_ptr) and using references
Bit-Banged Async Serial Output And Disciplined Engineering
This post covers implementing asynchronous serial output directly on a GPIO with bit-banging. This can be a valuable debug tool for getting information out of a system. It also covers disciplined engineering, using the bit-banging module as an example and template you can apply to other projects.
Soft Skills For Embedded Systems Software Developers
Contents: Introduction The Skills Interpersonal Tips For Interpersonal Skills Communications Tips For Speaking Tips For Writing Tips For Diagramming Time Management Tips For Time Management Deep Focus Tips For Deep...
