2022 Embedded Online Conference - Final Push!
With the Embedded Online Conference only a couple of weeks away, we are now doing a final push to ensure that as many engineers as possible who could benefit from the conference are aware of it.
If you'd like to help us spread the word, not only will you make our day, but you'll also earn a chance to win one of TWO Saleae Logic Pro 8.
Prize: TWO Saleae Logic Pro 8Raffle...Reading and Understanding Profitability Metrics from Financial Statements
Whoa! That has got to be the most serious-minded title I’ve ever written. Profitability Metrics from Financial Statements, indeed. I’m still writing Part 2 of my Supply Chain Games article, and I was about to mention something about whether a company is profitable, when I realized something that didn’t quite fit into the flow of things, so I thought I’d handle it separately: how are you supposed to know what I mean, when I say a company is profitable? And how am I...
A Second Look at Slew Rate Limiters
I recently had to pick a slew rate for a current waveform, and I got this feeling of déjà vu… hadn’t I gone through this effort already? So I looked, and lo and behold, way back in 2014 I wrote an article titled Slew Rate Limiters: Nonlinear and Proud of It! where I explored the effects of two types of slew rate limiters, one feedforward and one feedback, given a particular slew rate \( R \).
Here was one figure I published at the time:
This...
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 to answer some hard questions:
- Why are we in the middle of a semiconductor shortage?
- Why is it taking so long to get my [insert part number here]?
- Did this shortage suddenly sneak up on everybody? If not, what were the signs, and why...
Review: Modern Software Engineering
This is actually a review of 3 books by Dave Farley, because they really form a set:
- Modern Software Engineering: Doing What Works to Build Better Software Faster (just released for 2022, 224 pages)
- Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation (co-authored with Jez Humble, 2011, 463 pages)
- Continuous Delivery Pipelines: How To Build Better Software Faster (2021,...
VolksEEG: Rust Development On Adafruit nRF52840 Feather Express
Contents:Learning Rust For Embedded Systems
The Motivational PortionBased on recommendations from Kevin Nause, the VolksEEG project is considering using Rust as the embedded system programming language. So I've been off on a tear skimming books and e-books and watching videos at 2x to evaluate it.
My conclusion? Do it!
Most of the rest of us participants are primarily C/C++ embedded developers. I had previously been sensitized to Rust for embedded systems by
The 2021 IoT Online Conference
The IoT Online Conference is back, and this time the core focus is on IoT embedded systems and edge computing. This post will explore what will be happening at this year’s conference and how teams and developers can benefit.
The IoT Online Conference OverviewThe IoT Online Conference will be taking place December 8 – 10, 2021. This is the conferences’ fourth year, although it started as a fall embedded systems conference which was a single day of webinars. The...
Six Software Design Tools
Contents: IntroductionHere are six tools to help you with software design. The first two are very simple, almost deceptively trivial, while the last four are more involved. They apply universally, to all types of software, all types of systems, and all languages. This is part of good engineering discipline.
At face value, this is just a bunch of acronyms,...
Already 3000+ Attendees Registered for the Upcoming Embedded Online Conference
Chances are you already know, through the newsletter or banners on the Related sites, about the upcoming Embedded Online Conference.
Chances are you also already know that you have until the end of the month of February to register for free.
And chances are that you are one of the more than 3000 pro-active engineers who have already registered.
But If you are like me and have a tendency to do tomorrow what can be done today, maybe you haven't registered yet. You may...
Learning Rust For Embedded Systems
The Motivational PortionBased on recommendations from Kevin Nause, the VolksEEG project is considering using Rust as the embedded system programming language. So I've been off on a tear skimming books and e-books and watching videos at 2x to evaluate it.
My conclusion? Do it!
Most of the rest of us participants are primarily C/C++ embedded developers. I had previously been sensitized to Rust for embedded systems by
MSP430 Launchpad Tutorial - Part 2 - Interrupts and timers
What is an "interrupt"? It is a signal that informs our MCU that a certain event has happened, causing the interruption of the normal flow of the main program and the execution of an "interrupt routine", that handles the event and takes a specified action.
Interrupts are essential to avoid wasting the processor's valuable time in polling loops, waiting for external events (in fact they are used in Real-Time Operating Systems,
Supply Chain Games: What Have We Learned From the Great Semiconductor Shortage of 2021? (Part 2)
Welcome back! Today we’re going to zoom around again in some odd directions, and give a roundabout introduction to the semiconductor industry, touching on some of the following questions:
- How do semiconductors get designed and manufactured?
- What is the business of semiconductor manufacturing like?
- What are the different types of semiconductors, and how does that affect the business model of these manufacturers?
- How has the semiconductor industry evolved over time?
- How do...
VHDL tutorial - A practical example - part 3 - VHDL testbench
In part 1 of this series we focused on the hardware design, including some of the VHDL definitions of the I/O characteristics of the CPLD part. In part 2, we described the VHDL logic of the CPLD for this design. In part 3, we will show the entire VHDL design and the associated tests used to prove that we have, in fact, designed what we started out to design.
First, let's pull all of the pieces of the prior design together into a...
Introduction to Microcontrollers - Beginnings
Welcome to this Introduction to Microcontroller Programming tutorial series. If you are looking to learn the basics of embedded programming for microcontrollers (and a bit of embedded hardware design as well), I hope these tutorials will help you along that journey. These are my first postings here, and I am writing this tutorial series because over the years I have seen countless newbies asking the same questions and tripping over the same stumbling blocks, and I thought I might be able to...
Ten Little Algorithms, Part 2: The Single-Pole Low-Pass Filter
Other articles in this series:
- Part 1: Russian Peasant Multiplication
- Part 3: Welford's Method (And Friends)
- Part 4: Topological Sort
- Part 5: Quadratic Extremum Interpolation and Chandrupatla's Method
- Part 6: Green’s Theorem and Swept-Area Detection
I’m writing this article in a room with a bunch of other people talking, and while sometimes I wish they would just SHUT UP, it would be...
Introduction to Microcontrollers - Driving WS2812 RGB LEDs
This tutorial chapter is a bit of a detour, but I think an interesting and useful one. It introduces a bit of assembly language programming, and demonstrates bit-banging a tight serial data protocol. And it deals with RGB LEDs, which are just very fun in their own right, especially these new parts. So I thought I'd post this to give readers time for some holiday lighting experimenting.
Back To The FutureRemember how we started this...
How to Estimate Encoder Velocity Without Making Stupid Mistakes: Part I
Here's a common problem: you have a quadrature encoder to measure the angular position of a motor, and you want to know both the position and the velocity. How do you do it? Some people do it poorly -- this article is how not to be one of them.
Well, first we need to get position. Quadrature encoders are incremental encoders, meaning they can only measure relative changes in position. They produce a pair of pulse trains, commonly called A and B, that look like...
How to Read a Power MOSFET Datasheet
One of my pet peeves is when my fellow engineers misinterpret component datasheets. This happened a few times recently in separate instances, all involving power MOSFETs. So it’s time for me to get on my soapbox. Listen up!
I was going to post an article on how to read component datasheets in general. But MOSFETs are a good place to start, and are a little more specific. I’m not the first person to write something about how to read datasheets; here are some other good...
VHDL tutorial - part 2 - Testbench
In an earlier article I walked through the VHDL coding of a simple design. In this article I will continue the process and create a test bench module to test the earlier design. The Xilinx ISE environment makes it pretty easy to start the testing process. To start the process, select "New Source" from the menu items under "Project". This launches the "New Source Wizard". From within the Wizard select "VHDL Test Bench" and enter the name of the new module (click 'Next' to...
Ten Little Algorithms, Part 2: The Single-Pole Low-Pass Filter
Other articles in this series:
- Part 1: Russian Peasant Multiplication
- Part 3: Welford's Method (And Friends)
- Part 4: Topological Sort
- Part 5: Quadratic Extremum Interpolation and Chandrupatla's Method
- Part 6: Green’s Theorem and Swept-Area Detection
I’m writing this article in a room with a bunch of other people talking, and while sometimes I wish they would just SHUT UP, it would be...
Thermistor signal conditioning: Dos and Don'ts, Tips and Tricks
In an earlier blog entry, I mentioned this circuit for thermistor signal conditioning:
It is worth a little more explanation on thermistor signal conditioning; it's something that's often done poorly, whereas it's among the easiest applications for signal conditioning.
The basic premise here is that there are two resistors in a voltage divider: Rth is the thermistor, and Rref is a reference resistor. Here Rref is either R3 alone, or R3 || R4, depending on the gain...
Chebyshev Approximation and How It Can Help You Save Money, Win Friends, and Influence People
Well... maybe that's a stretch. I don't think I can recommend anything to help you win friends. Not my forte.
But I am going to try to convince you why you should know about Chebyshev approximation, which is a technique for figuring out how you can come as close as possible to computing the result of a mathematical function, with a minimal amount of design effort and CPU power. Let's explore two use cases:
- Amy has a low-power 8-bit microcontroller and needs to compute \( \sqrt{x} \)...
Using the Beaglebone PRU to achieve realtime at low cost
Introduction
I work as an engineer in a synchrotron facility. A few weeks ago, I helped the people in charge of the power supply developments to integrate a realtime control algorithm on a prototype platform: a BeagleBone Black (BBB) running Linux. I had already worked with this board in the past, and I found it very interesting given its excellent resources versus price ratio (around 40 euros). This time, I was impressed by its realtime capabilities. I thought it would be a good idea to...
Coroutines in one page of C
A coroutine is a function that you can jump back into after returning from it - and it remembers where it was in the code, and all the variables. This is very useful at times.
One use is generating a sequence of values. Here's how you can generate all the x,y pairs in a 2D range in Python:
def iterate(max_x, max_y): for x in range(max_x): for y in range(max_y): yield x,y for x,y in iterate(2,2): print x,yThis prints:
0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1The yield keyword is like...
StrangeCPU #1. A new CPU
Summary: In this multi-part series I will share with you a design, implementation notes and code for a slightly different kind of a CPU featuring a novel token machine that resolves an 8-bit token to pretty much any address in a 32-bit or even 64-bit address space, using not much more than an adder.
Table of Contents:- Part 1: A new CPU - technology review, re-examination of the premises; StrangeCPU concepts; x86 notes.
MSP430 LaunchPad Tutorial - Part 3 - ADC
In this new episode of our journey into MSP430 I will explain the basics of Analog to Digital Conversion on the MSP430G2231.We will write a program that will read an ADC channel and will toggle some leds based on the result of the conversion.
We start as usual with the inclusion of the header file for the MSP430G2231, the leds stuff and with the definition of a variable that will store the result of the conversion. We also declare a function that will initialize the ADC...
Free Goodies from Embedded World - What to Do Next?
I told you I would go on a hunt for free stuff at Embedded World in order to build a bundle for someone to win.
Back from Embedded World 2019 - Funny Stories and Live-Streaming Woes
When the idea of live-streaming parts of Embedded World came to me, I got so excited that I knew I had to make it happen. I perceived the opportunity as a win-win-win-win.
- win #1 - Engineers who could not make it to Embedded World would be able to sample the huge event,
- win #2 - The organisation behind EW would benefit from the extra exposure
- win #3 - Lecturers and vendors who would be live-streamed would reach a (much) larger audience
- win #4 - I would get...
Spread the Word and Run a Chance to Win a Bundle of Goodies from Embedded World
Do you have a Twitter and/or Linkedin account?
If you do, please consider paying close attention for the next few days to the EmbeddedRelated Twitter account and to my personal Linkedin account (feel free to connect). This is where I will be posting lots of updates about how the EmbeddedRelated.tv live streaming experience is going at Embedded World.
The most successful this live broadcasting experience will be, the better the chances that I will be able to do it...
Launch of EmbeddedRelated.tv
With the upcoming Embedded Word just around the corner, I am very excited to launch the EmbeddedRelated.tv platform.
This is where you will find the schedule for all the live broadcasts that I will be doing from Embedded World next week. Please note that the schedule will be evolving constantly, even during the show, so I suggest your refresh the page often. For instance, I am still unsure if I will be able to do the 'opening of the doors' broadcast as...
Live Streaming from Embedded World!
For those of you who won't be attending Embedded World this year, I will try to be your eyes and ears by video streaming live from the show floor.
I am not talking improvised streaming from a phone, but real, high quality HD streaming with a high-end camera and a device that will bond three internet connections (one wifi and two cellular) to ensure a steady, and hopefully reliable, stream. All this to hopefully give those of you who cannot be there in person a virtual...
Sensors Expo - Trip Report & My Best Video Yet!
This was my first time at Sensors Expo and my second time in Silicon Valley and I must say I had a great time.
Before I share with you what I find to be, by far, my best 'highlights' video yet for a conference/trade show, let me try to entertain you with a few anecdotes from this trip. If you are not interested by my stories or maybe don't have the extra minutes needed to read them, please feel free to skip to the end of this blog post to watch the...
Who else is going to Sensors Expo in San Jose? Looking for roommate(s)!
This will be my first time attending this show and I must say that I am excited. I am bringing with me my cameras and other video equipment with the intention to capture as much footage as possible and produce a (hopefully) fun to watch 'highlights' video. I will also try to film as many demos as possible and share them with you.
I enjoy going to shows like this one as it gives me the opportunity to get out of my home-office (from where I manage and run the *Related sites) and actually...
Crowdfunding Articles?
Many of you have the knowledge and talent to write technical articles that would benefit the EE community. What is missing for most of you though, and very understandably so, is the time and motivation to do it.
But what if you could make some money to compensate for your time spent on writing the article(s)? Would some of you find the motivation and make the time?
I am thinking of implementing a system/mechanism that would allow the EE community to...
Embedded World 2018 - More Videos!
After the interview videos last week, this week I am very happy to release two more videos taken at Embedded World 2018 and that I am proud of.
For both videos, I made extensive use of my two new toys, a Zhiyun Crane Gimbal and a Sony a6300 camera.
The use of a gimbal like the Zhiyun makes a big difference in terms of making the footage look much more stable and cinematographic.
As for the Sony camera, it takes fantastic slow-motion footage and...
