3 Tips for Developing Embedded Systems with AI
Explore how to leverage AI in developing embedded systems with three practical tips, learn why documenting your workflows, supercharging testing and debugging, and adopting AI-assisted code generation can save time, reduce errors, and boost performance in your projects, and discover actionable insights to streamline development in resource-constrained environments, this blog explains how to prepare for AI integration while keeping the expertise of experienced engineers intact, offering real-world examples that show how even incremental AI adoption can revolutionize your development process, whether you’re new to AI or seeking to enhance existing practices, these strategies provide a clear roadmap to build smarter, more efficient embedded systems using AI.
Static or static
The keyword static in C and C++ has multiple uses, which are not always well understood.
The Most Annoying Sound
Independent consultants often face requests and requirements that go beyond the technicalities of software and hardware. Designing user interfaces is a common example, and even though most of us are not UI experts, we still have to get it right, otherwise the users may get annoyed, and the product will fail. However, what happens when we're asked explicitly to annoy users? Here's a true story about such a case.
Sheep Bridge: In Praise of Generalists and System Engineers
Jason Sachs makes the case for hiring generalists and valuing system engineers, because they do more than take a high-level view. He explains how multi-scale thinking, arbitration among subsystems, and clear visualization prevent integration failures, using concrete examples from battery-voltage tradeoffs, Sheep Bridge map lessons, and encoder signal checks. Read this for practical rules that keep embedded projects coherent.
OS influence on power consumption
Power consumption of an embedded system may be influenced in software in general, but selection of an operating system can be key.
The Teardown Conference Call for Proposals is Open for Another Week!
The Teardown conference "Call for Proposals" goes until Wednesday, January 15th! Get yours in soon!
Scorchers, Part 4: Burned by the Happy Path (Simon Says)
Designs that only work along the happy path break in real use, causing frustration and sometimes safety risks. Jason M. Sachs uses everyday examples from microwaves to car Auto Park logic to show how mutable software and physical state create brittle behavior. He outlines practical firmware fixes such as clear state machines, sensor or user-driven resynchronization, soft-start delays, and a ‘‘Drunken Happy Path’’ fuzzing approach to find real-world failure modes.
Using a board with NuttX RTOS as an RS-485 / Modbus Slave Device
This practical walk-through shows how to turn a NuttX-equipped board into an RS-485 Modbus RTU slave using a cheap MAX485 transceiver and an STM32F4Discovery board. It explains why a simple UART plus a GPIO for DE/RE is enough, why the RP2040 needs special handling, and gives step-by-step configuration in NuttX, wiring for the transceiver, and a quick test using FreeModbus and mbpoll.
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…
Lost Secrets of the H-Bridge, Part IV: DC Link Decoupling and Why Electrolytic Capacitors Are Not Enough
Switching H-bridges can kick nasty voltage spikes onto the DC link, and a single electrolytic capacitor rarely fixes the problem. Jason Sachs uses simulations and practical PCB layout advice to show how a three-tier decoupling strategy — bulk electrolytic, mid-value ceramics or film, and many small HF bypass capacitors plus PCB plane capacitance — tames spikes, reduces EMI, and avoids harmful resonances when parts and vias are placed correctly.
Soft Skills For Embedded Systems Software Developers
Soft skills often determine whether an embedded project ships on time as much as technical chops do. This post lays out practical, engineer-friendly guidance on interpersonal skills, communication, time management, deep focus, asking for help, learning, and resilience. It mixes concrete tips like the documentation system, pomodoro and quiet hours with habits such as engineering notebooks and role-playing to make collaboration and productivity more reliable.
Introduction to Microcontrollers - Interrupts
Interrupts are not magic, they are the practical tool that lets a microcontroller respond in microseconds while still doing background work. This introduction explains what an interrupt and an ISR are, how return addresses and CPU state are saved, and why ISRs must be short and carefully written. AVR and STM32 external-interrupt examples show real configuration steps and key gotchas to watch for.
Finite State Machines (FSM) in Embedded Systems (Part 4) - Let 'em talk
No state machine is an island. State machines do not exist in a vacuum, they need to "talk" to their environment and each other to share information and provide synchronization to perform the system functions. In this conclusive article, you will find what kind of problems and which critical areas you need to pay attention to when designing a concurrent system. Although the focus is on state machines, the consideration applies to every system that involves more than one execution thread.
Delta Encoding With Feather and Pandas
Delta encoding can reduce the storage size of a data set in compressed form, and is well-suited in particular for timestamps of regularly-sampled data. This article describes a real use case and examines the reduction in storage size when using delta encoding.
Use DPLL to Lock Digital Oscillator to 1PPS Signal
Michael Morris demonstrates a practical DPLL that locks a Direct Digital Synthesizer to a GPS 1PPS signal, achieving sub-microsecond alignment and removing reference-oscillator frequency error. The design uses a Phase-Frequency Detector for 0 degree phase lock, a multiplier-free α-filter, and a limiter to prevent saturation, and includes coast and re-lock logic plus a synthesizable Verilog reference core.
Getting Started with (Apache) NuttX RTOS - Part 1
NuttX RTOS is used in many products from companies like Sony, Xiaomi, Samsung, Google/Fitbit, WildernessLabs and many other companis. So, probably you are already using NuttX even without knowing it, like the you was using Linux on your TV, WiFi router more than 10 years ago and didn't know too! Today you will have the chance to discover a little bit of this fantastic Linux-like RTOS! Are you ready? So, let's get started!
Understanding Yocto Project Layers: A Modular Approach to Embedded Systems Development
Managing metadata across embedded Linux builds gets messy fast, so the Yocto Project uses layers to keep things modular and reusable. This post walks through inspecting active layers with bitbake-layers, controlling overrides with BBFILE_PRIORITY, and creating a meta-yocto-splash-img layer that uses a .bbappend to replace psplash. It finishes by showing how to verify the custom splash screen in QEMU so you can test safely before deploying to hardware.
BusyBox; The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux
In this article we cover the BusyBox, how it's designed to be optimized for embedded targets, and how to configure and build it in different ways, we also covered the license and limitation, which led to the development of ToyBox, I hope you enjoyed the article, please leave a comment for any correction or suggestions.
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).
Lost Secrets of the H-Bridge, Part V: Gate Drives for Dummies
Learn the most important issues in power MOSFET and IGBT gate drives: - Transistor behavior during switching - Calculating turn-on and turn-off times - Passive components used between gate drive IC and transistor - Reverse recovery - Capacitively-coupled spurious turn-on - Factors that influence a good choice of turn-on and turn-off times - Gate drive supply voltage management - Bootstrap gate drives - Design issues impacting reliability
Boot sequence for an ARM based embedded system -2
DM walks through the concrete steps of an ARM system startup, from the reset vector to handing control to C. The post explains what the early assembly reset code must do: set system registers, initialize stacks, set up the MMU, copy .data and clear .bss, and remap the vector table into RAM for faster interrupts. It finishes with external memory bring-up and loading an OS image.
Introduction to Microcontrollers - Further Beginnings
Mike Silva walks through the CPU plumbing every embedded engineer needs to know before writing their first LED blinky. The post explains registers (data, address, stack pointer, link), the fetch-execute cycle, and the main instruction classes such as arithmetic, logic, shifts, branches, and call/return mechanics. Read this to see how C maps to CPU operations and why stack versus link register choices matter.
Absolute Beginner's Guide To Getting Started With Raspberry Pi
Getting started with Raspberry Pi can feel overwhelming. This guide strips the noise and shows the simplest path from unboxing to a working desktop. It recommends buying a preloaded NOOBS microSD to avoid imaging hassles, lists exact parts and suppliers, and walks through booting, recovery, and making a backup. If you want embedded electronics it also lists starter parts and ESD safety tips.
Arduino robotics #1 - motor control
Clusterbot is Lonnie Honeycutt's first autonomous robot, built on a tight budget to teach practical motor control. This post explains why you cannot drive motors directly from an Arduino, how to wire and enable the Toshiba TB6612FNG motor driver, and offers hands-on PWM and calibration tips for getting smooth motion from cheap Mabuchi FA-130 toy motors.
Lost Secrets of the H-Bridge, Part IV: DC Link Decoupling and Why Electrolytic Capacitors Are Not Enough
Switching H-bridges can kick nasty voltage spikes onto the DC link, and a single electrolytic capacitor rarely fixes the problem. Jason Sachs uses simulations and practical PCB layout advice to show how a three-tier decoupling strategy — bulk electrolytic, mid-value ceramics or film, and many small HF bypass capacitors plus PCB plane capacitance — tames spikes, reduces EMI, and avoids harmful resonances when parts and vias are placed correctly.
How to Estimate Encoder Velocity Without Making Stupid Mistakes: Part II (Tracking Loops and PLLs)
Jason Sachs explains why simple differentiation of encoder counts often fails and how tracking loops and PLLs give more robust velocity estimates. Using a pendulum thought experiment and Python examples, he shows how a PI-based tracking loop reduces noise and eliminates steady-state ramp error, and why vector PLLs with quadrature mixing avoid cycle slips and atan2 unwrap pitfalls in noisy or analog sensing.
Creating a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) in C
In my last post, C to C++: Using Abstract Interfaces to Create Hardware Abstraction Layers (HAL), I discussed how vital hardware abstraction layers are and how to use a C++ abstract interface to create them. You may be thinking, that’s great for C++, but I work in C! How do I create a HAL that can easily swap in and out different drivers? In today’s post, I will walk through exactly how to do that while using the I2C bus as an example.
Data Hiding in C
You can get C++-style data hiding in plain ANSI C, Stephen Friederichs demonstrates how with a FIFO stack example. He shows opaque pointer typedefs to hide struct layouts, const-qualified handles to catch accidental writes, static file-local functions for private helpers, and a canary field to detect tampering. The pattern keeps the public header stable while letting you change implementations behind the scenes.
Ten Little Algorithms, Part 1: Russian Peasant Multiplication
Jason Sachs revisits a centuries-old multiplication trick and shows why it still matters. He lays out Russian Peasant Multiplication with simple Python code, then reveals how the same shift-and-add pattern maps to GF(2) polynomial arithmetic and to exponentiation by squaring. The post mixes historical context with practical bitwise techniques that are useful for embedded and low-level math work.
DSPRelated and EmbeddedRelated now on Facebook & I will be at EE Live!
Stephane Boucher announces two practical updates for DSPRelated readers. He launched Facebook pages for DSPRelated and EmbeddedRelated so members can get faster updates, and he will be attending EE Live in San Jose from March 30 to April 3 with a $100-off promo code for early registration. He also asks the community for ideas on how to make his conference coverage most useful.
Free Embedded Systems Books
Want a one-stop list of legally free embedded systems books online? Stephane Boucher launched a collaborative Google Docs experiment to crowdsource the best titles made available by authors and publishers, not pirates. Add missing entries, prune unsuitable links, and help build a curated, shareable collection of trusted embedded-reading material for firmware engineers and embedded Linux developers.
Collaborative Writing Experiment: What are your favorite Embedded Systems Online Resources?
Stephane Boucher invited the EmbeddedRelated community to co-create a live, crowd-sourced list of favorite embedded systems online resources using a Google Docs document. Readers could add links, vote by adding pluses, and watch edits appear in real time, while the author monitored for spam, planned moderation, and later closed the document after collecting contributions and trying to boost participation via Reddit/ece. It is a hands-on experiment in community curation.
Success Story
A single C programming article just set a new pageview record across the related sites, and the reason is pretty clear. Stephen Friederichs’s Data Hiding in C caught fire on Reddit, drew more than 7,000 readers, and even pushed a companion code snippet into the reward max. The post is also a quick look at how good technical writing can turn into real visibility and payment.
Code Snippets Winners Announced
Stephane Boucher announces the winners of EmbeddedRelated’s code snippet reward program after reviewing more than 50 submissions. The selected snippets include a software timer system, MSP430 SPI master IO without interrupts, base64 encoding, a debug print trace macro, and bit manipulation macros. It is also a reminder that submissions are still open, with cash rewards still available for approved snippets.
Now on Twitter + More Code Snippets Incentives
Stephane Boucher announces that EmbeddedRelated, DSPRelated, and FPGARelated are now on Twitter, with occasional timed giveaways for early visitors. He also highlights the new code snippets section, which has ten submissions and a rewards program: approved snippets can earn up to $50, and five standout March submissions will receive an extra $100 each. The post invites engineers to share useful embedded code.
New Code Snippet Section
Stephane Boucher launches a code snippet section on EmbeddedRelated, inviting embedded engineers to share short, useful code. Contributors get $10 for each approved submission via PayPal, plus performance bonuses: $10 when a snippet reaches 100 pageviews and $30 at 500 pageviews through 2013. It's an easy way to get credit and a small reward for reusable firmware and microcontroller code.
Two jobs
Stephane Boucher explains why EmbeddedRelated went quiet for a few months after a volunteer project demanded more of his time. He and his wife organized a clown-gymnastics show with 15 kids, sold more than 700 of 800 tickets, and raised $2,700 for the Tree of Hope. Now the shows are done and he plans to resume regular posting with new site features.
October winner announced
EmbeddedRelated is wrapping up another monthly draw for forum users who helped rate old threads and clean up the archives. For October, the new iPod Touch goes to hssathya, and Stephane Boucher also looks ahead to the next prize, an iPad mini, tied to ratings submitted in November and December. It is a simple incentive, but it keeps the forums tidier and the community engaged.
Behold, the New Comments System!
EmbeddedRelated has a new commenting system, and it is built to feel much smoother for readers. Stephane Boucher says it uses Ajax so comments post without reloading the page, and it now supports threaded replies for cleaner discussions. He also notes that guests can still comment, as long as they confirm their email address.
