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C++ on microcontrollers 4 – input pins, and decoding a rotary switch

Wouter van Ooijen ● November 12, 2011●2 comments

previous parts: 1, 2, 3

 This blog series is about the use of C++ for modern microcontrollers. My plan is to show the gradual development of a basic I/O library. I will introduce the object-oriented C++ features that are used step by step, to provide a gentle yet practical introduction into C++ for C programmers.  Reader input is very much appreciated, you might even steer me in the direction you find most interesting.

So far I...

C++ on microcontrollers 3 – a first shot at an hc595 class with 8 output pins

Wouter van Ooijen ● November 2, 2011

 previous parts: 1, 2

This blog series is about the use of C++ for modern microcontrollers. My plan is to show the gradual development of a basic I/O library. I will introduce the object-oriented C++ features that are used step by step, to provide a gentle yet practical introduction into C++ for C programmers.  Reader input is very much appreciated, you might even steer me in the direction you find most interesting.

In the first part of...

C++ on microcontrollers 2 - LPCXpresso, LPC-link, Code Sourcery, lpc21isp, linkerscript, LPC1114 startup

Wouter van Ooijen ● October 24, 2011●5 comments

 previous parts: 1

This blog series is about the use of C++ for modern microcontrollers. My plan is to show the gradual development of a basic I/O library. I will introduce the object-oriented C++ features that are used step by step, to provide a gentle yet practical introduction into C++ for C programmers.  Reader input is very much appreciated, you might even steer me in the direction you find most interesting.

I teach my students that...

Using XML to describe embedded devices (and speak to them)

Martin Strubel ● October 12, 2011●1 comment

This article discusses one of the typical development cycles in embedded device and communication design and presents a possible, light weight solution using the free DClib/netpp framework.

The challenge

Assume we're faced with the design of an embedded device, be it a simple SoC unit or a more complex, uC controlled engine with various attached peripherals. From first prototype to the market, the following development cycle is typically walked through:

C++ on microcontrollers 1 - introduction, and an output pin class

Wouter van Ooijen ● October 9, 2011●7 comments

 

This blog series is about the use of C++ for modern microcontrollers. My plan is to show the gradual development of a basic I/O library. I will introduce the object-oriented C++ features that are used step by step, to provide a gentle yet practical introduction into C++ for C programmers.  Reader input is very much appreciated, you might even steer me in the direction you find most interesting.

I am lazy. I am also a programmer. Luckily, being a lazy...

Which MOSFET topology?

Jason Sachs ● September 1, 2011●9 comments

A recent electronics.StackExchange question brings up a good topic for discussion. Let's say you have a power supply and a 2-wire load you want to be able to switch on and off from the power supply using a MOSFET. How do you choose which circuit topology to choose? You basically have four options, shown below:

From left to right, these are:

High-side switch, N-channel MOSFET High-side switch, P-channel MOSFET Low-side switch, N-channel...

Kind of Buggy! The state machine fantastic//

Richard Dorfner ● August 31, 2011●2 comments

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to experience a lot of different kinds of coding mistakes. There were many that most programmers are familiar with, counting errors, indexing errors (the infamous 'off by one' bug), memory space sharing errors (A threading issue) as well as numerous others.  I ran into one recently that I wound up using an old trick to help find.

My current project is a Pan/Tilt camera that was, upon occasion, not homing properly in one axis. The camera is a...

Deeply embedded design example - Logic replacement

Gene Breniman ● July 9, 2011

I have always believed that some of the low-cost, low-pin count, low-resource microprocessors would make an excellent choice for the replacement of discrete logic components.  In these cases the deeply embedded microprocessor would become less of a general purpose computer and more of a logic replacement, providing a prescribed function with no connection to the outside world.  In a world of bigger, faster and more expensive, it is a pleasant change of pace...

VHDL tutorial - A practical example - part 3 - VHDL testbench

Gene Breniman ● June 25, 2011●8 comments

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...

Thermistor signal conditioning: Dos and Don'ts, Tips and Tricks

Jason Sachs ● June 15, 2011●17 comments

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...

Designing Embedded System with FPGA - 1

Pragnesh Patel ● October 28, 2007●11 comments

With the introduction of soft processors and related tools (like EDK from Xilinx), implementation of basic embedded system in FPGA is made easy. This requires very little or almost no knowledge of VHDL programming. Actually that’s how I started. If user is interested in taking full advantage of FPGA and its parallel processing power, then yes, detail understanding of soft processor, its peripheral bus and VHDL programming is required.

 

I will start with...

Cracking the (embedded) Coding Interview

Manasi Rajan ● March 23, 2023

You never forget the day you land your first job. 

The thrill of receiving that call from your recruiter to tell you that you bagged your dream role! The relief when you finally see the offer letter you’ve been working towards for years. The pride in your parents' voices when you call home and say “Hey look Ma, I’ve made it!”

But before that, there’s the grueling screening process to get through. Tech interviews often last up to three months and companies can have five...

Coding Step 4 - Design

Stephen Friederichs ● November 24, 2015

Articles in this series:

The last article in this series discussed how to write functional high-level requirements: specifications for what your software is supposed to do. Software design is the other side of the coin....

Deeply embedded design example - Logic replacement

Gene Breniman ● July 9, 2011

I have always believed that some of the low-cost, low-pin count, low-resource microprocessors would make an excellent choice for the replacement of discrete logic components.  In these cases the deeply embedded microprocessor would become less of a general purpose computer and more of a logic replacement, providing a prescribed function with no connection to the outside world.  In a world of bigger, faster and more expensive, it is a pleasant change of pace...

C++ on microcontrollers 3 – a first shot at an hc595 class with 8 output pins

Wouter van Ooijen ● November 2, 2011

 previous parts: 1, 2

This blog series is about the use of C++ for modern microcontrollers. My plan is to show the gradual development of a basic I/O library. I will introduce the object-oriented C++ features that are used step by step, to provide a gentle yet practical introduction into C++ for C programmers.  Reader input is very much appreciated, you might even steer me in the direction you find most interesting.

In the first part of...

Designing Embedded Systems with FPGA-2

Pragnesh Patel ● November 13, 2007●10 comments

In last part, we created hardware design of basic system. The next step is to generate (compile) hardware design. Compiled hardware design is known as bit-stream andstored in *.bit file. To compile hardware, use hardware->generate hardware tab. The complete hardware design generation takes several seconds to several minutes depending on computer speed and design complexity. In back ground, the whole design process involves many different steps including synthesis, placement, routing and...

An Introduction to Embedded Development

Peter Johansson ● June 14, 2013●3 comments
This blog is a series to provide an introduction to embedded development for the aspiring embedded developer. No prior embedded development experience will be assumed, but you should have a reasonable understanding of the C language and knowledge of basic electronics. It will focus on the TI MSP430, but present topics in a generic way that can be easily translated to other processors. Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to my blog! This blog will be somewhat different from most...

Motion Sensor with Raspberry Pi and MPU6050 - Part 1

Shres L ● November 21, 2015

This blog will help you build your own, low cost 3-axis motion sensor using Raspberry Pi and Invensense MPU6050.

NXP LPC17xx/40xx: Decoding the Part ID

Ricky Bennett ● August 25, 2016●4 comments

This is the first blog of a number dealing with the NXP LPC17xx/40xx processor families and how to program them despite the lack of documentation.  The next blog will deal with implementing the LPC17xx/40xx UART with interrupts properly, and a subsequent blog will show how to use the UART in RS485 Normal Multidrop Mode (NMM) with Auto Address Detection (AAD).

My company has decided on using the NXP LPC17xx/40xx processor line for all our embedded projects.  Since...

Making a connection 1

Ed Nutter ● July 3, 2018●2 comments

In order for your system to control devices, you must be able to connect it to those devices.

Besides different sizes based on wire size, there are a few different styles of connectors that can be used.  There are also weather-resistant terminals that can be used if needed.

Ring

(Parks, 16)

- used for circuits that you don’t want to become easily disconnected

- ground wire attached to a stud

Push-On

- can be used on relay terminals

(Parks, 18)

- could be...

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