Guide to designing a device incorporating MEMSbased pico projection
Over the last few years, millions of products incorporating pico projection have shipped, and developers are innovating new applications for this rapidly growing display category. Ideal applications for pico projection include near eye display, interactive digital signage, head mounted display, ultra short throw (UST) TV, standalone portable projectors and embedded projection in smartphones, tablets and laptops. New uses continue to emerge; for example, you might be able imagine a design for a thermostat using a display powered by gesture recognition or interactive touch.
Real-time Image Processing on Low Cost Embedded Computers
●2 commentsIn 2012 a federal mandate was imposed that required the FAA to integrate unmanned aerial systems (UAS) into the national airspace (NAS) by 2015 for civilian and commercial use. A significant driver for the increasing popularity of these systems is the rise in open hardware and open software solutions which allow hobbyists to build small UAS at low cost and without specialist equipment. This paper describes our work building, evaluating and improving performance of a vision-based system running on an embedded computer onboard such a small UAS. This system utilises open source software and open hardware to automatically land a multi-rotor UAS with high accuracy. Using parallel computing techniques, our final implementation runs at the maximum possible rate of 30 frames per second. This demonstrates a valid approach for implementing other real-time vision based systems onboard UAS using low power, small and economical embedded computers.
Guide to designing a device incorporating MEMS-based pico projection
●1 commentOver the last few years, millions of products incorporating pico projection have shipped, and developers are innovating new applications for this rapidly growing display category. Ideal applications for pico projection include near eye display, interactive digital signage, head mounted display, ultra short throw (UST) TV, standalone portable projectors and embedded projection in smartphones, tablets and laptops. New uses continue to emerge; for example, you might be able imagine a design for a thermostat using a display powered by gesture recognition or interactive touch.
Getting Started with C Programming for the ATMEL AVR Microcontrollers
●7 commentsThis tutorial provides information on the tool and the basic steps for programming the Atmel AVR microcontrollers using C. It is aimed at people who are new to this family of microcontrollers. The Atmel STK500 development board and the ATmega16 chip are used in this tutorial; however, it is easy to adopt the information given here for other AVR chips.
PIC Microcontrollers - Programming in C
●12 commentsIf you haven’t done it so far then it’s high time to learn what the microcontrollers are and how they operate. Numerous illustrations and practical examples along with detailed description of the PIC16F887 will make you enjoy your work with the PIC microcontrollers
Microcontroller Programming and Interfacing
●11 commentsChapter 7 of the book: Introduction to Mechatronics and Measurement Systems
Introduction to Microcontrollers
●2 commentsThis text has been developed for the introductory courses on microcontrollers taught by the Institute of Computer Engineering at the Vienna University of Technology. It introduces undergraduate students to the field of microcontrollers – what they are, how they work, how they interface with their I/O components, and what considerations the programmer has to observe in hardware-based and embedded programming. This text is not intended to teach one particular controller architecture in depth, but should rather give an impression of the many possible architectures and solutions one can come across in today’s microcontrollers. We concentrate, however, on small 8-bit controllers and their most basic features, since they already offer enough variety to achieve our goals.
Real-Time Operating Systems and Programming Languages for Embedded Systems
Section 1 describes the main characteristics that a real-time operating system should have.
Section 2 discusses the scope of some of the more well known RTOSs.
Section 3 introduces the languages used for real-time programming and compares the main characteristics.
Section 4 presents and compares different alternatives for the implementation of real-time Java.
Software Development for Parallel and Multi-Core Processing
●1 commentThe embedded software industry wants microprocessors with increased computing functionality that maintains or reduces space, weight, and power (SWaP). Single core processors were the key embedded industry solution between 1980 and 2000 when large performance increases were being achieved on a yearly basis and were fulfilling the prophecy of Moore's Law. Moore's Law states that "the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years." With the increased transistors, came microprocessors with greater computing throughput while space, weight and power were decreasing. However, this 'free lunch' did not last forever. The additional power required for greater performance improvements became too great starting in 2000. Hence, single core microprocessors are no longer an optimal solution.
First Steps with Embedded Systems
●4 commentsThis book is intended to fill the need for an intermediate level overview of programming microcontrollers using the C programming language. It is aimed specifically at two groups of readers who have different, yet overlapping needs. The first group are familiar with C but require an examination of the general nature of microcontrollers: what they are, how they behave and how best to use the C language to program them. The second group are familiar with microcontrollers but are new to the C programming language and wish to use C for microcontroller development projects. First Steps with Embedded Systems will be useful both as an introduction to microcontroller programming for intermediate level post-secondary programs and as a guide for developers coping with the growth and change of the microcontroller industry.
Demystifying digital signal processing (DSP) programming: The ease in realizing implementations with TI DSPs
Introduced by Texas Instruments over thirty years ago, the digital signal processor (DSP) has evolved in its implementation from a standalone processor to a multicore processing element and has continued to extend in its range of applications. The breadth of software development tools for the DSP has also expanded to accommodate diverse sets of programmers. From small, low power, yet “smart” devices with applications such as voice and image recognition, to multicore, high-performance compute platforms performing real-time data analytics, the opportunities to achieve the low-power processing efficiencies of DSPs are nearly endless. The TI DSP has benefited from a relatively unique tool suite evolution making it easy and effective for the general programmer and the signal processing expert alike to quickly develop their application code. This paper addresses how TI DSP users are able to achieve the high performance afforded by the TI DSP architecture, in an efficient, easy-to-use development environment.
Five Steps to Improving Security in Embedded Systems
In today’s increasingly interconnected world, security breaches are becoming ever more prevalent, with escalating complexity challenges. How can embedded device developers balance the need for tighter security with competing business and market demands? This paper outlines five steps for building additional security assurance into embedded devices by considering the whole product lifecycle.
Improving Battery Management System Performance and Cost with Altera FPGAs
The purpose of this white paper is to evaluate improvements to Battery Management System (BMS) performance and cost with Altera® FPGAs. In many high-voltage battery systems, including electric vehicles, grid attached storage and industrial applications, the battery is a significant portion of the system cost, and needs to be carefully managed by a BMS to maximize battery life and to optimize charging and discharging performance. This white paper presents the BMS functional requirements for these applications and outlines existing BMS architectures. Key BMS architectural challenges are discussed and opportunities for Altera devices are identified. For each of these opportunities, the performance and cost of the existing solution are compared with Altera FPGA solutions. Altera devices provide architectural flexibility, scalability, customization, performance improvements, and system cost savings in BMS applications.
Essential Linux Device Drivers
●5 commentsThis book is about writing Linux device drivers. It covers the design and development of major device classes supported by the kernel, including those I missed during my Linux-on-Watch days. The discussion of each driver family starts by looking at the corresponding technology, moves on to develop a practical example, and ends by looking at relevant kernel source files. Before foraying into the world of device drivers, however, this book introduces you to the kernel and discusses the important features of 2.6 Linux, emphasizing those portions that are of special interest to device driver writers.
Enhanced Sample Rate Mode Measurement Precision
The low-noise system architecture and the tailored frequency response employed in the HDO4000A, HDO6000A, HDO8000A and MDA800A series provides the foundation for enhancing ADC sample rates through additional techniques. In this case, carefully constructed filters combined with a pristine front-end amplifier and a frequency response carefully limited to 1 GHz provide the opportunity to provide more measurement precision than would otherwise be possible. The technique utilized to achieve higher measurement precision is interpolation, and this technique is used by default as an Enhanced Sample Rate up to 10 GS/s. By integrating the Enhanced Sample Rate functionality with the normal Timebase controls for Sample Rate, Time and Acquisition Memory adjustment, the oscilloscopes are optimized for best waveform signal fidelity in all situations.
Introduction to Arduino
●5 commentsThe purpose of this book is to get you started on the road to creating things using micro-controllers. We will discuss only enough electronics for you to make the circuits, and only enough programming for you to get started. The focus will be on your making things. It is my hope that as you go through this book you will be flooded with ideas of things that you can make.
Embedded Linux Primer
●4 commentsThis book brings together indispensable knowledge for building efficient, high-value, Linux-based embedded products: information that has never been assembled in one place before. Drawing on years of experience as an embedded Linux consultant and field application engineer, Christopher Hallinan offers solutions for the specific technical issues you're most likely to face, demonstrates how to build an effective embedded Linux environment, and shows how to use it as productively as possible.
Driving I2C-Bus Signals Over Twisted Pair Cables with PCA9605
The availability of powerful I2C buffers that drive their I/Os on both sides to a nominal ground or ‘zero offset’ logic level allows the removal of noise introduced into one section of a larger bus system. That ‘regeneration’ of clean I2C signals enables building long I2C buses by combining together relatively short bus sections, each say less than 20 meters, using such buffers or multiplexers that contain them. Conventional twisted pair communication cabling with its convenient connectors, and a ‘modular’ I2C system approach, make large system assembly easy. Each drop point or node can be individually selected for bidirectional data communication with the Master just by using normal I2C software addressing. As an example, a system is described for control of LED lighting displays and it is suggested that the power for the LEDs, and the I2C control system, might be economically provided using ‘extra low voltage’ distribution at 48 V using either the control signal cable or similar low cost wiring in a manner similar to that used in ‘Power over the Ethernet’ systems. The simplicity and flexibility of this approach makes it attractive to consider as an alternative to other control systems such as RS-485 or CAN bus.
Introduction to Embedded Systems
This is the first chapter in the book Embedded Systems Hardware for Software Engineers.
Design and Implementation of the lwIP Stack
LwIP is an implementation of the TCP/IP protocol stack. The focus of the lwIP stack is to reduce memory usage and code size, making lwIP suitable for use in small clients with very limited resources such as embedded systems. In order to reduce processing and memory demands, lwIP uses a tailor made API that does not require any data copying. This report describes the design and implementation of lwIP. The algorithms and data struc- tures used both in the protocol implementations and in the sub systems such as the memory and bu®er management systems are described. Also included in this report is a reference manual for the lwIP API and some code examples of using lwIP.
