An Ametuer Who needs Advice

Greetings Everyone!

 I'm an Undergrad student studyin Electronics Engg. As part of my
course I've sudies 8051 and PIC microcontrollers. I find that I'm
greatly interested in Embedded Systems design. However, the flood of
info. on the net has me confused. Where should I begin? I've done (or
doing) the following :-

1) Studied Assembly Language Programming of 8051/PIC micros
2) Learning Linux with Redhat
3) Got hold of a list of Embedded Linux books that I'm gonna buy this
weekend

 Anything i can do more? What are the companies working on Embedded
Sys? Is there any Ametuer resource for guys like me? (I'm also
searchin Google right now, not happy with the results).

Grateful if any of you can take time of to post a reply.

Regards,
Devyn

"Devyn" <devyntt@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e2769bfd.0312160920.18164b90@posting.google.com...

>  Where should I begin?

Devyn, how about starting with a small project? Check out
http://www.olimex.com/dev/index.html , for example, for proto boards,
projects, etc. For me, it is the combination of
understanding/designing/building stuff that makes electronics
interesting. -- Mike

Devyn wrote:

> Greetings Everyone!
> 
>  I'm an Undergrad student studyin Electronics Engg. As part of my
> course I've sudies 8051 and PIC microcontrollers. I find that I'm
> greatly interested in Embedded Systems design. However, the flood of
> info. on the net has me confused. Where should I begin? I've done (or
> doing) the following :-
> 
> 1) Studied Assembly Language Programming of 8051/PIC micros
> 2) Learning Linux with Redhat
> 3) Got hold of a list of Embedded Linux books that I'm gonna buy this
> weekend
> 
>  Anything i can do more? What are the companies working on Embedded
> Sys? Is there any Ametuer resource for guys like me? (I'm also
> searchin Google right now, not happy with the results).
> 
> Grateful if any of you can take time of to post a reply.

Time to start building stuff.  Snag yourself a
cheap scope and logic analyzer off of ebay and
design something.  Start with some simple blinkenlights
and go from there.  Nothing impresses me more in an
entry-level job candidate than them being able to
pull out a piece of working hardware software
that they built themselves.

"Jim Stewart" <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote in message
news:brng9t$v9r@library1.airnews.net...
> Devyn wrote:
>
> > Greetings Everyone!
> >
> >  I'm an Undergrad student studyin Electronics Engg. As part of my
> > course I've sudies 8051 and PIC microcontrollers. I find that I'm
> > greatly interested in Embedded Systems design. However, the flood of
> > info. on the net has me confused. Where should I begin? I've done (or
> > doing) the following :-
> >
> > 1) Studied Assembly Language Programming of 8051/PIC micros
> > 2) Learning Linux with Redhat
> > 3) Got hold of a list of Embedded Linux books that I'm gonna buy this
> > weekend
> >
> >  Anything i can do more? What are the companies working on Embedded
> > Sys? Is there any Ametuer resource for guys like me? (I'm also
> > searchin Google right now, not happy with the results).
> >
> > Grateful if any of you can take time of to post a reply.
>
> Time to start building stuff.  Snag yourself a
> cheap scope and logic analyzer off of ebay and
> design something.  Start with some simple blinkenlights
> and go from there.

The three fundimentals of electronics are blink, buzz, whirr and smoke!

OH, if you smell somthing burning, don't go poking around on the board with
your finger to find out what it is.

> Time to start building stuff.  

 Hi!
         Yeah. I realized that sometime ago. I've built 2 small
applications :-

1) Light Guided Rover - 8051 based rover that goes straight or takes
left/right turn based on light stimulus (such as a flashlight on the
left/right sensor)

2) Keypad Interfaced PIC Clock - A simple app. Takes in time set from
user, displays real time on 7 segment LED disp. I'm working to include
an alarm and somehow try and bring in the watchdog timer to good use.

 I felt that these were too amateur and needed a linux based project.
Am i right in thinking so?

Regards,
Devyn

"Devyn" <devyntt@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e2769bfd.0312170233.7d3bb8be@posting.google.com...
> > Time to start building stuff.
>
>  Hi!
>          Yeah. I realized that sometime ago. I've built 2 small
> applications :-
>
> 1) Light Guided Rover - 8051 based rover that goes straight or takes
> left/right turn based on light stimulus (such as a flashlight on the
> left/right sensor)
>
> 2) Keypad Interfaced PIC Clock - A simple app. Takes in time set from
> user, displays real time on 7 segment LED disp. I'm working to include
> an alarm and somehow try and bring in the watchdog timer to good use.
>
>  I felt that these were too amateur and needed a linux based project.
> Am i right in thinking so?



Well, if you're into Linux, then sure! But there are a lot of other
directions.

I think your idea of going through books is a good idea, but you should take
a look at what is out on the Internet, too. Check out the piclist
(piclist.com). Microchip.com has a ton of application notes and sample
projects. Those two URL's I mentioned earlier are a good resouce. You can
also see a lot of interesting things people in this group have done if you
search the archives on google.

The last project I did had a Rabbit Semiconductor based control board, which
gave my project the ability to communicate through LAN systems and the
Internet. I don't have much info online right this second, but you can check
it out, http://keydrawers.com .

Oh, there you go. Check out rabbitsemiconductor.com . They have a pretty
good product line. Maybe your next project can be something like a motor
control (garage door opener?) that you can operate over the Internet.

Mike

"Mike Turco" <miketurco@yahoo-nospam4me.com> writes:
> The three fundimentals of electronics are blink, buzz, whirr and smoke!

Another fundamental is learning to count!

Mike Turco wrote:

> "Jim Stewart" <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote in message
> news:brng9t$v9r@library1.airnews.net...
> 
>>Devyn wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Greetings Everyone!
>>>
>>> I'm an Undergrad student studyin Electronics Engg. As part of my
>>>course I've sudies 8051 and PIC microcontrollers. I find that I'm
>>>greatly interested in Embedded Systems design. However, the flood of
>>>info. on the net has me confused. Where should I begin? I've done (or
>>>doing) the following :-
>>>
>>>1) Studied Assembly Language Programming of 8051/PIC micros
>>>2) Learning Linux with Redhat
>>>3) Got hold of a list of Embedded Linux books that I'm gonna buy this
>>>weekend
>>>
>>> Anything i can do more? What are the companies working on Embedded
>>>Sys? Is there any Ametuer resource for guys like me? (I'm also
>>>searchin Google right now, not happy with the results).
>>>
>>>Grateful if any of you can take time of to post a reply.
>>
>>Time to start building stuff.  Snag yourself a
>>cheap scope and logic analyzer off of ebay and
>>design something.  Start with some simple blinkenlights
>>and go from there.
> 
> 
> The three fundimentals of electronics are blink, buzz, whirr and smoke!
> 
> OH, if you smell somthing burning, don't go poking around on the board with
> your finger to find out what it is.

If you can read the part number off of the
tip of your finger, it's probably running
too hot.

"Devyn" <devyntt@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e2769bfd.0312160920.18164b90@posting.google.com...
> Greetings Everyone!
>
>  I'm an Undergrad student studyin Electronics Engg. As part of my
> course I've sudies 8051 and PIC microcontrollers. I find that I'm
> greatly interested in Embedded Systems design. However, the flood of
> info. on the net has me confused. Where should I begin? I've done (or
> doing) the following :-
>
> 1) Studied Assembly Language Programming of 8051/PIC micros
> 2) Learning Linux with Redhat
> 3) Got hold of a list of Embedded Linux books that I'm gonna buy this
> weekend
>
>  Anything i can do more? What are the companies working on Embedded
> Sys? Is there any Ametuer resource for guys like me? (I'm also
> searchin Google right now, not happy with the results).
>
> Grateful if any of you can take time of to post a reply.


The eight bit processors are far too small for Linux. However, it does not
mean that they could not be applied to something useful. A full-blown
operating system (e.g. Linux) is far too heavy for the microcontroller-size
embedded projects.

What you need:
 - understanding of the electronics of an embedded system,
 - understanding of the machine code of the target processor,
 - plenty of patience, and
 - a real project.

The electronic understanding is a basic requirement: in most embedded
systems the processor is an essential part of the electronics, and a good
balance has to be found what to implement in hardware and what in software
(in this environment often called firmware). Often it's possible to simplify
the hardware to trivial by pushing the complex items to software.

The machine code understanding is essential after something does not work as
intended and you have to roll up your sleeves and dig into the dirty basics.
It's also very enlightening to read through the assembly code produced by a
compiler - there are often surprising differences between what you intended
to code and what the compiler has done. You can often tweak the source code
and evade the need to use an assembler module instead.

The need for patience is self-evident. I just have fresh experience after
three days of EMC testing and repairs (both electronic and software) for an
embedded system.

The real project will give you an opportunity to excercise the above skills.

IMHO, if you need something more than an eight-bit processor, I'd pick a
flavour of ARM.

HTH

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio @ iki fi

"Jim Stewart" <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote in message
news:brq5bo$etc@library2.airnews.net...
> Mike Turco wrote:
>
> > "Jim Stewart" <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote in message
> > news:brng9t$v9r@library1.airnews.net...
> >
> >>Devyn wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>Greetings Everyone!
> >>>
> >>> I'm an Undergrad student studyin Electronics Engg. As part of my
> >>>course I've sudies 8051 and PIC microcontrollers. I find that I'm
> >>>greatly interested in Embedded Systems design. However, the flood of
> >>>info. on the net has me confused. Where should I begin? I've done (or
> >>>doing) the following :-
> >>>
> >>>1) Studied Assembly Language Programming of 8051/PIC micros
> >>>2) Learning Linux with Redhat
> >>>3) Got hold of a list of Embedded Linux books that I'm gonna buy this
> >>>weekend
> >>>
> >>> Anything i can do more? What are the companies working on Embedded
> >>>Sys? Is there any Ametuer resource for guys like me? (I'm also
> >>>searchin Google right now, not happy with the results).
> >>>
> >>>Grateful if any of you can take time of to post a reply.
> >>
> >>Time to start building stuff.  Snag yourself a
> >>cheap scope and logic analyzer off of ebay and
> >>design something.  Start with some simple blinkenlights
> >>and go from there.
> >
> >
> > The three fundimentals of electronics are blink, buzz, whirr and smoke!
> >
> > OH, if you smell somthing burning, don't go poking around on the board
with
> > your finger to find out what it is.
>
> If you can read the part number off of the
> tip of your finger, it's probably running
> too hot.

That must have been a 2.2k resistor.