There are many articles that explain embedded software, bare metal programming, and architectural design, providing a lot of practical tips. The great majority of projects, particularly those that require quick but nice prototypes, are based on Arduino. However, starting an Arduino project seems not to require any theoretical knowledge of firmware architecture, bare metal, and … Continue reading Toggling a pin, thoughts on code portability
microcontroller
The EdoSplay project
In the watchmaking industry there are not only cogs and gears. Nowadays, even the high watchmaking industry focuses on sophisticated digital technology, to combine it with the fine art of mechanics. And it exists, once open-source, even an RTOS owned by Swatch, for which I had the pleasure to use, and mostly to be mentored … Continue reading The EdoSplay project
Dimming LEDs (part 3/3) – The overlooked boundaries
In the last PWM discussion, we devised how is composed the average current, specially when the PWM frequency is faster than it should be, making the period duration comparable with the rise and fall slopes duration of the current. The results were packed up in 2 equations to summarize what is the best choice for … Continue reading Dimming LEDs (part 3/3) – The overlooked boundaries
Dimming LEDs (part 2/3) – Sneaky non-linear events while using the PWM technique
In the previous article we tried to analyze what is the Contrast Ratio in a LED driver and how the non-idealities are giving a boundary on the minimum allowable PWM period. That was quite worth a full article, but a big part was indeed missing. Here we will go through how the PWM period and … Continue reading Dimming LEDs (part 2/3) – Sneaky non-linear events while using the PWM technique
NTC Measurements (part 2/2)
In the previous NTC Measurements article, was shown the basic approaches and few variations of them in order to use an NTC, by following the suggestions provided in the datasheet and taking the correct assumptions in all the temperature signal processing. These suggestions are usually not provided, because with a bit of math a lot … Continue reading NTC Measurements (part 2/2)
DS1307 RTC Emulator – The Arduino library
Things must come to an end. I decided to make a new library experiment, putting an ending mark to the DS1307 Real Time Clock hacking project, because the project was born as an encapsulation of a real RTC in a PIC microcontroller, wrapping an RTC hardware engine to emulate the DS1307; then a subsequent development on … Continue reading DS1307 RTC Emulator – The Arduino library
Lino Project
I am playing with LEDs for few month and during that time some little projects were born, but now I need a system to handle the logical part and the power distribution. I simply just can't use an Arduino board, or any other development board: I need a proper power handling embedded in a small space, … Continue reading Lino Project
Tiny, robust, low cost, fail-safe LED driver: the Glighter-S project
It has been a while since the last LED related article. Was experimented the linear current source, its pros and cons and the field of application. Now arises the need of a small version, handling the same high power, things that are contrapposed in the linear regulator. I need something that I can bring with … Continue reading Tiny, robust, low cost, fail-safe LED driver: the Glighter-S project
Smoked crystals (Oscillator)
Once upon a time, during a lecture about electronics, more specifically on crystal quartz oscillators, a professor said that you can break a crystal oscillator by dropping it, because the quartz inside can be broken due to the fall, even if it seems solid like a common 1/4W resistor. Let me start with a briefing … Continue reading Smoked crystals (Oscillator)
NTC Measurements (Part 1/2)
When dealing with low-cost, home made termometers, the choice often fall on the NTCs. These sensors are resistors which are varying their resistance in function of the temperature, with a negative trend: Negative Temperature Coefficient is their name, also known as Thermistor. That means higher the temperature, lower the resistance: We observe that this cheap … Continue reading NTC Measurements (Part 1/2)