Software design and embedded system tools.

netDuino is another opensource hardware platform designed by Secret Labs.
Main microcontroller in this board is ARM7 from Atmel (AT91SAM7X512).
The IDE for developing program on netDuino board is MS visual C# 2010 (you can’t use C# 2008 and older version of C#) and it’s free
for download.
Other software need to install before start writing program is .NET Micro Framework and netDuino SDK (see this page for download them).

It include well-known interface bus such as I2C , UART , SPI and I/O port including GPIOs, PWM (pulse-width-modulation) and ADC
(Analog to Digital Converter).

Main development language is C#, so if you’re familiar with C# and have knowledge in microcontroller interfacing then you can make
a lot of fun projects from netDuino (however you also have to study about how to use the library of .Net Micro Framework).

With the price of 34.95 USD make netduino one of interesting development board for everyone who want to learn .NET Micro Framework
in order to make a little embedded project.

There’s an emulator for netDuino board too but I’m not sure that it’s included in the netDuino SDK or not .I suggest you to use an emulator from http://netduinoemulator.codeplex.com/ or you can download it from
this thread of Netduino forum.
It run on top of MS .NET Micro Framework and it help you to test and debug your source code without having the real netDuino hardware.

I also compare netDuino with FEZ domino and I found that the result are as below
1. Price of netDuino is cheaper than FEZ domino.
2. Fez domino has peripherals attached to the board more than netDuino.
3. Fez domino use LPC2388 (144 pinout 16/32-bit ARM7 from NXP) as main processor while netDuino use AT91SAM7X512
(100 pinout 32-bit ARM7 from Atmel) as main processor.
4. Both FEZ domino and netDuino use .NET Micro framework to build applications and source code of the application is written in C# language
(USE Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express Edition as their IDE)
5. They both are open source hardware platform and also have an emulator run on top of .Net Micro Framework.

Other useful netDuino resource
1 netDuino community
2 .Net Micro Framework advance emulator
3 netDuino project page

Reference
1 electoday.com
2 netDuino.com

Look at two videos of netDuido below , the first video is about “how to build your first netDuino application”
and the second video is about NetDuino Emulator

Thank you,
Jitkasem

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Test driven development (TDD)

Test Driven Development is one of test method that specializes in the test repetition.
The reason for doing this is to test codes repeatedly with hopes of making a given software better and more effective.
The Test-Driven Design has several steps that must be followed before the test is successfully completed.
The first step requires writing a test (so it’s also called “Test-first”). There has to be a sample diagram or flowchart before any other actions can be taken.
However, when written test finish , it’s not mean to success the TDD process because it is written before the physical test (real test) is performed.
The person writing the test must know precise specification of the features being created as well as everything required for creating test suite.
In most cases the writer obtains the information about the feature required to create the test by using use cases or user stories of the software that will be run the test on.
After gather all useful information then source code is written. Next, every test must be ran to written code to determine that the written code is fail in the test suite
or not.
At this point, it should pass and if all the tests pass then it’s time to proceed to the final step. The final step is all about cleaning up the code.
This is done by re-running the test cases in search for defects and so on . There has to be certainty that there is no damage being found to any other software functionality
as a result of the new software can be released.

Advantages of Test-first

1. When you continue to do the test first then you will get a lot of test cases. After that when you want to restructure the system, you can do it easily
and don’t have to fear about the bugs that may happen because when you finish restructure the system , your new system may not pass some written
test cases, so at this point you can retrace to modify the written test cases and then try to validate the new system to pass to modified test cases.
(If you don’t have test cases , after complete restructure your system for 2 or 3 months , the unknown bugs may occur because the restructured system
was not tested. At this time you have to fix bugs but it’s so difficult to fix them due to you may forget about wherever in the function or files that you used
to modified source code. In my opinion, if your system is very complex , your certainly have to write intensive test cases )

2.With test first you have to write test documents before write the code , this way will help the programmer or developer to plan before they begin to write
code (they have to write the code to pass the test documents). As a result your entire code will look better and you will get the software that have a good
structure. It also help you to reduce runtime error or unexpected bugs (so cost to fix the bugs is also reduced too).

Test first is differ from unit test as follow
1. Test first is done before writing source code but Unit test is done after finish writing the code.
2. In test first , you don’t need to look at source code to write the tests but in unit test , you must use the written code to do unit test.
3. Unit test help you to ensure that your written function or piece of code is work or not but test first help you to ensure that
entire code in the project work well or not.

Thank you,
Jitkasem

Wireless sensor network (WSN)

What is WSN?

The wireless sensor network was primarily developed as a military application to survey a battlefield. However, now a WSN is commonly used in many other industrial and commercial applications to monitor environmental conditions, health care applications and traffic controls. There are many different kinds of wireless sensor networks however; they all normally come equipped with a radio transceiver or a wireless communication device or a power source.

There are many applications to this technology and typically involve monitoring, tracking or controlling. Area monitoring comes as one very commonly used to be able to track any kind of movement whether it is heat, pressure, sound, light or vibrations in an specific area.

This technology is now being utilized by almost every industry and this includes the environmentally related industry as this is a technology which allows the reading of many different kinds of changes in the atmosphere and how they can guide those in the industry to determine simple factors like water levels or more complex aspects of the environment like the possibility of an earthquake in an specific area.

Vehicle tracking and movement can also be tracked through this technology and therefore, it is also being used by the security industry. Medical science also depends on the wireless sensor network to be able to track the changes on some of the health monitors which will immediately notify the medical staff of a change in the monitoring device.

Zigbee is a technology developed as a global standard to comply with the needs of low cost and low power wireless networks. It has been designed with the facility to be able to provide an easy to use wireless solution which creates a secure and reliable network. Some of the features of Zigbee include the ability to support multiple network functions like the point to point or multipoint to point and also the mesh networks as well. Since it functions on a low duty cycle it is also considered to be very good on battery life. And it has the direct sequence spread spectrum as well. It also has the ability to run for years without any kind of maintenance and with an automatic meter reading.

TinyOS has been designed for wireless sensor networks. It works in component based software that supports high degree of data in a very small space and which has been designed to minimize power consumption, while being able to use all its sophisticated protocols. The wireless sensor network has been created taking into consideration a variety of applications, incorporating various components and being capable of deployment of new environments. However, it also requires greater processing compared to the wired networks. It is a complex mechanism which needs to be properly processed. There are many different kinds of WSN platforms and they vary in size and capacity depending on which components are active.

SOS is an operating system for wireless sensor network which is normally utilized for message passing services, dynamic memory allocations and module loading. The components of the SOS are comparable in functionality to Tiny components. SOS project is now no logner continue to develop. However, the source code is still available to download up until now.

Another specific Operating system for the WSN is the EPOS or Embedded Parallel Operating System which is based on runtime support for the environment. This framework allows programmers to develop their own applications and tools through their system in accordance with the requirements of these particular applications.

The right Operating system for the Wireless sensor network will allow applications to express when certain software components are not being used, allowing the syst

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Radio Data Systems (RDS) are a technology that is quickly catching on and becoming a popular feature in radios. Radio Data Systems are becoming an integral part of all radio systems today. Radio Data Systems give radio stations the ability to send information/data to your radio. Have you ever seen the artist and song name on your radio? That is made possible because your radio has a built in RDS.

Most new radios support Radio Data Systems. If you can’t find a radio near you then look no further than your car for an example. Most car manufactures are adding Radio Data System support to the radios of their cars. Pay attention to the information being presented on your radio player and you’ll see how an RDS compatible radio comes in handy.

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Here , I list some softwares that used for simulate the work of microcontroller or electronics circuit.
Like below…

1.VIRTUAL BREADBOARD (VBB)
I think VBB is the best arduino simulator at this moment. This software also
include some examples of arduino model ready for simulate. You can write a source
code of arduino , draw schematics and simulate it using VBB. It can simulate the
PICMICRO and PARALLAX processor too. I recommend this software for person
who want to study how to write program for arduino but don’t want to associate with
making the real hardware for test the written program. Visit virtualbreadboard website for more information about this great software or view the demo of this software at this link.

virtual-breadboard-arduino

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