Software design and embedded system tools.
Good information for software design
Single board computers
PROS AND CONS OF SINGLE BOARD COMPUTERS
Single board computers are those little circuit boards with the necessary components to be used as a digital computer. They are not commonly seen as they are and that is the reason why most of us can’t recognize them even if we have one in front of us. However, a lot of people have used single board computers because they are often embedded in gadgets like mobile phones, facsimile machines, GPS and other computer technological products.
Single board computer is what a printed circuit board with memory, a processor, input – output and a digital clock is called. Single board computers (otherwise known as SBCs) look a lot like the motherboard inside an ordinary personal computer but with a small design.
Because they are really small, they are also known as embedded computers. SBCs may come in different sizes, too. In fact, they are used from aero planes to sky rockets. In a more general sense, they can be present in toys or highly technological shoes. It is easy to assume that everyone has used single board computers without realizing that they exist.
Nowadays, smaller versions of computers are becoming very common. While they can accommodate full versions of operating system like Windows XP, SBCs have their own internal operating systems which don’t occupy much space. It is a fact that simpler operating systems mean not costing a lot. Without affecting processor performance, input/output, capability to store some files and its wireless connection, single board computers can do the basic functions of a personal computer.
The Good and Bad about Single Board Computers
Like any other products, SBCs have two sides, too. The decision to whether or not to employ the technology of single board computers is influence by how important the application is and how much it costs.
Below are the positive factors to consider:
- The high technological advancement nowadays have improved the capabilities of single board computers as they become smaller and less costly.
- Internet access using the SBCs has been made possible with the use of Wireless technology.
- Because of it is now available in the competitive market, better functions and variety of single board computers are also made available to the users.
- Highly developed computer technology presents dependability for industrial producers and the quality of their products using SBC’s.
On the other hand, employing SBCs may not be cheap or reasonable when incorporated with products of high volume and other applications. Also, there are some of these applications that need made to order sizes. Another possibility is that the input/output of certain devices are not compatible with single board computers.
Despite these possibilities, though. A lot of companies opt to use SBCs in the production of their high end devices rather than make their customized industrial single board computers.
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Power Line Communication
Power Line Communication is a fairly recent technology which is used to transfer data and establish means of communication at broadband speeds over transmission lines. The technology is widely also known as Power Line Telecommunication (PLT) or even Power Plus Communications (PPC). The technology uses advanced modulation technology which super imposes the data signal of high frequency over the low frequency power signal.
The research into PLC started off in the mid 1980’s in the band range of 5-500 KHz and was developed for only unidirectional communication but with time the system has been advanced to permit bidirectional transmission of data signal.
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Modbus protocol
Modbus
Modbus is a communication protocol which is used with programmable logic controllers. This communication protocol was published by a firm named Modicon in 1979. It has now become the most de facto standard protocol in the industry. Modbus is now very commonly used as a means to connect the industrial electronic devices. This protocol is very easily available as it is very extensively used. There are certain important reasons for the use of Modbus rather than use of other communication protocol. These are as follows:
1.This protocol is published openly and is royalty free.
2.It is an easiest way to setup an industrial network.
3.This protocol moves raw bits without any restrictions.
modbus webserver
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PIR motion sensor
PIR sensor
PIR or the Passive Infrared sensor is an electronic device which is used to measure infrared light radiating from a body in its field of view. The sensors are known as Passive since they do not have an in built IR source like active sensors and detect the natural radiation of the body.
All objects have a certain body temperature and at any specific temperature there is a certain radiation that the body emits, this is called the Black Body Radiation phenomenon. The infrared radiation is undetectable to the human eye but can be detected by a PIR sensor. These sensors are commonly used as motion detector that is whenever a different body of different temperature passes from ahead of it, there is an apparent change in the infrared frequency detected due to different temperature of each body. This application is widely used in security equipments and other photo sensing equipment. The PIR sensors are very often paired with other devices to increase their range to encompass even human body sensors.
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T-Engine and T-Kernel
T-engine hardware
T-Engine is project that standardize the hardware part of development board (not the standardization of main processor).
This project is well-known amongst the processor manufacturer company in Japan. You can buy T-Engine development kit directly from Japanese
microprocessor manufacturers such as Renesas Technology or from electronics company like Personal Media Corp.I list websites where you can
find T-Engine development board to buy as below…
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Interesting GPS locator module
GPS Locator is GPS used for indentify the position at the point that receiving the signal. This article is about the review of SUP500F ,
small GPS receiver module with built-in antenna.
SUP500F module receives signal from satellite in order to find the coordinate on the earth. It’s cheap and suitable for study or apply
for practical use. The antenna is located inside its body so you don’t need to connect addition external antenna to this module.
It’s small and can be enclosed in the box , however due to it use internal antenna , the efficiency of signal receiving will decrease if
you use it inside the building (it prefer to use outdoor).
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Wi-Fi Direct Technology
Monday , 25 October 2010 is the day that Wi-Fi direct certification was released to the mobile device manufacturer for the first time.
Wi-Fi direct is technology that developed from original Wi-Fi technology (it’s developed by
WiFi Alliance). This technology enable two mobile device to communicate to each other with ease
and safty.It’s also known as “bluetooth killer” because it can substitute for bluetooth technology
in every function of bluetooth. Otherwise it support more applications and more effective than
bluetooth technology.So bluetooth technology may come to an end in the next few years.
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How to choose Xbee module
How to choose Xbee module.
Two steps you should consider when you want to buy Xbee module.
1. Range of send/receive signal of Xbee module.
Xbee module can be separated obviously into two series in term of “The range of send and receive signal”.
The word “PRO” was used to indicate the difference between each series. Xbee series without word “PRO”
is designed for short-range wireless communication (around 100 metre when use outdoor) with power output between 1 – 2 mW.
Example of Xbee module in this series is XBee 802.15.4 .
Xbee series with word “PRO” is more powerful. It’s designed for long-range communication (up to 1600 metre when use outdoor) and
have power output between 50-60 mW. Example of Xbee module in this series is XBee-PRO 802.15.4 .
Continue reading
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Arduino revolution
Yesterday I visited Arduino website and found a change in their main web page, so I continued to read their blog and found some interesting alteration
that I can summarize to you as below…
Arduino new revolution
1. Arduino has a new logo (as you can see in the picture above). I thing it is “Atom” or “Infinity”. The new logo is easy to remenber than the old logo.
2. Arduino.cc will open their own webstore on 18 October, this year. New webstore will eliminate the difficulty in ordering arduino board that made by
Arduino.cc. In the past , they sold their arduino board via distributors or electronics shop only. There’re many electronics shop in the world that sold
arduino board (some shops sold real board while some shops sold clone board). For this reason the people may confuse about how to find the electronics shop
that sold the real arduino board of Arduino.cc.
3. They released the new arduino board named “Arduino Uno” and “Arduino Mega 2560″.
Both board still use AVR chip as their main processor.
(Arduino Uno use ATmega328 as main processor while Arduino Mega 2560 use ATMega2560 as processor).
Arduino Uno is special board that replace ft232 chip (FTDI USB-to-serial chip) with ATmega8U2 (8-bit microcontroller with Programmable USB
controller).
4. They launched Tinker Tookit, the new sensors development module that can connect and use with arduino board.
5. They plan to release Arduino Ethernet board. This board isn’t the ethernet shield but it is board that include ethernet interface equipment
(such as ethernet chip , ethernet port , etc) into main PWB. So in the future , user can upload program to the board via ethernet
interface (this feature is exist in mostly embedded linux board that you can upload anything to the development board via FTP or TFTP).
To view more information , please visit Arduino.cc website and Arduino.cc blog.
I am the one who like Arduino so much and I hope this change will bring a lot of good things to Arduino developer and Arduino user all over the world.
Thank you,
Jitkasem
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