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 and ideal for an outsourced IT specialist. 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, which is why a lot of organizations use a managed services provider to maintain them.
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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…
Continue reading
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).
Continue reading
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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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NetDuino
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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Wireless sensor network (WSN)
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 system to work on the levels that it needs to and thus implement less power as well.
Thanks.
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Radio Data Systems
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.
Radio Data Systems come equipped with many key features as below…
1. Program Service name (PS)
2. Program Identification code (PI)
3. Enhanced Other Networks (EON)
4. Clock Time (CT)
5. Regional (REG)
6. Alternative Frequencies (AF)
7. Programme Type (PTY)
8. Radio Text (RT)
9. Traffic Announcement (TA)
10. Traffic Programme (TP)
11. Traffic Message Channel (TMC)
Source : Wikipedia
This article doesn’t describe all above RDS features.However, I pick only some important features to explain in this article. Some of the them include, RadioText, alternative frequencies, traffic announcement and programme type. RadioText (RT) allows radio stations to send a message that can be unchanging, or a message that changes depending on what the radio station is playing. Alternative frequencies (AF) are one of the best RDS features; especially for car radios. It allows the frequency to be changed on the radio’s receiver for stronger reception. Traffic announcement (TA) is also a very helpful feature. If you have a multifunctional radio player and your listening to a CD but still really want to hear the traffic announcement/update this feature will stop the CD and take you to the station that’s making the traffic update. Another terrific feature is Programme Type (PTY). Programme Type categorizes each radio station into a genre. So if you want to listen to the news you can quickly and easily listen to all the news channels and not have to go through the music channels. It also categorizes stations according to the style of music they play. So if you’re in the mood for rock and roll you can easily find all the rock and roll music stations and not have to go through the other music (and news) stations like opera, rap etc.
So as you can see Radio Data System’s offer a lot of features that are very practical and can help in day to day life. Radio Data Systems make your radio player more efficient and easy to use. It’s easy to see why they are becoming so popular.
For more information about radio data systems please take a look at RDS forum website.
Jitkasem Pintaya,
admin
Simulation software for embedded system.
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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NXP Cortex-M0
After NXP had launched ARM Cortex-M3 to the market (LPC1700 and LPC1300).They have
launched Cortex-M0 (LCP1100) to the market since the beginning of 2010.Please look
at the picture below to compare each of NXP ARM Cortex series.
Comparison of Cortex Series
Linux bootloader.
What is a bootloader?
In computing, booting or booting-up, is the process that starts an operating system when a computer system is turned on. A boot sequence is then followed, step by step, running some initial tests of the hardware and then initializing the bootloader.
A bootloader loads the operating system, often from a list of options, selecting the default option if another is not selected by the user within a set period of time. The user interface one sees can be a simply text display or a graphical user interface.
When a computer starts-up, the BIOS is loaded. The master boot record (MBR) is accessed from the first sector on the boot-able media. The MBR is limited to a single operating system, i.e. one distribution on Linux (Ubuntu, OpenSuse, etc.). The MBR is split up into two parts, part or all of the boot loader and information on the drive partitions. The BIOS locates and loads the first part of the bootloader, known as the initial program loader or IPL. The IPL checks the partition table to locate the second stage of the bootloader and load it.
The second part of the bootloader is much larger than the first, which is limited by the size of files the BIOS can access. The second part is also the part that is visible, so often people think it is the only part of the bootloader. This part contains the user interface to display the bootloader to the user and kernels to help the computer function correctly in the initial stages.
With newer Linux bootloaders, you have new options like the ability to load from a list of operating systems, use encrypted passwords and so on. This allows the flexibility to have a number of different operating systems installed on separate drives or separate partitions on the same drive. Different popular distributions of Linux, like Ubuntu Linux and OpenSuse Linux, as well as Microsoft Windows operating systems, can coexist happily together. This gives the user ultimate flexibility at boot time.
Two of the more popular bootloaders on Linux operating systems are LILO and GRUB.
Linux Loader
Linux Loader, or LILO, is the most common bootloader for Linux. It has been around many years, enjoys rich support from the Linux community and continues to evolve with new features added over time. There are many features to help troubleshoot a system having problems booting-up successfully. It also permits dual boot of a Linux distribution with any other operating system.
LILO is file system agnostic that allow to boot the OS from a floppy disc, CD-Rom, DVD, USB pen drive or hard drive. LILO is also flexible enough to be loaded from master boot record or boot sector of harddisk partiton. If you want to load LILO from boot sector then you must set up something in the master boot record in order to call the LILO that place on the harddisk partition.
GRUB
GNU GRUB, or GRUB, is fast becoming the boot loader of choice for many Linux users. The growing popularity of the Ubuntu Linux distribution that uses GRUB as standard is one reason for this, with approximately one third of Linux users using Ubuntu.
GRUB can also install on a range of media – floppy disc, CD-Rom, DVD, USB pen drive and hard drive – but it beats out LILO because the number of boot selections are unlimited. Given enough media options, this allows an enthusiast or Linux technician to load the latest stable release for one distribution of Linux, as well as a number of beta versions and special configurations for testing purposes, without the concern of running out of boot selections.
GRUB is also network ready and comes with an attractive graphical user interface.
Thank you,
Jitkasem Pintaya
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Embedded board
This article is about my recommend embedded board
1. idea6410 board
This embedded board use Samsung S3C6410 ARM11 as the main processor.It come with
various type of peripheral interfaces as much as necessary. It suitable for automotive , industrial control applications or medical system.This board can run many OS such as Windows Embedded CE 6.0,
Embedded Linux 2.6, Android and Ubuntu.View more information about this board here.
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Embedded scientific calculator.
Casio fx-9860gsd is one of scientific calculator that can use for
calculate scientific formular otherwise it also can be used in controlling
as the embedded calculator.
Casio fx-9860gsd has the graphic LCD display (only two colors , black & white).
It use high performance processor , has the serial port and also has the SD card slot.
This calculator can be programmed without using the external program-burning equipment
(user can write program and download compiled-program to the calculator).
The software development kit for develop the software is free for download (include the compiler,
library and IDE). This SDK can make Casio fx-9860gsd to become good embedded controller board.
The drawback is it doesn’t have input/output port sufficiently to use ,however we can solve this drawback
by use the external equipment to expand I/O port.
Important technical specification of Casio fx-9860gsd are as follow…
- Use CPU from Renesas (SuperH-3 32-bit RISC processor) run at 100/133 MHz (depent on the working
mode)
- RAM 512 kB
- 4 MB Flash memory (can actually use about 1.5 MB)
- Download program to the calculator via mini USB by using FA-124 software.
- One channel serial port.
- Addition application can be appended to the calculator by ourselve.
- Develop program using C language and the SDK is free for download.
- Have SD card slot (SD card used for install new application or store the data).
- Noise tolerant and high stability.
- Can exchange the program between two calculators using the special signal-wire.
Casio fx-9860g sd
Essential software you need to download before start develop the program for Casio fx-9860gsd
First download SDK for fx-9860g (this SDK contain IDE and C
compiler). The registration is required and you must own the real Casio fx-9860gsd
(because it request for the identification number that stick at the back of this scientific calculator).
If you don’t have real Casio fx-9860g series then you can’t download this SDK.
Visit https://edu.casio.com/download_service/register/regist_form.php for register and download SDK.
Second download library Revolutionfx from http://revolution-fx.sourceforge.net.
This library help in reading and writing via serial port of the calculator (You cannot
access the serial port by using only the SDK from casio).
It also has the routine for draw a line or graph and include special function that is
valuable for working with this calculator.
Last software that need to download is Casio FA-124. This software use for download or
burn the program into calculator. You can download Casio FA-124 at http://world.casio.com/edu/resources/fa124/index.html.
When you have all three software above , you must install the fx-9860g SDK first
after that install the Revolutionfx library and Casio FA-124 respectively.
This article doesn’t talk about how to set up the environment for develop the program
and how to write the C code instruction for this calculator because I intend to write the
review for Casio fx-9860gsd only.
Reference :
1. Prototype Electronics Magazine (issue 11 , June 2010)
2. http://www.tpemagazine.com
Thank you,
Admin
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