Software design and embedded system tools.

Fez Domino

This development board was developed by GHI Electronics. It use 32 bit ARM7 (LPC2388FBD144 run at 72 Mhz) as the main microcontroller. It also the same as other general embedded development board except
that it use Visual C# 2008 Express Edition as compiler (so you must able to write the C# language) and use Microsoft .Net Micro Framework as the template for development the program on this microcontroller.
This IDE provide the full function of debugging capability. It also provide
an emulator mode , so you can run your developed program
without burning it into the real development board.

The extra capability of FEZ Domino is that its IOs port are correspond with
the hardware standard of Arduino (Pin compatible with Arduino) ,
so it can be used together with Arduino shield board.
For more information about Fez Domino , please visit TinyCLR.com

Picture of Fez Domino board

Below are videos introduce about how to develop program on Fez domino

Thanks,

If you have some questions or want to suggest something to me , please send an email to admin@embedsoftdev.com

Admin
jitkasem pintaya

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Pyxis OS for Arduino.

It is open source OS for Arduino. The OS and other applications can be run from sdcard as it store the OS and application in “.bin” file (like the image file on computer or mobile phone).Pyxis also provide the FAT library
called “PFAT” for read or write EEPROM card (turn the EEPROM into a harddrive).

The demo project use two microcontrollers. One for manage the user interface part
(use arduino mega) and another one use mega2560 + dataflash for handle the whole display
(it’s on the touch screen shiled board).Visit Pyxis for more information about this interesting OS.

Below is video from youtube for the demo of Pyxis OS

Thank you,
Jitkasem Pintaya.

Reference site:
1. http://www.skewworks.com/
2. http://www.electoday.com/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=4233&extra=page%3D1

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More on Arduino part one.

- Arduino-tone
It is the library for produce square-ware tones.It can use with ATmega8,ATmega168/328 and ATmega1280
microcontroller series.With this library,you don’t need to use DAC (Digital to Analog onverter) for building the
tones.This library use timer and PWM of microcontroller, so it will affect the usage of other PWM outputs.

- Dataflash
It is the library for make your Arduino be able to interface to the external memory chip.It’s suitable for
use in storing the voice file or use in datalogging application.The original code of this library is come
from Atmel butterfly.

- Arduino contest
Finished contest from Instructables website.This contest has a lot of interesting Arduino projects and
also contain the instruction to describe about how to make each project too ( but I don’t know that it give the
source code relate to each Arduino project or not).

- ArbotiX Robocontroller
It is control board for robots.It use AVR (ATMEGA644p) as main microcontroller and also contain the Xbee module in order to communicate with the robot by wireless radio signal.The designer of ArbotiX board also designed the library that used for interfacing with the motor of Bioloid System (this will help in controlling the motor easier).This board can be used with various Bioloid motor series (Bioloid motor is “digital servo” motor, it can be commanded via RS485 or even can communicate via Xbee too).

- Multi-touch Technology

This technology is very interesting.The person who inspire this technology is Jefferson Y. Han.He is researcher at NYU (New York University).To know more about him, please visit these links.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Han
2. http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/

This is Multi-touch presentation video.

The theory that used in Multi-touch is Total internal reflection.

Multi-touch Do-It-Yourself projects.
1. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/maximum_pc_builds_a_multitouch_surface_computer

2. http://www.instructables.com/id/S1D8LVAF3ER7VNE/

Reference site :
1. Ayarafun
2. Electoday webboard

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Arduino is the tool used together with computer to cause the computer can receive
external signal and also make computer can send signal to control the external device
more effective than using computer alone.

The Arduino board is designed from single-chip microcontroller (Normally use AVR 8-bit
microcontrooler).It also have a software used for writing the program or command to
control the board.

Arduino can be adapted to make an intelligent tools such as the tool that can receive the
signal from switch or sensor,tool for control the lamp or motor,tool for communicate with
wireless device etc.Arduino project can work alone or work joinly with PC (work by
interaction with the program that run on PC).The board can be assembled by yourself or
buy the ready-to-use development board from vendor.It is the open hardware so everyone
are able to clone it but must use other label name.The purpose of Arduino project is to
make the low cost and easy-to-use tools for hobbyists who want to develop their simple embedded
project and don’t want to use the expensive microcontroller with complicated development
environment.

Why Arduino??
In market of microncontroller, their are many choice such as Parallax Basic
Stamp,Funnel,Pidgets,MIT’s Handyboard and from other vendors that have characteristics
similar to Arduino (That is making the board easy for develop project and underline on
programming for control the microcontroller).But Arduino has an obvious different points
from the others as you can see below…

1. Board is not expensive when compare with other boards.The cheapest Arduino board can
be obtained by making it ourselve.If you want to buy it,I think ready-to-use Arduino
board is not over $30.

2.The software used for develop Arduino can work on many platforms (Windows,Macintosh OSX
and Linux).It is easy to use for beginner and have fully capability with respect to the
professional developer’s requirement.

3.Arduino software was published as an open source.You can modify the software to
increase its capability via C++ library.If you want to deeply study its software, you can
go across to use AVR C (AVR C is prototype of Arduino) and you can add AVR-C code
directly if you want.

4.Arduino is open circuit (Open Hardware).It use the microcontroller from Atmel (ATMEGA8
and ATMEGA168).You can extend the hardware according to your demand.The circuit of Arduino board was published under the Creative Commons License so you can study about its machanism for free.

Reference site : 1. www.logicthai.net
2. http://store.fungizmos.com
3. www.10logic.com

Thank you,
Written by
Jitkasem Pintaya.