The use of printf with an embedded systems based on a microcontroller has been generally not recommended as an industry best practice. A few reasons to avoid the use of printf is that it can usually inefficient, is a blocking function and interrupts the real-time behavior of the embedded system. The truth though is that … Continue reading 7 Steps to Customizing printf with a Circular Buffer
Month: June 2015
Embedded Basics – 5 Tips for using portable types
In order to reuse and port embedded software it is absolutely imperative that the code be written without any ambiguity. In a previous post, “Understanding Portable Types” located here, the basics of portable types were discussed and how the common types of char, int and long may mean different things depending on the architecture and … Continue reading Embedded Basics – 5 Tips for using portable types
Tips and Tricks – MicroPython
The C programming language has been the dominant language when developing software for a microcontroller. The language is well suited for the low-level hardware control that is necessary when developing an embedded system. There have been other programming languages such as C++ and Java that have found their niche within the industry but even when … Continue reading Tips and Tricks – MicroPython
Tools – Isolated USB to UART
Connecting an embedded systems UART to a PC through a USB to UART converter is something that every embedded software developer is familiar with. Many developers don’t leave home without a FTDI232R board from Sparkfun (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12731). The only problem with this great little tool though is that it doesn’t provide any protection to the PC … Continue reading Tools – Isolated USB to UART