Innovation can be an exciting endeavor and on occasion management and developer decisions will optimistically estimate the cost implications for the project. The optimism can sometimes come from a short-sightedness or knowledge gap in understanding what is involved in the total cost of ownership for developing embedded software. Let’s look at the five major cost … Continue reading Understanding firmware total ownership development costs
Month: September 2018
The Firmware Conundrum: Build or Buy
Every development team needs to make the decision as to whether they will design and build their software from scratch or buy software components. In many instances, the decision is not driven so much by a business decision as it is by engineer ego shouting, “I can do it faster and better than they can!”. … Continue reading The Firmware Conundrum: Build or Buy
Creating an SWD Adapter for STM32 Development Boards (Part 2)
In the last post, we started to look at how we could design a simple programming adapter for STM32 development boards. We walked through the process necessary to get the schematics completed. In this post, we will examine the the PCB layout along with the BOM and costs necessary to prototype this simple board. With … Continue reading Creating an SWD Adapter for STM32 Development Boards (Part 2)
Creating an SWD Adapter for STM32 Development Boards (Part 1)
Nearly every development board comes with a built-in programing tool. Depending on the vendor, it may be PE Micro, SEGGER J-Link OB or even the vendor’s own tool such as an ST-Link. In most cases, the on-board programmer is rather limited in its capabilities and it makes a lot of sense to use an external … Continue reading Creating an SWD Adapter for STM32 Development Boards (Part 1)