On Sept 17, 1908, Orville Wright and Lt Thomas Selfridge took off in a Wright Flyer from Fort Meyer Virginia. Shortly after take-off, the Wright Flyer suddenly pitched down, driving the aircraft into the ground, injuring Wright and killing Selfridge. The crash occurred when one of the wooden propellers split and pulled on the bracing … Continue reading 5 Lessons to Learn from the Boeing 737 MAX Fiasco
Category: Tips and Tricks
10 Tricks for Documenting Embedded Software
There are few things more challenging in software development than acquiring a code base with little to no documentation and being required to maintain it. Documentation doesn’t just tell an engineer what a particular function or variable does but it also demonstrates and conveys why the software was implemented in a particular fashion. There are … Continue reading 10 Tricks for Documenting Embedded Software
7 Tips for using assertions in C
One of the greatest bug squashing tools available to embedded software developers is the assert macro. Despite the power of assert, I rarely see it implemented and in the cases where it is used the implementation is either flawed or incorrect. The following seven tips should help elucidate not only when and where to use … Continue reading 7 Tips for using assertions in C
5 Tips for Accelerating Embedded System Design
If there is one constant through-out the embedded system industry, it’s that our delivery timelines are yesterday. The demand for advances in embedded systems and for the latest and greatest widget put a constant pressure on designers to deliver as fast as possible. Let’s examine five foundational tips for accelerating embedded system design. Tip #1 … Continue reading 5 Tips for Accelerating Embedded System Design
Where oh Where are My Test Points!
For the umpteenth time in my career, I am debugging a prototype board that has exactly zero test points. I didn’t design this board, but have inherited it from a frantic colleague who is behind schedule and is having trouble communicating with an onboard SPI device. The first step in this troubleshooting endeavor is to … Continue reading Where oh Where are My Test Points!
7 Tips for Developing Great API’s
Embedded software developers have grown used to working at the lowest, nitty gritty hardware level within a microcontroller based system. Twiddling and manipulating bits and bytes is what embedded software developers were born to do. The embedded software industry is changing and that change is requiring developers to start working at higher levels of abstraction … Continue reading 7 Tips for Developing Great API’s
Improve Debug Efficiency with the ITM
Let’s face it. No matter how sophisticated our debug tools get, there will always be a place for an old fashioned printf statement. Unfortunately, printf tends be efficient and can dramatically affect the systems real-time performance. For developers using an Arm Cortex®-M3 or better, printf can be remapped to the Instrumentation Trace Macrocell (ITM) which … Continue reading Improve Debug Efficiency with the ITM
7 Tips for Securing an Embedded System
Security, just like quality and many other embedded system attributes must be considered at the start of the development cycle. Developers can’t build their system and then add security at the end. With more and more systems starting to connect to the internet, there are more than a dozen best practices that developers should follow … Continue reading 7 Tips for Securing an Embedded System
7 Tips for Optimizing Embedded Software
In “5 Embedded System Characteristics Every Engineer Should Monitor”, I discussed key embedded system characteristics that in many cases require optimization. These characteristics include system timing, code size, RAM usage and energy consumption. Optimizing each characteristic typically requires different methods and techniques but there are several general tips developers can follow to optimize their embedded … Continue reading 7 Tips for Optimizing Embedded Software
Tools – 10 Engineering Notebook Best Practices
In the article, “Transitioning to a Modern Day Engineering Notebook“, I discussed the basic features and capabilities a modern electronic notebook would need to meet the requirements of the average engineer. In order to get the most out of an engineering notebook, here are ten tips engineers should consider. Tip #1 – Keep a notebook … Continue reading Tools – 10 Engineering Notebook Best Practices