Thomas shares makes | articles tagged "embedded"

Atmel AT91RM9200 Linux DMX Driver

As final project for my Professional Bachelor degree Electronics - ICT, I developed embedded software. I built a custom Linux based device that acts as an 'Art-Net node', converting a serial DMX-512 stream to network packets.

After a few months of work, I was able to present a working system, with basic functionality and buttons+LCD interface working.

I wrote a special Linux (character) device driver for the AT91RM9200 microprocessor's built-in UART. This device driver provides a simple and straightforward way to use the AT91's UART on a DMX-512 universe.

This article is meant to provide some information about the project. It is not complete and will be written up on over time.

embedded

Debugging the free_ecb_at91 board using JTAG

For a school project early 2007 (a study of embedded Linux on the AT91RM9200 ARM9 processor) I got familiar with the GNU development tools and setup required to run a Linux based operating system.

Using the setup described here I was able to inspect the inner workings of Darrell loader in real time, set hardware breakpoints, step through the program flow and inspect values of program variables while the CPU core was halted.

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JAL Programmable Logic Controller

When my brother was doing his last year of high-school in electromechanics, he came up with the idea of doing his final project using a homebuilt PLC instead of the usual Siemens stuff. I built the electronics and came up with a framework so he could easily implement his GRAFCET state machine for his part sorting robot for the PICMICRO in the JAL programming language.

This was long before Arduino, long before 'all the cool kids were doing it', and JAL was a free compiler for the affordable PIC microcontrollers. The Arduino of its days.

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Alarm clock using a PIC microcontroller

This is an alarm clock I built. It was very effective during the sort time I used it, because I programmed it to play a very annoying tune through a speaker. I actually started to wake up before the alarm went of, so other people in the house didn't wake up from the annoying pitches it played.

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First steps with the PICmicro

In the year 2001 I became very interested in digital electronics, and wanted to start experimenting with microcontrollers. When I was about to buy (expensive) Basic Stamps, I found the JAL website, and read the Hello World material. The JAL language targeted the Microchip PIC controllers.