Thread: Electronics for embedded software dev ?

Hey,
I plan to develop my knowledge in embedded field, writing software for microcontrollers and IC in general. I am not sure if I understand enough from the electronics side (both digital and analogue). So I would be very thankful if you could list aspects, even whole subjects that are important in this field. I know quite well, circuits theory (norton thevenin, superposition etc,) I know how to solve RLC circuits, (find voltages and currents, as well as their derivatives), I know basics of AC, frequency, etc. From digital electronics I understand the basics of uC architecture, common peripherals, I know how transistor, ADC, PWM works. Definitely I am worst in analogue area, so here are my main interests ...I know what op-amp is and RLC components. What else should I understand ?
So, summing things up, what concepts from both digital and analogue side should I know to be fluent in embedded area ?


PS: I mentioned mainly high level concepts like circuits theory, RLC and so on, I would be very very thankful if you could specify more detailed aspects important in this field (i.e transisorts conf behind uC pins, etc).


Thanks!

Nobody have a clue ?

Originally Posted by Elysia

This is not exactly an electronics forum. If you find something, you could post it here so others could know.

This is definitely true but, from my point of view this forum is very much focused on C programming. Now ask yourself, where you can use C and for what is C good nowadays ? Windows app with C , Games written in C ? Rather no, there are better laguages for these tasks. So the only thing that comes to my mind when I think about programming in C is microcontrollers and embedded software in general. But on the other hand, doing so requires knowledge of electronics, both digital and analog. So thats why I asked such question here


Pitty, nobody wants to share opinions ;/

Noise considerations and filtering, circuit protection, practical usage of FETs and op-amps

Hi all...

A perfect example of what Salem is tallking about.....check out Amateur Radio forums....there is plenty of developement in SDR, Software Defined Radios....it takes just 3/4-chips and you have a direct sampling radio, where the signal is put into the USB port for the computer to decode all the modes (FM,AM,SSB,RTTY,WSPR..decode Satelite Telemetry and the rest), also modifying certain USB devices that can be used to listen across a wide range of frequencies.. Radio is slowly going from analogue to digital..with faster computers and software.

John

Thank you guys for opinions

If you haven't done so already, you should also learn about serial communication protocols.

This is a very necessary skill to have in the embedded programmer tool-kit. Writing code to run on the computer is important. Writing code to run on an embedded device is important. Writing code to run on the computer and interact with the embedded device is very important. Whether you're designing a circuit that requires a serial user interface, or just implementing a boot-loader in your device, you want to be able to write computer programs that interact with MCU programs on some level.

You might also want to learn about device-to-device communication (e.g RS-485), so one MCU can coordinate the actions of many.

If your understanding of circuit theory is as sound as you claim, then there probably isn't much further for you to go for the most common types of applications. You probably don't need to go into the bias point of transistors, unless you're working on very specialized applications.

You should also familiarize yourself with interfacing of peripheral devices, such as off-chip EEPROM, real-time clocks, digital potentiometers, etc.

Matticus, fair point, serial communications is important, actually I've done PC - uC communication using RS-232. Now I have a feeling like I know many things but nothing really in depth...

Adding to what Matticus wrote, I'd also add USB to the mix, on both the host and the client sides. It's not complicated, but there is a lot of standardized stuff, like generic devices (Human Interface Devices for example), and knowing how to implement the kind of USB device that can interface to any host without specialized drivers makes it much easier to develop hardware with computer connectivity.

Many Arduinos only implement an USB-RS232 bridge, so that they're always USB-serial devices. Due, Yun, Leonardo, Esplora, Micro, and Zero do seem to have a native USB port; many microcontrollers like Teensies, ATmega32u4 boards, and most ARM ones also provide native USB interfaces. A native USB port allowing a microcontroller to appear to a host as normal keyboards, mice, joysticks, gamepads, or just about any basic USB device (or multiple devices), without requiring any drivers to be installed on the host. This, and the ubiquity of USB, makes it very useful to grok.

(My first true microcontroller project was an arcade-style joystick and buttons mounted on a birch plank, like an oversized gamepad, with a Teensy 2.0++ as the microcontroller. No drivers needed, works on any computer that supports USB keyboards and/or gamepads -- I used a 16-position encoder to switch between modes, so that it can appear as a keyboard too when I want to play Flash games with it.. The heavy-duty arcade joystick cost as much as the Teensy; all components and parts together about 50 euros or so.)