I Apply SPI: Good Vibrations

This week, we take a look at the firmware involved in using the SPI bus. From the function calls to control the select pin then send out some data via the SPI bus, the form and specifics of the command structure for an accelerometer, and then we get some data flowing.

Busted data sheets, 16-bit values, and right handed chips - how can you pass this up?

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DMA - Monster Machines Moving Massive Memory Mounds

Need to move big amounts of dirt? You could use a tea spoon or something designed for the job, like a dump truck, or a really big dump truck.

In our programs, occasionally, we have to move large blocks of data.  We can move it item by item, or bring out the data moving dump truck of computing, DMA.

This week, Andrei presents two examples of using DMA (with code included).

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Discovery: UART Input

Andrei is back from his Christmas hiatus and brings us a post introducing getting input from a UART.

Previously he had covered output using printf, a helper function called _write, and the HAL routine to send data out of the UART. This time we use the other half of the UART, a different HAL routine, _read, and getchar.

 

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Discovery: UARTs Part 3 - The Final Step

This week Andrei explains how to get a UART working using Cube. How to get printf working. And introduces the newlib standard library.

This is Andrei's final blog post of 2016, and it'll be useful for your Christmas break project where you learn about ARM processors using CubeMX and ST's Discovery board.

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Discovery: Button Interrupts

This week, Andrei discusses how our button can be used to generate an interrupt. Other examples include engine management computers. What things should you look out for when using interrupts. 

Don't miss the photo at the bottom of the post for a useful hack.

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Discovery: Follow The Bouncing Bit

This time, Andrei looks into switches, their bouncy nature, Schmitt triggers, hardware, and software debounce techniques. Join us for a look into the resistors and capacitors leading to port PA0. See oscilloscope traces in black AND white! All of this and more in this embedded.fm blog post!

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Discovery: Buttons

This week Andrei is writing about buttons. First a bunch of the background stuff that goes along with buttons, how the positrons scoot around and finally make it to the processor. Then he takes a look at the HAL code used to read the button position.

How hard can it be? Well sit down and get comfortable, this won't hurt a bit (we'll leave the hurting bit for next time, Bwa ha haaaaa).

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