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?

I Apply SPI: Making Connections

April 11, 2017 by Andrei Chichak in Engineering, Hardware, Software

This time, Andrei blends together schematics and oscilloscope traces, pours over data sheets and diagrams, and sifts through the jargon of SPI.

The result is a richer understanding of SPI with a side of CubeMX parameters.

I Apply SPI: Scrawls and Traces

Jubilee Auditorium

April 05, 2017 by Andrei Chichak in Engineering, Hardware

Once we get into the nitty-gritty of SPI, there is going to be a lot of schematics and oscilloscope pictures that we have to figure out. Now is the time to get up to speed on schematic notation and oscilloscopes.

ESE101: Finally an MSP430 Timer Example!

December 15, 2016 by Chris Svec in Engineering, Software

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of clocks -- and lights -- and MSP430 timers."

Discovery: UARTs Part 3 - The Final Step

December 14, 2016 by Andrei Chichak in Software, Hardware, Engineering

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.

Discovery: UARTs Part 2 - Connections

December 07, 2016 by Andrei Chichak in Hardware, Engineering

Using the UART on our Discovery board requires a little extra hardware before we can use it for debugging.

This week, Andrei reviews some of the ways to hook the Discovery board to your PC.

ESE101: Configuring MSP430 Timers

December 06, 2016 by Chris Svec in Engineering, Software

Last time I explained the basics of what a microcontroller timer is and gave an overview of how timers are configured.

This time I’ll walk you through how to configure an MSP430 timer. We’ll use it to blink a light! (By now you’ve probably realized that most embedded system demos involve blinking a light. I’m pretty sure the singularity will look a lot like a rave.)

Discovery: UARTs Part 1

November 30, 2016 by Andrei Chichak in Engineering, Hardware, Software

This week, Andrei introduces the UART. A useful data communications peripheral with a long history.

Follow along as Andrei gives the low down on bits and bauds, hardware handshakes, and inverting buffers.

Discovery: Button Interrupts

November 16, 2016 by Andrei Chichak in Engineering, Hardware, Software

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.

Discovery: Buttons

November 02, 2016 by Andrei Chichak in Hardware, Software, Engineering

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).