3 replies to this topic

[Jon86]

I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with embedded development. It's something I've been wanting to try for a while now. But even after reading about it I don't really know of a good way to jump in and get started with it.

So I was wondering if someone could explain a few things. I understand that with embedded development your basically working with C or ASM and I'm currently trying to get to grips with ASM. And then you would take something, flash it to a microcontroller and then work from their.

And thats really where I'm at. Will I have to spend some money and buy something like Begalboard or are their other options? Is their any IDEs out their that are centered around Embedded development? What would you say are the biggest hurdles for a beginner?

[reddev]

Hello.

I have few points for you to consider working on investigating.
- the idea of embedded development is that you create a way to contol a seperate IC chip (integrated circuit) (IC might have it's own power source)
- the old and quite straight forward way is to control the chip with an serisl port connector eg. RS-232, the newer way for control is with USB. USB requires lots of more understanding of driver software.
- you can program the IC chip with different ways. One is to upload C++/ASM software to a PIC controller. Make a google search with PIC. PIC is a cheap and versatile chip and you can use many IDEs with it.

Other ways for embedded are: Arduino board. Arduino is more of a sophisticated way to control other electical appliances or read sensor data. (this is the best new board and is a lot better and sophisticated than PIC)

BeagleBoard, Gumstix or other boards with ARM processor. BeagleBoard has a whole computer fitted in small space so you can install an Embedded linux to it. Most mobile phones have ARM processor. You can have a BeagleBoard that controls the Arduino board for light swiching, motor control...

I personally just ordered the new BeagleBoard-xM a week ago, haven't received it yet...

What kind of controls are you planning for your board? Would like to hear a bit more of your plans...

Edited by reddev, 18 October 2010 - 08:37 AM.
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[Jon86]

Hi

I have found out about PIC and Arduino while googling since I had posted this thread. And I'm going to buy a Arduino kit.

I don't have any specific goal right now other than learning about embedded development. Do you know of anything that would make a suitable starting project?

I'm a software developer so its really just the hardware side that I need to learn.

[reddev]

You could build your own robotics system with servos. The Arduino PWM (pulse width modulation) pins can control servos so you could build a robotics/auto/boar/plane/rover with servos+motors. Or you could build a controller for about anything. Search robotics builder projects or books for more ides.. and be creative.

Also check out this post http://forum.codecal...ng-started.html