Out next week: the April issue of Circuit Cellar in both print and digital. A sneak peek: Drone dev kits, RTOS on MCU, antique clock accuracy project, 32-bit MCUs, I2S project, Raspberry Pi HATs, touch keyboard synthesizer project and more! When this 84-page magazine lands with a “thud” on your desk, you can start reading these top-notch embedded technology articles.
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Here’s a sneak preview of April 2022 Circuit Cellar:
RESOURCES TO AID AND INSPIRE EMBEDDED ENGINEERS
Drone Development Kits
By Jeff Child
The pace of drone innovation continues to accelerate. Helping system developers keep up, technology vendors are providing comprehensive drone development kits, providing rich resources for system developers to create their own consumer drone or as a starting point for commercial drone designs. Circuit Cellar Chief Editor Jeff Child looks at the latest technology trends and drone dev kit products.
Using I2S to Transfer Digital Data (Part 2)
By Jeff Bachiochi
In Part 1, Jeff gave an overview of the I2S protocol and began his project building the input side of an I2S-based recording instrument. Now, in Part 2, he completes the design by adding an I2S output device to the project.
Datasheet: 32-bit Microcontrollers
By Jeff Child
32-bit microcontrollers have become entrenched as the workhorse of today’s embedded systems. These devices serve a wide variety of embedded applications—adding intelligence, security and connectivity to today’s “smart” systems. This Datasheet section updates readers on this technology and provides a product album of representative 32-bit microcontroller products.
The Darker Side: The 100th!—15 Years, Fearless and Fun
By Robert Lacoste
Many of you have been reading his column since it began 15 years ago. But at the nice round number of 100 articles, Robert has decided to wrap it up. His collaboration with Circuit Cellar will soon morph into a new form. But here he takes a moment to recap his epic voyage with this magazine, and hopefully inspire you to engage, contribute and keep learning.
Raspberry Pi HAT Roundup
By Jeff Child
Although it’s the most popular SBC among hobbyists, professional engineers are also seeing the value of Raspberry Pi’s growing ecosystem of products. Raspberry Pi HATs of all kinds have emerged, targeting everything from data acquisition to air quality measurement. Circuit Cellar Chief Editor shares the latest.
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT, DESIGN AND DEBUGGING
Debugging Embedded Real-Time Systems (Part 1): The Bugs
By Bob Japenga
This month, Bob begins a new article series on debugging embedded real-time systems. For the next several articles, he’ll examine the kind of bugs that bedevil us and what we can do to find them. In Part 1, he looks at bugs of scale—bugs that happen when the system experiences a load it wasn’t coded for.
Getting Started with RTOSes: RTOS on an MCU
By Stuart Ball
The range of situations where an RTOS offers benefits keeps expanding—even into the MCU space. Stuart reviews the basics of the technology and shares the details of his project to run a simple RTOS application on an MCU.
Build a Long-Term DAQ System (Part 2): The Software Design
By Anuj Justus
In edge DAQ devices, the amount data logged can span months or even years. Anuj continues his two-part article about building a long-term edge DAQ system. Here, in Part 2, he discusses the software design, programming and set-up for each of the two nodes: the edge sense node and the data server node.
FUN PROJECT ARTICLES WITH ALL THE DETAILS
Antique Clock Accuracy Project: Reloaded
By Aubrey Kagan
In a previous project, Aubrey began crafting a device to improve the accuracy of an antique clock. But that project remained inconclusive because he didn’t have the clock in person. Now, with an antique Bulle clock acquired, he resumes his efforts, once again putting the PSoC4 MCU to work.
Build a Capacitive Touch Keyboard for Synthesizers
By Liam Brinston, Michael Brown and Silas Jantzen
Mechanical keyboards are bulky and expensive when implemented in synthesizer designs. Leveraging capacitive touch technologies, MCUs and DACs, these Camosun Electronics students juxtapose their analog synthesizer voice of yesteryear with a digital touch keyboard of today.
