Out next week: The December issue of Circuit Cellar in both print and digital! A sneak peek inside: Embedded security technologies, sports wearable project, test & measurement tools, drone dev kit review, fridge repair project, tiny embedded boards, FreeRTOS and more! This 84-page magazine locks in a rich bounty of intriguing embedded technology articles for your reading pleasure.
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Here’s a sneak preview of December 2021 Circuit Cellar:
MICROCONTROLLERS DOING IT ALL
Development Approaches for Security
By Jeff Child
There are many factors to consider in the world of security for microcontroller-based designs. These include encryption, secure data storage, tamper detection and more. MCU vendors are embedding these and more onto their latest chips. Circuit Cellar Chief Editor Jeff Child looks at the latest technology trends and products relevant to MCU-based security.
Sports Wearable Uses ANT+ Protocol
By Carlo Tauraso
ANT+ is a protocol used in sports devices. In this project article, Carlo uses this technology, along with Nordic’s nRF52832 MCU to build a multi-purpose sports wearable device that measures and records body temperature and pairs with other devices.
Refrigerator Repair Project: Using Espressif’s ESP32 MCU
By Jeff Bachiochi
When his refrigerator malfunctioned, Jeff embarked on an effort to figure out the problem and repair it. While waiting for replacement parts to be delivered, he employed embedded technologies to monitor and do a deeper diagnosis on the fridge’s functions, gaining interesting insights.
RESOURCES FOR EMBEDDED ENGINEERING
Datasheet: Tiny Embedded Boards
By Jeff Child
An impressive amount of computing functionality can be squeezed on to a small form factor board these days. These tiny board-level products meet the needs of applications where extremely low SWaP (size, weight and power) beats all other demands. This Datasheet section updates readers on this technology trend and provides a product album of representative tiny embedded boards.
Playing with I-V Curves
By Robert Lacoste
The I-V characteristics of an electronic component reveals a lot about its behavior. In this article, Robert steps through the basics of I-V curves—how to interpret, how to do your own I-V characteristic measurements and how to apply the results to your engineering work.
Test and Measurement
By Jeff Child
System designers depend on test and measurement equipment such as oscilloscopes, analyzers and other tools. Lately, equipment vendors are focusing on solutions targeted to meet application-specific needs. Circuit Cellar Chief Editor Jeff Child examines the latest technology and product trends in test and measurement.
FreeRTOS (Part 7): FreeRTOS, TCP and the Internet
By Bob Japenga
In this final part of Bob’s article series about the open-source FreeRTOS, he looks at the options that you, the system designer, have for connecting to the Internet using FreeRTOS and its libraries.
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS ON THE MOVE
Build an Autonomous Mapping Rover
By Dhairya A. Parikh
There are many situations where an autonomous vehicle or device is needed for mapping unknown environments without any human assistance. In this article, Dhairya details his project using Nvidia’s Jetson Nano to build a four-wheel robot that can be trained to autonomously survey a known environment or can be controlled via a laptop or a phone.
Build a Robotic Arm with Linear Actuators
By Alexandru Dumitrache
Robotic arms are a critical piece of today’s robotic system development efforts. In this article, Alexandru explains the physics of robot arms and then shares the details of his project building a robotic arm based on linear actuators.
A Review: Nora Flight Controller and XunWing X4 Quadcopter
By Raul Alvarez-Torrico
Raul has done several articles on drone design technologies in recent years. In this article, he does a review of two CUAV Tech products: The Nora flight controller and the XunWing X4 quadcopter platform. Raul details the specifications of these devices, and shares the results of his flight tests.
