The October issue of Circuit Cellar is coming out next week! Here is a sneak peek at what’s inside. Embedded solutions for vision systems, retro microcomputer project, sensor ICs, ultraviolet LEDs, RISC-V technology, voltage-level translation, FreeRTOS and more! This 84-page magazine serves up a delicious meal of compelling embedded technology articles for your reading appetite.
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Here’s a sneak preview of October 2021 Circuit Cellar:
SMART SOLUTIONS FOR VISION AND SENSORS
Intelligent Vision Systems
By Jeff Child
Vision systems have evolved from simple camera-computer setups to sophisticated implementations that leverage IoT-connectivity, smart cameras and AI technology. Circuit Cellar Chief Editor Jeff Child looks at the latest technology trends and products relevant to vision systems.
How Gun-Style IR Thermometers Work (Part 2)
By Jeff Bachiochi
In Part 1, Jeff explained how to Melexis’ MLX90614 IR sensor to perform non-contact body temperature monitoring. Here, in Part 2, he dives into actual temperature readings using the system and highlights some of the important factors you should be aware of.
Datasheet: Sensor ICs
By Jeff Child
The IoT phenomenon continues to rev into high gear and sensor innovations have had to keep pace. That’s driven manufacturers of sensors ICs to develop highly integrated, high-performance devices. This Datasheet section updates readers on this technology trend and provides a product album of representative sensor ICs.
COMPUTING BUILDING BLOCKS FOR YOUR DESIGNS
RISC-V and the Open ISA Era
By Jeff Child
As a free and open instruction set architecture, RISC-V has shaken things up in the processor realm by offering an ISA that everyone can use without paying a license fee. Processor, SoC, IP and tool vendors have been rolling out a steady stream of products based on RISC-V. In this article, Circuit Cellar’s Editor-in-Chief, Jeff Child, looks at the technologies and trends driving RISC-V in embedded systems.
Cache Coherence and the ACE Protocol: Snooping and Synching
By Nishant Mittal
Cache coherency is a fundamental concept for processor-based systems. Nishant explains the basics of cache coherency and then explores how Arm’s ACE protocol ensures a more cache-friendly system design.
FreeRTOS (Part 6): FreeRTOS Security
By Bob Japenga
Bob continues his article series about the open-source FreeRTOS. In part 6, he discusses security concerns and provisions when we use FreeRTOS.
USEFUL RESOUCRES FOR EMBEDDED ENGINEERS
Ultraviolet: The next LED frontier
By Faiz Rahman
LEDs have become entrenched as a modern lighting technology. But LEDs can also emit ultraviolet light. In this article, Faiz looks and the technical challenges and possible applications for deep UV (DUV) LEDs.
Blocking and Interference Rejection
By Robert Lacoste
In wireless communication there is always some level of error rate, or at least the chance of some signal error. In this article, Robert revisits the topic of wireless receiver sensitivity, this time looking at how different receivers react differently to electronic perturbances.
Building the COSMAC ELF Minicomputer
By Scott Weber
Since he was a kid, Scott had thought about building a COSMAC ELF minicomputer himself. Now, armed with powerful free PCB tools, he set out to build the system using available electronics and applying his 35 years of engineering savvy.
Voltage-Level Translation in MCU Projects
By Wolfgang Matthes
We live in an era of electronics where multiple voltage levels are commonplace in any system design. That means voltage level translation is a constant issue to resolve. In this article, Wolfgang focuses on voltage translation between digital controllers and their application environment. He discusses the principal problems and provides examples.
Build a Power Supply Monitoring and Control System
By Anuj Justus Rajappa and Vairamani Kanagavel
Switching power supplies are a key piece of gear for many projects. But cost-effective units benefit from some kind of outside means of stepping output voltage up or down. To address that issue, Anuj built a power supply monitoring and control system using an ESP32-based development board.
