I dedicated this section to microcontrollers and other MCUs. A backlog or articles is awaiting publication and I hope I will enrich this category in the coming weeks.
Throughout this series we have seen interrupts make firmware more responsive, more accurate, and more efficient. In this final part we bring all of those ideas together in the context of power management. This is where interrupt-driven design pays its biggest dividend. A microcontroller running a polling loop at full speed consumes its maximum current […]
In the previous parts we focused on external pin interrupts and timer interrupts. These are triggered by signals on GPIO pins or by hardware counters. But microcontrollers contain many other built-in peripherals — serial communication interfaces, analog-to-digital converters, and more — and all of them can generate interrupts too. In fact, peripheral interrupts are where […]
In Parts 1 through 3 we learned what interrupts are, how to write safe ISRs, and how to use timer interrupts for precise periodic tasks. So far we have treated interrupts as if only one can exist at a time. In reality, a microcontroller may have dozens of interrupt sources, and several of them can […]
In part 1 and part 2 we covered what interrupts are and how to write safe ISRs. Now we tackle one of the most useful and widely used interrupt sources in embedded systems: hardware timers. Timer interrupts are the backbone of almost every real embedded application — from blinking an LED at an exact frequency, […]
In Part 1 we established what interrupts are and why they exist. Now it is time to write actual interrupt service routines (ISRs) and learn the rules that keep them working correctly. This is where many beginners run into mysterious bugs — code that works fine until an interrupt fires, then behaves unpredictably. Almost always, […]
This is first part of an intended series about interrupts. If you are just starting out with microcontrollers or microprocessors, you have probably written a simple program that turns an LED on and off, reads a button, or sends some text over a serial port. These programs usually follow a straight line: do this, then […]
If you spend enough time writing interrupt service routines in low-level embedded code, one tiny instruction shows up again and again: RETI. On paper it looks simple. It means RETurn from Interrupt. In practice, though, that small instruction exposes deep architectural differences between microcontroller families. On some CPUs RETI is a real instruction with distinct […]
If you have ever worked with inertial measurement units or any other multi-axis sensor, you have probably run into a subtle but important problem: how do you ensure that all nine axis values you read and transmit actually belong to the same moment in time? Let’s see.
Mailbag today. Guess my surprise when I found this in my mailbox: It’s always nice to receive snail mail. Paper mail. Envelopes, magazines and newspapers. That’s why I try to subscribe to receive printed editions of all magazines of interest for me. Some time ago I signed a promo email from Texas Instruments in cooperation […]
Until recently I have extensively used my MacBook, AVRDude and USBTiny for my μController projects: Now I got myself a proper tool, the AVRISP markII, mostly because I wanted to use AVRStudio 6.0 features: Key features: Programs both flash and EEPROM Supports fuses and lock bit programming Upgradeable for future device support Supports target voltages from […]
SmartRF™ Studio is a Windows application that can be used to evaluate and configure Low Power RF-ICs from Texas Instruments.
Inspired by this project for RFMB12 and needing a similar one for my Mac, I started to build one myself: Next – a version for iPad. Stay tuned. 😉
Today I started to complete the design of the RF12B Breakout Board for various prototyping.
