Embed Journal

Custom RFS for Beaglebone Black using Busybox

Hello folks, In my previous post about Linux kernel compilation for Beaglebone black, I had used pre-built RFS for booting the kernel. Also, I mentioned that the RFS could be built from scratch using an utility called Busybox. In this post, we’ll see how to create one Custom RFS using Busybox and what are all the additional files required to boot the kernel. The RFS which we’re going to create…

My approach to the Mesh Flare Problem (IIT-B’s Techfest)

Over the past few days, I received a plethora of emails and messages on how make a line follower robot. Mostly, the specification being white line on a black surface. Some even mentioned shortest path detection and loops in the track. Now, I do get emails on people asking me questions on line follower robots. Nope, thats not unusual (actually I get quite a lot). What was unusual was majority of…

GLEM: Graphical LCD Emulator in C

At some point in time we all have had to develop some sort of UI for our embedded devices. The thing about UI design is, it can take one hell of a time before we can get it right (and it’s a thankless job! I have my reasons). I for one, hated (note past tense) glcd work. I always found reasons to procrastinate or push it off to one my co workers. Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m referring only to…

Compiling and Deploying BeagleBone Black Kernel

BeagleBone Black   Hello all, It’s been a long delay since I made my first post. But, this time I came up with something which will be perfect for someone who is awaiting to get hands on building linux kernel for Beaglebone Black. For understanding the contents of this post, it is assumed that the beaglebone black is accessible to the reader and he is having some knowledge in working with Linux…

Does your RTC registers read atomic values? How does it matter?

Most of us have used the RTC one time or the other in the past. Have you ever checked to see if the time from the RTC registers read atomic values? Should you be worried if your datasheet has no mention of such a parameter? is there even a fix? Lets have a look! Now, what is atomic, and why does being so matters? In software terms, atomic access to a variable means that only one process (in a…

Interfacing 16×2 LCD with C2000 launchpad

  The C2000 Launchpad is an inexpensive evaluation module based on Piccolo family microcontrollers from Texas Instruments (TI). The famous one is TMS320F28027 Digital Signal Controller (DSC). This DSC is indented for real time control and digital signal processing applications. If you wanna learn about digital signal controllers, I would recommend this as the starting point. More information…

Simple DIY Electromagnetic Bell

You might think its past time I was talking about simple electromagnetic bells at my blog. Truth be told I would agree with you and embedjournal is pitching for a higher game in the near future. We will soon get into some android programming and write mobile apps that will talk with our embedded systems. But for now we will have to stick with this little bell as it was asked to be made by my…

Microcontroller Input voltage Measurement through ADC Module

Input voltage measurement of an embedded device is not as simple as it sounds. But if estimated, can come if very handy at a number of occasions. In this article we will see how we can implement this with minimal components to your existing design.

It is one thing to measure the voltage and totally another to measure the input voltage. If you haven’t guessed the difficulty in it already, the ADC…

Useful Books for Reference

Books are an invaluable source of information. Listed below are some of the books that we feel will help you understand the basic concepts behind embedded systems, robotics, and basic electronics. Check if you have come across some of these books and leave a comment if I have missed some good books.

We do not condone illegal sharing of copyright content at EmbedJournal. We suggest, you purchase…

In my last post describing the implementation of a circular buffer I mentioned that I was working on a serial UART library for PIC 18. Well it is now completedJ. Yesterday I tested all the functions of the library and its working like a charm!

In this post I will explain some key aspects of the code and how to download and use it in your code.

What is UART?

Universal Asynchronous Receiver and…

Basics of DC Motor Drive and Speed Control for Robots

DC motors are really cheap and can be found very easily. In this post we will discuss the basic theory behind the DC motor drive system and its speed control. Having some basic understanding of how your motor driver works will play a key role in building your own circuits debugging them.

The main advantage is that, they are really easy to interface. Hook the wires on to the battery terminals and…

Testing RF Transmitter and Receiver Circuit

After publishing the article Make a simple RC car I have received a lot of comments and e-mails from readers who have faced some difficulties while trying to make the circuit by themselves. I have complied a small list of testing methods for various components that will help your narrow down the caused of the malfunction.

Like always, we will have to split the entire circuit into various segments…

PIC Pin Diagram: A printable copy for quick reference

Are you reading the datasheet? What to look for and how to find them!

Graphic LCD: GLCD Command Sheet HTML Version

DIY: Don’t Buy Breadboard Power Supply Make it!

Most of the time your on a breadboard will just need a 5 volt supply to power all the components. Very rarely you might need a 12 volt (if you are driving loads like motors) or 3.3 volt (devices rated at 3v3). In this post we will see the making of a…

Getting Started with PIC Microcontrollers

Having worked with any one Microcontroller, moving from one of its family to another is  just a matter of matter knowing the right tools and understanding how things have to be done in terms of software (compiler specific addressing like that of the SRFs)…