Why you should not use Arduino for Professional Work

Have a read at http://embedded.fm/blog/2017/8/12/dont-use-arduino-for-professional-work.

I love the Arduino ecosystem, and it is great for getting something up and running quickly for a ‘proof of concept’. But it stops at that point.

I think it should be obvious why Arduino (code and libraries) should not be used for professional work. Especially the lack of proper debugging support makes it nearly impossible to solve the problems of the real world.’printf()’ style of debugging is simple, but it is a huge waste of time. I have seen too many student projects failing because the inability to properly debug the system and solve the problems.

Even equally important for professional work is the topic of IP and licensing. Be aware of the licensing terms and conditions as pointed out by above article. If not, your product easily get GPL’d which might not want you want.

Arduino

Arduino

Happy Arduinoing 🙂

Walking to Work: Sunrise with Rigi

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Getting to work early has some benefits, and one is watching the sun rising up while using the train or walking to the office.
I catched this one this morning: a beautiful sunrise over Lake Lucerne, with the Rigi mountain in the back:

Rigi Sunrise

Rigi Sunrise

Happy Working 🙂

Using Eclipse with its local Version of Java Virtual Machine

Eclipse is probably the most used and de-facto standard IDE for any development for ARM Cortex or any other devices. It is very easy these days to construct an unlimited and unrestricted IDE (see “Breathing with Oxygen: DIY ARM Cortex-M C/C++ IDE and Toolchain with Eclipse Oxygen“). Up to the point that I can pack it into a .zip file and pass it around e.g. in a class room environment, so no installer at all is needed with the exception of the debug probe USB drivers. As Eclipse is using a Java Virtual Machine (VM), it is a good idea to bundle the VM with the IDE, and this article is about how to do this.

Eclipse Oxygen running with its own Java Virtual Machine

Eclipse Oxygen running with its own Java Virtual Machine

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Getting Control over a 50 Watt CO2 Laser Cutter from China

There are people around me who think I’m crazy. And they are probably right. Who else would buy a machine from someone he does not know. I have to pay upfront. It is not clear how things will get delivered, what gets delivered, or if it gets delivered at all. Up to the point I can lose the money I have spent. Best of all: that machine is dangerous enough to potentially kill me. And it has the potential to put my home on fire too. Well, that sounds like an exciting weekend project, or not?

Weekend Box

60 kg Weekend Project Box arrived on the front door

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Adding CMSIS-SVD Files to EmbSysRegView 0.2.6.r192 and Eclipse

In “EmbSysRegView 0.2.6 for Eclipse Neon and Oxygen” I have described how to add CMSIS-SVD register detail files to Eclipse using the EmbSysRegView plugin.

But what I need to add vendor or any other SVD files to it? Here is how:

EmbSys Registers View

EmbSys Registers View

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Building Eclipse and MCUXpresso IDE Projects from the Command Line

Eclipse as IDE takes care about compiling and building all my source files. But in an automated build system I would like to build it from the command line too. While using make files (see “Tutorial: Makefile Projects with Eclipse“) is an option, there is another easy way to build Eclipse projects from the command line:

Building MCUXpresso IDE from Command Line

Building MCUXpresso IDE from Command Line

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Oeschinen Lake

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This hike has been on my ‘must-hike’ list since last summer, and when I saw UrÅ¡ka writing about recently, it got definitely on my top list of things. The Oeschinen Lake (German: Oeschinensee) is a beautiful lake in the Bernese Overland, Switzerland, east of Kandersteg, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site:

Öschinensee from Heuberge

Oeschinensee view from Heuberg

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Breathing with Oxygen: DIY ARM Cortex-M C/C++ IDE and Toolchain with Eclipse Oxygen

Last month (June 2017), the latest version of Eclipse “Oxygen” has been released, and I have successfully used it in several embedded projects. Time to write a tutorial how to use it to build a custom Do-It-Yourself IDE for ARM Cortex-M development: simple, easy, unlimited and free of charge. While the DIY approach takes a few minutes more to install, it has the advantage that I have full control and I actually know what I have.

Eclipse Oxygen

Eclipse Oxygen

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Custom 3D Printed Enclosure for NXP LPC-Link2 Debug Probes

I love 3D printing as it enables me to create custom enclosures for all kind of projects. The NXP LPC-Link2 probe is great, but it lacks a protective enclosure. So I decided to create a custom enclosure. And as 3D filaments are available in different colors, I experimented with red and black and custom painting:

lpc-link2 enclosure

lpc-link2 enclosure

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