At conferences and shows like the Embedded World in Nürnberg it is not only about gathering the trends of the industry: it is as well about collecting all the goodies handed out to the attendees. I’m less interested in things like pens or the like: what I love most are microcontroller on a board I can use :-). This year STMicroelectronics, Atmel and Cypress all had boards to distribute ‘like candies’ 🙂
Goodies from Embedded World
As mentioned in Part 9: There is a new GNU ARM Eclipse plugin 2.1.1, and this one makes project creation for Freescale devices easier than ever 🙂
GNU ARM Eclipse 2.1.1
University research projects can be a lot fun, and are very challenging the same time. The good thing is that there is always someting new to learn :-).
This week-end I was working on my Internet of Things (IoT) project, based on a Freescale KL15Z and a nRF24L01+ transceiver. In essence it is a wireless data logger. For this, I only can afford a few micro amps consumed by the whole board over an extended period of time. I mean 21 micro amps for running a whole board with sensor, EEPROM, wireless transceiver, operating system and an ARM Cortex-M0+ ready to crunch numbers at 20 MHz 🙂
21 micro amps for wireless sensor node (when not sending)
This is Part 3 of an ongoing tutorial to use the Arduino Ethernet Shield R3 with a Freescale FRDM-KL25Z board (or any other board you like).
In Part 1 I worked on the SD card, in Part 2 I have added basic network connection. Now time to run a web server with my FRDM-KL25Z :-). With this, I can get access to my board through the network, and the board will host a web page where I can do pretty much everything: showing status, or adding functions to turn on things like an LED 🙂
Web Server with W5100 on FRDM-KL25Z
Finally my Freescale TWR-K21F120M board arrived 🙂
TWR-K21F120M on the bench
For the next generation of INTRO Zumo robots I’m evaluating a new ‘brain’: more processing power, more FLASH, more RAM, more of everything 😉
I have I project which I want to debug on multiple boards the same time. So how can I download and debug the same application to multiple boards/processors, and debug them all the same time from within the same workspace and Eclipse IDE?
This is a typical scenario I have with my RNet stack: the same application runs on multiple boards, and I want to debug all the boards with the same project with the same Eclipse. For example to wireless sensor nodes with the RNet nRF24L01+ stack as in the picture below:
Two FRDM-KL25Z with nRF24L01+ Transceivers
In Part 1 of this series I have covered the SD card on the Arduino Ethernet shield. In Part 2 I’m hooking up the board to the network and will be able to ping it 🙂
Arduino Ethernet Shield with FRDM-KL25Z
Sometimes it takes a very long time to realize a project. Adding the Arduino Ethernet Shield R3 to one of my Freescale FRDM boards is one of it: it took me a year until I have found a few days to work on using the Ethernet Shield with my FRDM-KL25Z.
FRDM-KL25Z with Ethernet Shield
I have not everything in place yet, so I decided to publish things in parts. So this is about part one: using the Micro SD Card on the Shield.
Character based LCD displays are great: they are inexpensive, and it is rather simple to use them compared to graphical displays. Yes, they only can display text and custom symbols, but this is usually what I need. And pretty much all character displays are using the Hitachi HD44780 protocol, so it is a de-facto industry standard.
HD44780 compatible Dual Line Character Display
These displays have one big disadvantage: they need to be compatible with the original Hitachi interface and protocol. First display were mostly one line only, and had only few characters, typically up to 16. The protocol worked either with one or two lines on the display. Today’s display have usually two lines, with 16 characters. But what if I need more?
4-Line LCD (Source: Daniela Solorzano)
I probably would have missed the fact that Freescale has released a new Freedom board, if I would not have visited my local distributor site to order a replacement for one of my first FRDM-KL25Z boards. So surprise, surprise: there is a new Freedom board: the FRDM-KL26Z!
FRDM-KL26Z Board
So instead ordering again a FRDM-KL25Z, I decided to order that new FRDM-KL26Z instead. And it arrived right before Christmas, and now I had time to check it out. Nope, I did *not* use it as a blinking gadget on a Christmas tree, even if that would have been a nice idea ;-).
