DIY Portable Video Conference, Sharing and Teaching Device

COVID-19 is by far not over, and in Switzerland the infection rate is going up again (2nd wave?). During the spring 2020 semester university lock-down we moved pretty much everything to a ‘distance learning’ setup. With that experience and with the request to prepare for the fall semester, I have constructed a DIY conference and teaching device which should make things simpler and easier: a combination of video camera, speaker phone and a muting device:

Desk with Communicator

Desk with Communicator C2020

Continue reading

MCUXpresso IDE V11.2.0

At the university the end of a semester means that you have to get ready for the next semester. I always tend to use the latest and greatest tools for the labs. This week I received the notification that a new version of the Eclipse based MCUXpresso IDE is available, time to check it out for the next semester.

MCUXpresso IDE 11.2.0

MCUXpresso IDE 11.2.0

Continue reading

Eclipse Gems, Tips & Tricks: Faster Debugger Start

This article is part of a ‘mini series’ about hidden gems, tips and tricks around Eclipse.
The topic of this one is how to accelerate the start of the debugger.

Nothing to be done

Nothing to be done

Continue reading

Using eInk display with LPC55S69 and OKdo E1 board

I have continued to explore my two hobbies (embedded systems, and Talking About The Weather) during these weeks of lock-down. I have finally got to the point that my Weather Station project can sit on the window shelf of my office, and show me the temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure on the attached eInk display.

weather station project: it is warm, cloudy and low pressure outside

In this blog I’m going to focus on driving that display.

Continue reading

From C to C++: Converting Eclipse C Projects

Creating a new project with Eclipse for a microcontroller these days is fairly easy, and I have the choice if I want to start the project with C or C++:

Choice of C and C++ for a new project

Still the embedded microcontroller world is dominated by C and not C++. So while it is easy to start with a C++ project, most vendor provided example or tutorial project are C projects. So how can I transform such project to C++?

Continue reading