With an abundance of RAM memory and the availability of floating point in the latest microcontrollers, there is little concern about minimizing memory for data storage and optimizing computation time. However, smaller microcontrollers have limited memory and no floating point, and it may become necessary to optimize the usage of memory. Accuracy and Precision Let’s …
The post discusses testing FreeRTOS on different microcontroller architectures: ATmega328P, ATmega4809, SAMD21, Renesas RA4M1, and ESP32-S3. It highlights architectural differences and challenges. Special attention is given to time slicing and the need for modifications in library codes for smooth operation across these models, emphasizing differences in scheduler functionality and usage.
The core of a Real Time Operating System (RTOS) is the task scheduler, allowing multiple tasks to share the processor by yielding when necessary. The post explores freeRTOS on 8-bit AVR microcontrollers in Arduino Uno R3, demonstrating tasks toggling pins and discussing time slicing, yielding, and the impact of removing or modifying vTaskDelay calls for efficient execution.
In this post we will go back to basics and look at using pushbuttons. This is the first device covered in my book Making Sense of 37 Sensors. A pushbutton or other switch is the simplest input device you can have in your microcontroller project, but it does have some pitfalls. Let’s look at a …
These boards are very recent and have some interesting features. From left to right they are the Nano ESP32 which is low cost yet powerful, the Uno R4 Minima which is the not really compatible successor to the Uno R3, and the Uno R4 WiFi shown here in the tray. Nano ESP32 This board uses …
Arduino has long used Atmel (now Microchip) 8-bit AVR architecture microcontrollers. The ATmega328P, ATmega32U4, and ATmega2560 have been discussed here. Arduino no longer is “in bed” with Microchip, but there are two other Microchip microcontrollers used in Arduino boards, the ATmega4809 and the SAMD21. Both of these are favorites of mine. ATmega4809 The ATmega4809 is …
There are some Arduino boards that have microcontrollers only used in one board. While the Arduino Framework, the library of functions, attempts to keep all boards compatible, at the lowest level there are differences. These boards because of their unique microcontrollers will generally have the lowest compatibility and potentially the most problems in their use. …
The Arduino website lists 27 different board models, with 5 currently marked as “sold out”. We will assume for these articles that the ones that are sold out will return. Of the 27, three use the very old, but not quite original for Arduino, ATmega328P microcontroller.. Two of these are the still popular, and widely …
This post is completely off topic. I’m getting fed up with email and telephone SPAM. I just want to point out a couple things I’ve done recently that have gotten rid of most of my current SPAM. First I get 10-20 spam emails a day on one account, my Gmail account. Here are my most …
One of the features of most microcontrollers is that they allow easy access to connected peripherals like sensors and actuators. This allows fast, accurate, and inexpensive operation. However some recent Arduino boards use microcontrollers that obfuscate the underlying hardware interfaces. A look into the Arduino Library for these parts show that they are calling vendor …