Tag Archives: microcontroller

Autonomous Hexbug Spider

Posted on August 12, 2014 by Sergii Zhevzhyk

The  Hexbug Spider XL is an interesting toy – originally it comes as cheap remote-controlled robot, but at the same time it can be viewed as a cost efficient chassis to build an autonomous robot. There are two motors inside … Continue reading →

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Wireless Time-Triggered Communication using a Firefly Clock Synchronization Approach

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Wilfried Elmenreich

In South-East Asia, huge swarms of fireflies synchronously emit light flashes to attract mating partners. The underlying principle can be used to implement a robust and scalable distributed synchronization approach in wireless sensor networks. In this work we implement the … Continue reading →

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Efficiently detecting a frequency using a Goertzel filter

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Wilfried Elmenreich

The Goertzel algorithm detects a specific, predetermined frequency in a signal. This can be used to analyze a sound source for the presence of a particular tone. The algorithm is simpler than an FFT and therefore a candidate for small … Continue reading →

Posted in Embedded Software, Real-Time Networks | Tagged , , , , | 56 Comments

e-puck – toy or research platform?

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Wilfried Elmenreich

An e-puck is a small differential-wheeled robot. The openness of the design makes the e-puck especially interesting for academic use. The hardware and software is under an open source license which allows for modifictaion and redistribution of the design. Besides … Continue reading →

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An alternative UART that does not need special quartz frequencies

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Wilfried Elmenreich

A UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter) is a component that transmits chunks of data (typically character size, i.e. 7 or 8 bits) onto a serial communication line. Almost every microcontroller features at least one UART component, that can be configured to … Continue reading →

Posted in Embedded Software, Hardware, Real-Time Networks | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Evaluating the static and dynamic memory consumption for AVR microcontroller programs

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Wilfried Elmenreich

RAM memory is the most valuable resource on a microcontroller. For AVR8 MCUs, static memory can be assessed using the avr-size command. For dynamic memory consumption, the program mem_eval is presented. Continue reading →

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Microcontroller circuit board sparks fire

Posted on September 11, 2010 by Wilfried Elmenreich

Video showing a microcontroller that sparks fire because it was soldered too hot. Continue reading →

Posted in Hardware | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment