electrodesigns.net

Here is a little demo of about integrating an embedded SNMP agent with Mango M2M for data monitoring. Manago M2M is an open source SCADA which is very easy to use. I am using a board design based on PIC18F97J60 Ethernet microcontroller.

This demo assumes that you have some previous knowledge of Microchip TCP/IP stack and alarm monitoring in general.

• The first step is to install Mango M2M on your system using these instructions on Mango website. This installation is pretty straight forward but if you still need help, just contact me.
• Second is to install the latest Microchip TCPIP stack. I am using version 5.1 for this demo.
• Run the “TCPIP Config” utility and make sure that SNMP agent is enabled in your code.

Open Source Software vs Open Source Hardware

In the field of open source software, a community develops new program or makes addition to an existing program. Similarly, this type of approach is also used in open source hardware. But the difference between the open source software and hardware is that the development of software is free of cost, while in case of hardware, the physical developments are not easy and require some sort of investment.

Economic Advantages

• Open way of Product Development without Market Research: Open source hardware approach also helps to know about the customer’s needs and preferences without any market research. Consumers of specific product show their interest in a product and also indicate that what type of new product they want. For example their demands is 10 mega pixel cameras with zoom in and zoom out functions similarly Wi-Fi connectivity in a mobile etc. provides information about consumers demands and expectation about mobile devices. We have seen different innovative ideas through this channel. This type information and ideas enables companies in providing of best marketable products. This is also playing a vital role in products development. (continue reading…)

Alarm monitoring is a popular field where multiple network node, some times called agents, get information from attached sensors and transmit it onto the network where one or multiple servers called network monitoring system(s) (NMS) are listening to these alarms. The NMSs gather the info, calculate the statistics and present them in a way which is easily readable for human operators. The operators, then, are able to take quick decision based on these statistics.

This practice is very common in large networks where every single server, router or any other device typically keeps its own MIB (management information base) file and maintains it according to device condition. The device, other than doing it specific job, also send alarms which are typically called traps to the NMSs. However, the field has extended to general purpose small embedded devices as well for multiple applications like, power monitoring, environment and security to name a few.

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Here is a little tutorial to show how to add 4MB external SPI flash in Microchip TCP/IP stack. This is useful when you need more memory and want to keep some logging data locally. The microcontroller under consideration is PIC18F97J60 and the hardware is that of PICDEM.NEt2 Ethernet development kit. Here are five easy steps:

Step-1: Launch the Microchip TCP/IP configuration utility. Choose “Show Advanced Options”

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MECoB stands for Modular Embedded Control Board. It’s an initiative by Electrodesigns.Net to build a small, general purpose, configurable and flexible control board based on this idea. At this stage it is just an idea which may be discussed to get it matured. The idea, in brief, is to have a single carrier board with many IO boards/modules, stacked in a rack model over the carrier board and inter-connect them through a common and very simple interface bus like SPI or I2C. I am currently considering I2C because it is very simple, available in every microcontroller and does not need an additional signal like select pin as in SPI.

The MECoB may contain these modules:

1. Processor (PRO-MOD)
2. Power Supply (POW-MOD)
3. Digital Inputs (DIO-MOD) (continue reading…)

Digital should not remain a barrier for diyAudio beginners. Before the digital age, diyAudio was about designing a PCB and soldering through-hole components on it.
Nowadays, diyAudio encompasses digital. It requires designing a PCB hosting SMD (Surface Mounted Devices), and it requires creating a DSP (Digital Signal Processing) program. Those are the two new difficulties.
Ten years ago, most diyAudio enthusiasts would have failed building a digital audio system from scratch. The situation has changed. There are more and more hobbyists dealing with 32-bit microcontrollers. There are more and more hobbyists overcoming the SMD difficulty.

Here is a digital audio system built from scratch. Diptrace got used for drawing the schematic and converting it to a PCB.

The PIC32MX2 gets debugged and programmed using Microchip MPLAB ICD 3 ($189.99) . A simple experimental application would read the stereo audio entering the WM8731, apply some processing like filtering, equalizing, splitting, dynamic compression or expansion, then deliver the processed audio on the WM8731 stereo outputs. (continue reading…)

DipTrace remains free provided you don’t hit the 300 pin barrier. From a diyAudio perspective, what are the possibilities within such limit? Here are three different diyAudio boards as practical examples.
The first board hosts a PIC32MX2 coupled to a WM8731 stereo codec.
The second board is a SigmaStudio target, hosting the ADAU1701 the same way as Analog Devices EVAL-ADAU1701MINIZ.
The third board hosts a WM8580 multichannel codec delivering eight analog outputs.
The common denominator of all three boards is a 2×10 pin expansion connector allowing to stack them. A possibility is to stack PIC32MX2 acting as USB-audio device, grabbing digital audio from the PC, sending it over I2S to the ADAU1701 board. (continue reading…)

It’s always challenging for us to manage embedded projects when we have small resources. The key to do it is to choose what to do when and our experience is here to rescue us out of difficult situations. The procedure in this post is for typical microcontroller based projects with little to average complexity. This scheme assumes that you have at least some experience with such projects and you have at least one relevant hardware development kit or a previously designed hardware which has some features common with your new project. It’s not about soldering DIP-only components on veroboard rather its a professional way for relatively experienced designers. Off-course there may be better ways to execute such a project. You can suggest if you like.

• Designs your hardware: Normally we work on development kits. If you are using a reference design, which normally happens and is a standard practice now a days, try to design around it. In this way you are basically re-using the effort made by the vendor to bring up something working. It will save lots of development time. Adjust the hardware according to your special needs. This may be the schematic change, components packages change, or perhaps one or two extra peripherals addition. When you are done and satisfied with the hardware, send it to the PCB fab. The PCB fab takes its time. (continue reading…)

Things are moving fast. Want to build your own miniDSP? Operated within Analog Devices SigmaStudio Digital Audio Compiler? Try ordering the  ADAU1701 Carrierboard from Audiodesine. Quite surprising, the company presents itself as specializing in “Audio Design for an Analog World”.

Such statement doesn’t imply that Audiodesine people reject or ignore digital. How possible anyway, now that virtually all audio material get recorded, mixed and edited in digital?

“We love analog, but we do not hate DSP, though we do regret the fact that to get into DSP you seem to need SMD soldering skills and a lot of math”.

Audiodesine selected the ADAU1701 DSP because of SigmaStudio (from Analog Devices) requiring no programming. SigmaStudio allows you to drag and drop prebuilt blocks such as “State Variable Filter”. In a few minutes you have a circuit. (continue reading…)

From a diyAudio perspective, shall we experiment digital audio using established standards like Arduino shields and/or mikroE mikroBUS? Looks seductive on paper. Say you have Arduino CPUs lying around. Would be nice to try digital audio with them. Okay, let’s start designing an Arduino shield specialising in digital audio, possibly hosting a WM8731 audio codec or a WM8580 (WM8581) multichannel audio codec. Have you tried yet? Got the catch? You may switch to a PIC32MX5 carrierboard like mikroE MINI-32 ($25). Want more fun? Adding a TFT as GUI? Currently available are mikroE mikromedia modules  equipped with PIC32MX4 ($99), PIC32MX7 ($149), ARM LPC2148 ($99), STM32 M3 ($99), and STM32 M4 ($99).

Let’s reconsider from a fundamental utility perspective. Why those specifications indeed? The answer comes from MikroE. (continue reading…)