January 2010
Table of Contents
i. |
INDUSTRY
NEWS: MaxStream Founders Give Engineers a Way to Market Wireless Sensors |
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i. INDUSTRY NEWS: MaxStream Founders Give Engineers a Way to Market Wireless Sensors
Midvale, Utah – Two former founders of MaxStream Inc, the leading embedded wireless networking company acquired by Digi International in 2006, are taking a unique approach to bringing wireless sensor products to market. Brad Walters and Nick Mecham have partnered at Monnit Corporation to invite engineers desiring to introduce wireless sensors to collaborate with them through a web-based program called “Submit your Sensors.”
This initiative provides deep marketing resources to engineers who have viable low-cost sensor technology ready for introduction to the market.
“During our time at MaxStream, we were approached by many of our wireless customers requesting sensor technology - but that wasn’t our business at the time,” said Brad Walters, Monnit’s CEO. “While selling our wireless technology, we met with many creators of custom sensors that had never considered expanding their offering beyond their niche market focus. As we launch Monnit, our intent with ‘Submit Your Sensors’ is to do just that - invite engineers who have developed unique sensor technology to allow us to review and potentially sell their wireless sensor technology to a larger audience through us and our growing networks.”
The “Submit Your Sensors” website is a portal for design engineers to present their sensors for review by answering a few questions. If the wireless sensor technology seems to fit the Monnit plan, they will be contacted to further discuss working together towards an agreement.
Nick Mecham, Executive Vice President at Monnit added, “We want to give entrepreneurial engineers with solid wireless sensor technology the chance to join us at the table and generate income from their inventions.”
About Monnit, Corp. and “Submit Your Sensors”
“Submit Your Sensors” is a website developed by the team at Monnit, Corp. Monnit is focused on the design, manufacture and marketing of low cost, wireless sensor solutions directed at the commercial and industrial markets. The company leverages their extensive knowledge of proprietary and standards based mesh networking (IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee), industrial manufacturing, marketing and selling to their target markets.
For more information, visit www.submityoursensor.com, or contact Monnit’s Sensors Marketing Team at +1(801) 660-2290.
Contact: Brad Walters
(801)660-2290
info@submityoursensor.com
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ii. CONTEST NEWS: Circuit Cellar and Texas Instruments Announce DesignStellaris Contest 2010
Texas Instruments and Circuit Cellar invite you to compete against other top embedded engineers around the world in the Texas Instruments DesignStellaris 2010 Design Contest! The sky is the limit when you’re designing with an ARM-based Texas Instruments Stellaris microcontroller featuring the SafeRTOS real-time kernel integrated into on-chip ROM. By entering a project you could win a share of $10,000 in cash prizes and recognition in Circuit Cellar magazine!
Texas Instruments has generously supplied everything you need to get started! The Stellaris EKK-LM3S9B96 Evaluation Kit includes: an evaluation board with an 80-MHz LM3S9B96 MCU featuring Ethernet MAC+PHY, CAN, USB OTG, and SafeRTOS in ROM; a time-limited copy of the Keil RealView Microcontroller Development Kit, cables, documentation, and StellarisWare software.
So how do you get started?
1) To learn more, visit: http://www.circuitcellar.com/designstellaris2010/index.html
2) Request your complimentary sample kit here: SAMPLE REQUEST FORM LINK
Because Circuit Cellar’s primary role is publishing a print magazine about hands-on embedded systems projects, every DesignStellaris 2010 contest entrant is viewed as a potential author. Industry leaders pay attention to these contests. We’re proud to report that a considerable number of past contest entrants say that the publicity from their participation benefited both their careers and manufacturing ambitions.
How far will your design take you?
iii. FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK: Get Published, Get Paid!
Time is short, life is short. So, when you aren’t on the job, what are you doing with your down time? More and more engineers are using their engineering skills to make money outside of their 9-to-5 work environments. Are you? If not, you’re missing a great opportunity.
Circuit Cellar can help you get published and get paid!
Are you interested in publishing an article in the world’s most well-known magazine about embedded designs and computer applications? Starting the process is easy. The Editorial Department is here to make your publishing goals a reality!
You have options. Email us either an article proposal or a finished article today!
OPTION 1: SUBMIT AN ARTICLE PROPOSAL FOR REWIEW
If you have an idea for an article but haven’t started writing it yet, email us
an article proposal. E-mail your proposal to editor@circuitcellar.com. Include
“Article Proposal” in the subject line of your e-mail. Your proposal should
include the following information:
• A detailed
description (several paragraphs) about what you intend to cover in the article
• A parts list and any photos or diagrams that will help our staff understand
what you want to write about. (If you want to write an article that isn’t about
a project featuring specific parts, then include whatever info you think will
help our staff editors and engineers understand what you will be writing
about.)
• Information about when you plan to complete the article if we show interest
in your proposal
Once we receive your proposal, we will review it and let you know if we are interested in seeing a finished article. The review process can take up to 2 weeks.
OPTION 2: SUBMIT A FINISHED ARTICLE FOR REVIEW
E-mail your finished
article to editor@circuitcellar.com.
Include “Finished Article” in the subject line of your e-mail. Your finished article
submission must include the following:
• Article text
(Should be approximately 2500 to 3500 words. Send article text as a .DOC or
.TXT file)
• Art files (e.g., figures, photos, schematics, tables, and listings). Submit
your art as separate files. Photos should be approx 300 dpi and sent as TIF,
GIF, JPG, or BMP. Each article may include no more than 10 pieces of art.
• Captions for each piece of art
• Your name, mailing address, and e-mail address
• Parts list (main components)
• If you are writing about a specific project or design, you must include a
block diagram and schematic that shows the connections between your project’s
main components
• Code files for the project
• A short 3- or 4-sentence bio. Tell us about yourself. Include info such as
your current occupation, educational background, and tech interests.
Once you submit your finished article, we will review it and then let you know if we are interested in publishing it. The review process can take a few weeks.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Regards,
C. J. Abate
Managing Editor
Circuit Cellar
iv. 2009 ARCHIVE CDs: Arriving Soon!
Need a little extra space on your workbench? Has Circuit Cellar Magazine taken over your workspace? Is your significant other threatening to leave if you don’t, “Do something with those bloody magazines!?” Never fear, Circuit Cellar’s 2009 Archive CD is on its way! By signing up, you will receive 12 complete issues, plus all of the Digital Plus bonus articles, for just $24.95.
Need to go back a little further? How ‘bout, WAY back? Then you should order all 14 of Circuit Cellar’s Archive CDs, with thousands of the best Circuit Cellar articles, for just $199. That’s like getting an entire year of Circuit Cellar absolutely free!
Email Debbie Lavoie in Circuit Cellar’s Customer Service Department and make sure you’re first in line! Debbie@circuitcellar.com
v. CONTEST NEWS: WIZnet 2010 iMCU Design Contest Update
WIZnet wants to hear from you. There are many reasons why a company may choose to sponsor a design contest. Companies like WIZnet understand that one of the major benefits is access to people with invaluable insight—people like you. This is why it’s a great idea to register for WIZnet’s discussion forums. Not only will you be able to see what your peers are doing with WIZnet iMCU, your forum entries will also be read by some very important and responsive team members at WIZnet. Know that your comments, questions, and input has a tremendous impact on the decisions of tomorrow that affect all designers interested in embedded Ethernet.
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vi. CIRCUIT CELLAR INTERVIEW: Enoch Hwang
Editor’s note: Enoch Hwang (Ph.D.) lives in Riverside, California, which is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. He is a professor of computer science at La Sierra University. Enoch’s interests include embedded microprocessor systems, digital technology, microprocessor design, automation, and robotics. Circuit Cellar has published three of his articles: “Where's the Hardware?” (Circuit Cellar 150, 2003); “Build a VGA Monitor Controller” (Circuit Cellar 172, 2004); and “Master Control: Implement an I2C Master Bus Controller in an FPGA” (Circuit Cellar 228, 2009).
CIRCUIT CELLAR: How long have you been a professor at La Sierra University?
ENOCH: I came to the U.S. and to La Sierra University in 1988 as an Assistant Professor and Director of the computer center. La Sierra University—once part of Loma Linda University which is known in the U.S. for its medical school—is a private institution associated with the Seventh-day Adventist church. I left the University for several years to pursue my Ph.D. degree, which I finished in 1999. After my graduation, I went back to work at the University and have since then been promoted to full professor. For seven years during this period, I was also a lecturer at the University of California at Riverside, teaching their digital logic and microprocessor design courses for both the Computer Science department and the Electrical Engineering department.
CIRCUIT CELLAR: Tell us about the courses you teach and any research projects you are working on.
ENOCH: I have been teaching college-level computer courses at three different colleges and universities for almost a quarter of a century, so I have basically taught all of the major areas of computer science. Although my degree is in computer science, my projects cross into the realms of electrical engineering. My interests are in the design of microprocessors and controllers for automation. My years of teaching digital and microprocessor design culminated in the publishing of my book, Digital Logic and Microprocessor Design with VHDL (Thomson 2006), in 2006.
CIRCUIT CELLAR: Prior to taking a position at La Sierra University, were you a student or were you in industry?
ENOCH: Before I came to La Sierra University, I was also teaching at another college in Hong Kong. I have not really worked in the industry except for being the director of the computer center at La Sierra University. Currently, I am also a project consultant for B&K Precision Corp. headquartered in Southern California.
CIRCUIT CELLAR: How long have you been reading Circuit Cellar?
ENOCH: I am glad you asked this question because it brings back a lot of good old memories. Searching through my archives in the garage, I found several articles by Steve Ciarcia. Among them are: “Everyone Can Know the Real Time” (May 1982), “Living in a Sensible Environment – A Collection of Alarm and Environmental Monitoring Circuits” (July 1985), “Build the Touch-Tone Interactive Message System” (March 1985), and “Build the Home Run Control System” (May 1985). Back then, I never thought that one day I would be writing articles for Circuit Cellar, let alone being interviewed by you now.
As you can see, even then, I was only interested in automation. I have to say, though, the articles back then were really simple circuits compared to those in your articles today. The circuits were complete and I could go down to the local Radio Shack to buy the parts in most cases and actually build it. The circuits today have gotten so complex that it is almost impossible for a beginner hobbyist to build.
CIRCUIT CELLAR: How long have you been designing MCU-based systems?
ENOCH: The first CPU chip that I bought (in the 80’s) was an 8085, intended for controlling a robot, but I didn’t know exactly how to put everything together then, so I never got that to work. A few years later, I switched to the z80, and this time with a little bit more knowledge, I was able to get a full computer system to work with RAM, EPROM, lights, and switches to work! This was in the mid-1980s.
CIRCUIT CELLAR: What was your first MCU-based design?
ENOCH: This little z80 system that I got to work was “my baby” for many years. I designed and built the whole system, hardware and software, completely on my own. In addition to the RAM, EPROM and switches, it has eight seven-segment LEDs, a real-time clock, a sound generator, and a RS-232 serial connection. I wrote the entire OS on my own and programmed it onto the EPROM. I couldn’t afford to buy a “real” EPROM programmer then, so I literally fried (saw bright sparks coming out through the window) many EPROM chips before I finally was able to program them.
The OS allows me to directly program the computer with simple commands like change memory content, change register content, single step, break point, execute, etc. In addition, I was able to write assembly program on the PC, and then download it to the z80 board via the RS-232 connection. But what’s the use of this thing after you get tire of writing programs? Well, with the real-time clock and the sound generator, I got it to be a digital clock, but not just a normal digital clock, because I have a table of special dates incorporated in the OS so that when it is my birthday, it would play the Happy Birthday song using the sound generator once every hour for that whole day and will print out the message “Happy Birthday Enoch” on the LEDs. Every quarter hour, it would chime the Westminster Chimes. In December, it would play different Christmas songs and display Christmas messages several times a day, and the closer it gets to Christmas, the more frequent it will do it, until after awhile, it gets really annoying. The finale is New Years Eve, when it will not only play “Auld Lang Syne,” but also have simulated fireworks firing out.
The actual building of the board has gone through many revisions. I started out with wire-wrapping them. In the last and final version, I manually drew the trace, manually etched the board, and drilled the holes—all by myself. After almost two decades, I still have several of them running today 24/7 at home and at my office. How’s that for satisfaction, performance, and quality?
CIRCUIT CELLAR: The common theme in your Circuit Cellar 172 and Circuit Cellar 228 articles is “control.” In the former article you describe a VGA Monitor Controller. In the latter you describe a master bus controller. Is control technology one of your main areas of interest, or did these projects simply come about out of necessity?
ENOCH: Since my childhood days, I have always wanted to be able to control my environment. Today, I have the know-how and the resources, so probably you can guess that my home has many automatic features.
CIRCUIT CELLAR: Tell us more about the VGA monitor controller. Why did you build it? Are you still using it?
ENOCH: To many designers, including myself for a long time, controlling the VGA monitor has always been thought of as being extremely difficult and complex. So, in that article, I wanted to dismiss that fear once and for all, and show that it is really very easy to get some simple things on the monitor.
CIRCUIT CELLAR: As you know, many of our readers are interested in FPGAs. Tell us why you implemented an I2C master bus controller in an FPGA.
ENOCH: Whether you use a breadboard, wire wrap, or solder your circuits, it is very tedious work. And after having experienced all that and the manual etching and hole drilling of my z80 board, I wasn’t about to do any more large circuits this way. Well, FPGAs saved my day because you can design and implement any digital circuit onto an FPGA without having to “get your hands dirty” by touching a single wire. You design your circuit by writing code on a computer. And when you download that code onto an FPGA, you will have actually implemented your circuit, and all that within a few minutes. I got so excited about this new technology that I had to write the article, “Where’s the Hardware?,” which appeared in Circuit Cellar 150 (January 2003).
CIRCUIT CELLAR: Do you have any FPGA-related projects on your to-do list?
ENOCH: At La Sierra University, I have been very privileged to be paid to do the things that I enjoy doing. Furthermore, thanks to Altera (a big name in FPGA technology), I’ve had free FPGA development boards for my research and for my students to use. So, basically, I have all the resources that I need for FPGA development for free.
One FPGA project that I did not too long ago was implementing a complete web server (including the web pages being served) on an FPGA. From your web browser, you can browse to this web server and make Kiki, the monkey, to play its drum! (Go to http://kiki.lasierra.edu/)
CIRCUIT CELLAR: As a professor, you get to see which technologies really excite students of embedded design and computer science. What are the hottest topics in the lab these days?
ENOCH: My students are all undergraduate students and they are just learning about the exciting world of digital electronics, and as such it doesn’t take much to get them excited. They will go “Wow!” just by seeing how easy and simple it is to implement even just an AND gate circuit on the FPGA, and see that the LED will turn on and off according to the truth table. As they progress in their studies, they get to actually design and implement their own real working microprocessor on an FPGA and see that it really can execute programs using their own instruction set. In my college days, I never would have dreamt of being able to design, let alone actually implement your very own real working microprocessor system!
vii. FLASHBACK: Module Control Without the Wires!
In a February 2009 article titled “Wireless Module Control: An MCU-Based Irrigation Control System” (Circuit Cellar 223), Tom Kibalo described a PIC-based prototype design for a wireless water control system.
The system features EarthBoxes, which are gardening boxes with water reservoirs and fertilizer strips for cultivating plants and vegetables. The scalable design can accommodate various multiple-box configurations.
Click here to read the full article.