-August 2009-
-Beginning Mixed-Signal SoC Design using Traditional
-Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar, Vol. VII
Business Development 101
By Sean Donnelly, Publisher—Circuit Cellar
I received an interesting request the other day from a professor applying to Circuit Cellar’s college program. Our college program is set up to help professors of relevant electronics and computer science courses share Circuit Cellar in the classroom. However, this particular professor was teaching Business and Economic Development courses. Lesson plans were being scheduled around the anticipated receipt of the first copies of Circuit Cellar next week. Wait… Circuit Cellar lesson plans that didn’t involve a soldering iron? I needed to know more.
As it turns out, Circuit Cellar is considered to be a great venue for the study of real-world business applications. Let’s just say that our geeky readership has a tendency to contribute to entrepreneurial endeavors at a rate that outpaces the norm. The fact that a great embedded project can lead to a contributed article, which can lead to a business launch (and subsequent magazine advertising) means that Circuit Cellar is a proven self-contained, self-supporting habitat for technology business development. Just add the key ingredients, shake well with an international readership, and out pops a new company that (we hope) contributes to the ongoing development cycle found in Circuit Cellar.
As I write this, I also have my Outlook window open while I correspond with an entrepreneur in India. He’s mulling over kit manufacturing based on Circuit Cellar project articles. 2:00 EDT here means it’s pretty darn late in India right now. But he’s running on adrenaline as he fine tunes his Circuit Cellar endeavor. Unbeknownst to him, a week earlier his rival in China already started the same discussion. Circuit Cellar is simply a hotbed for business opportunities, and the results will play out at some point in the magazine. The Business and Economic Development class that’s now a part of our College Program will surely take note.
There’s plenty of behind the scenes evidence of the Circuit Cellar technology business development habitat in action. Take for instance the Circuit Cellar advertiser who decided to offer a job to one of our Atmel design contest winners. The ensuing partnership in the words of the advertiser ‘probably brought in a million or so dollars in revenue’ from that contest-related product alone.
What embedded project ideas do you have that may also become your next source of income? Have you considered accelerating your plan to attract investors or start selling products now by writing about your ideas in a clever application article? Or, if your business is already launched, consider that Circuit Cellar readers are also Circuit Cellar authors. They have a tendency to be early adopters of technology they see advertised in Circuit Cellar. The products they use often end up in their Circuit Cellar article submissions. It may be a bit self-serving to suggest it here, but since the Circuit Cellar business development cycle benefits readers as well, I would suggest that you keep Circuit Cellar advertising opportunities in mind as you formulate ways to become your own boss. The world is watching. And you’re calling the shots.
-Download Circuit Cellar Media Kit-
Beginning Mixed-Signal SoC Design using Traditional
Development Techniques – Part III
By Oliver H. Bailey
Last month we added a status LED and button debounce routine. We'll conclude by adding a digital input and parsing the input pin then displaying a value on an LCD based on the input pin state. This project will resume from where last month's project left off so it is important that you read the first and second installments first or the information in this article will not make sense or be useful.
-Download Part III-
-Download Part II-
-Download Part I-
Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar, Volume VII
Here is your opportunity to enjoy the latest posted “reprint” from Steve Ciarcia’s book series. Click on the book cover to start reading now or click here.
“The projects in this book run the gamut from the simple to the
complex. There are projects for development systems, human brainwave
monitoring, video digitizing, and multitasking process control. The final
Circuit Cellar project is a tutorial on multiprocessor computers that show you
how to build your own 64-processor computer for generating Mandelbrot sets. As
always, these projects have been built and tested so that you can build and use
them with confidence.”
Stellaris® LM3S9B92 Ethernet+USB-OTG Evaluation Kit
The
Stellaris® LM3S9B92 Ethernet+USB-OTG Evaluation Kit provides a low-cost
evaluation platform for the LM3S9B90 ARM® Cortex™-M3-based microcontroller. The
kit includes two boards: the EK-LM3S9B92 evaluation board and an In-Circuit
Debug Interface (ICDI) board. The evaluation board features a simple,
streamlined design for 32-bit Stellaris-based application with industrial
connectivity, highlighting the Stellaris LM3S9B92 microcontroller’s
simultaneous integrated 10/100 Ethernet MAC/PHY, full-speed USB-OTG interfaces,
and convenient connection to the MCU's GPIO ports.
More Info Link: http://www.ti.com/stellaris
EQ Interactive
Problem:
What
does the following digital circuit do? The Counter box is a binary up-counter
with synchronous clear, and the Register boxes are D-type registers with
clock-enable inputs.
Think You Have a Great EQ Challenge of Your Own?
E-mail your best EQ question and answer to eq@circuitcellar.com
for a chance to be recognized by Circuit Cellar as an EQ guru.
Solution: The two
flip-flops and two AND gates detect edges on the input signal synchronized to
the input clock. On the rising edge, the counter value is captured in the upper
latch and the counter is reset, so X represents the period of the input signal.
On the falling edge, the counter value is captured in the lower latch, so Y
represents the high time of the input signal and Y/X represents its duty cycle.
ESC Boston - September 21-24,
2009 - Hynes Convention Center - Boston, MA
LEARN TODAY. DESIGN TOMORROW. If you are an engineer involved in designing and developing embedded systems, you can’t afford not to attend ESC. The conference is your chance to learn about design techniques and best practices from the leading experts in the industry.
Register today and
save using priority code N120.
Article Sneak Peek
Here are a few of the
articles we’re working on for upcoming issues of Circuit Cellar. If you have an
article proposal of your own, please take a look at our author’s guide.
http://www.circuitcellar.com/submissions/authorguide.html
Frequency Sensing Made Simple
Power Grid Frequency
Monitor Design
This power frequency monitor indicates the relative stability of the
power grid. Built around a microcontroller, a precision crystal oscillator, an
op-amp, and various passive components, the design measures power grid
frequency via a standard electrical outlet. It then sends the data to a PC,
displays the information, and relays it to a web server for real-time
monitoring.
IR Signal Control
Do you want offsite control of your electronic equipment? With this
handy IR signal controller design, you can remotely operate the system of your
choice right from your cell phone. In this article, the innovative design is
used to control an AC system.
Digitally Controlled Amplifier
The dsPIC30F2023-controlled MiniTron is a high-end vacuum tube stereo
amplifier with distortion control, power output, and more. The fully functional
amplifier successfully blends its unique circuitry and specialized processing
software to precisely match the radically different worlds of high-voltage
analog and low-voltage microcontrollers.
Multirate Techniques and CIC filters
Cascaded integrator-comb (CIC) filters are simple moving average filters
that enable you to tackle difficult signal-processing problems. With these
filters and some helpful multirate signal-processing techniques, you have
another option when a FIR filter doesn’t fit the bill.
Capacitor ESR Measurement
Most commonly available bench-top tools don’t measure equivalent series
resistance (ESR). Inspired by the design of a classic pure-analog ESR meter that he
came across on the ’Net, Circuit Cellar columnist Ed Nisley recently built an
analog front end for an MCU that measures ESR. This article details the design
process and math associated with the project.
Air Flow Analysis
Circuit Cellar columnist Jeff Bachiochi recently developed a way to
measure airflow in an air duct. The project involved deconstructing a small CPU
fan, calculating the RPMs and velocity, putting together a quick circuit to
output data to an LCD, and more. In this article he explains the process from
start to finish.
Thumbs Up
The ARM Saga Continues
It’s been more than two decades since Acorn Computers introduced its
RISC CPU. The saga continues. Circuit Cellar columnist Tom Cantrell presents
the latest chapter in the ARM story, the ARM Cortex-M0 core.
Buddy Memory Manager
When memory matters but you don’t have the proper support for dynamic
memory management, you may find the Buddy Memory principle to be the perfect
solution. Circuit Cellar presents a useful memory management library based on
the Buddy Memory principle. The article describes the principle, the library,
and prepares you for putting the library to good use.
Precision By Encoder
A Precision Linear Encoder
Display
Linear encoders are essential parts in many industrial automation
applications. Here you learn how to mount an optical linear encoder to a metal
lathe used to create small precision parts. A few affordable parts and some C
code enable you to transmit vital displacement and speed data to an LCD.
Energize a Circuit
An Innovative Switched-Mode
Power Supply Design
Energy control is an essential aspect of many electronic applications.
If you build your own a switched-mode power supply (SMPS), you can regulate a
design’s current to meet your specific project goals needs. Here’s how.
How to Repurpose a Development Platform
With some knowhow and little bit of creativity, you can pop open an HP
financial calculator and use its electronics to develop a variety of
special-purpose applications. This article covers how to use the calculator’s
electronics as a development platform. Once open, you have easy access to a
serial or RS-232 port, eight GPIO lines, four ADC channels, and the JTAG programming
interface of a 36-MHz ARM-based SoC.
Inexpensive Vehicle Locator
Create an Embedded
Linux-Based Controller
You can build a vehicle location device without breaking the bank. This
article details how to use a few readily available parts—an ARM-based USB
network storage link (NAS), a prepaid GSM cell phone, and a USB-GPS device—to
build an easy-to-configure location system.
Passing Parameters
The Basics of Passing Parameters and Design Partitioning
How do you partition a design problem into manageable modules? With this
article, you’ll learn why it’s smart to pass parameters in the first place, and
then find out how to pass parameters and receive results with the C language.
Managed Devices and SNMP
A Simple Network Management
Protocol
The simple network management protocol (SNMP) enables you to monitor a
network’s activity and stock data units in a management information base (MIB).
Today, many embedded microcontroller manufacturers provide SNMP support in
their TCP/stack offering. You can use this technology to build an MCU-based
managed device that monitors multiple networked modules and logs critical data.
Power Pitcher
Wireless Power on a
Microelectronic Scale
Nikola Tesla’s dream of a wireless power utility has come to fruition. Wireless
power delivery is the result of the convergence of three important
technologies: embedded wireless, low-power silicon, and energy harvesting. It’s
time for you to incorporate it in your new designs.
Measuring Propagation Delay
with a Universal Counter
Have you lost interest in universal counters? It’s time to reexamine
their use value in comparison to more expensive oscilloscopes. This article
details how a counter makes a signal path delay measurement, the level of
precision possible with a counter, and more. You’ll also learn to identify
error a measurement setup and eliminate it.
Low-Distortion FSK Generation
This article demonstrates means to generate FSK modulation with
low-distortion and low-transition phase error. You can use a PSoC digital and
analog block features and zero run-time software to achieve this goal.
PCB WEST 2009 two-day exhibition--the premier event for
the design community--is coming September 15 - 16 to the Santa Clara (CA)
Marriott. Registration for this FREE event includes vendor
presentations, technical sessions and networking opportunities, plus lunch on
the show floor and a Tuesday evening reception. www.pcbwest.com
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