A Few Embedded Systems Tips for Beginners
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มิ.ย. 2024
- Patreon ➤ / jacobsorber
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A Few Embedded Systems Tips for Beginners // For programmers trying to get into embedded systems, this new area can be a bit intimidating. This video goes through a few tips for a more gentle ride, including book recommendations and advice on how to get over the initial feelings of intimidation.
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Welcome! I post videos that help you learn to program and become a more confident software developer. I cover beginner-to-advanced systems topics ranging from network programming, threads, processes, operating systems, embedded systems and others. My goal is to help you get under-the-hood and better understand how computers work and how you can use them to become stronger students and more capable professional developers.
About me: I'm a computer scientist, electrical engineer, researcher, and teacher. I specialize in embedded systems, mobile computing, sensor networks, and the Internet of Things. I teach systems and networking courses at Clemson University, where I also lead the PERSIST research lab.
More about me and what I do:
www.jacobsorber.com
people.cs.clemson.edu/~jsorber/
persist.cs.clemson.edu/
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![So You Want to Be an EMBEDDED SYSTEMS ENGINEER | Inside Embedded Systems [Ep. 5]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/m8w2FzqU5jg/mqdefault.jpg)
I would love to see more embedded systems content as well as projects :)
IOT is the future..
Pp
Currently just starting out with an STM32 Nucleo, trying to do some simple stuff. It's harsh when you don't have any embedded experience but it's pretty rewarding.
Biggest tip is to learn the toolchain. ARM gcc, CMake, OpenOCD and you are set up for majority of ARM chips.
I don’t have any ideas because I’m pretty new to this stuff, but any project that’s aimed at beginners and is easy to follow along to would be awesome! Tutorials on this stuff would be really appreciated as well :)
Ben eater has GREAT tutorials on breadboard computers. It is amazing. He sells the kits and do step by step guides. I learned sooooooo much
Hear hear! More embedded system content. I've been checking out this channel for about week, and I'm loving everything! I started out with Java about 15yrs ago and gradually worked my way down to x86 assembly on MASM with reasonable success. I'm finding the boundary between hardware and software to be the most interesting part of computing and electronics, and I'd love to see content on those topics (i.e. embedded systems, drivers, booting, firmware, etc...). I'm a hobbiest at this stuff to be sure, but this channel does a really good job of filling in some gaps and pointing me to new and useful things. Keep it up!!
I barely write in c and mostly follow game and webdev channels but still like to watch these. Very entertaining.
Glad you're enjoying the videos. Thanks for being here.
Self-taught embedded software engineer here who didn't have the CS or engineering degree. Learned everything I know from books and online resources. This is NOT a field I recommend if you're someone who just wants to make a quick buck or thinks you can work a few hours and clock in for the day. I genuinely love embedded systems, especially with microcontrollers. I learn more this stuff even outside of work because technology advances and so do microcontroller architectures. And let me tell you, it was not easy landing my job. A LOT of rejections. Of the few companies that were willing to interview me, most asked why I didn't get a relevant degree( my degree is in math). If you have the opportunity, definitely go through school first and get the degree. It is 100x easier. But even then, you won't know enough. A good embedded systems engineer knows both the electronics and software side.
which books and resources did you find most useful after you landed your first job?
@@Jaavv It really depends on what your work involves. Embedded systems is a very big field in terms of what type of work you can do. For me, the more practical stuff about programming microcontrollers was the most important
I really hope I enjoy this starting next semester being a computer engineering major has prepared me both on the hardware and software side so it’s just convenient for me also embedded systems seems so cool to me, and I can take like 6 classes on it before I graduate with most of them being project based
Yes! That book is really good, highly recommended for beginners. The amount of information packed there is priceless.
This is an awesome video man! I am getting worked by my embedded microprocessor systems design class!
The same textbooks I got recommended by our head EE during my Co-Op, great advice here :)
Project idea: A violin/guitar tuner. It should be a good way to demonstrate ADCs and DSP algorithms, as well as interfacing with sensors and LCDs. What do you think?
Great idea! I'll add it to the list. Thanks.
Great idea!
I'd really love to see something featuring sleep mode and battery management. There's a serious lack of these energy conversation ideas on the internet when it comes to embedded systems.
I might be able to work that in. I'll see what I can do.
I'm really looking forward to those project videos :)
Any particular project recommendations?
@@JacobSorber I liked your plant watering automation a lot, mine keep dying ;p Jokes aside, it sounds like a good project to cover a lot of interesting topics. I personally am right now working on my first embedded system, which goes further than a breadboard, trying to replicate the modern car blinker's running light with a Raspberry Pi Pico and a multiplexer. I find this a very cool project since it's practical and can even be pushed further to maybe implement it on a bicycle. Just talking from a systems engineering perspective, it's missing a sensor to dive into some feedback control. Anyways, just me thinking in out loud in the comment section :) Looking forward to what the others will suggest and I'm sure you'll make a great pick!
Im a CS student and my first project that I'm planning to do is a RFID master password. It will consist of having a read/write station where I can change the password on the RFID tag and then a small compact RFID reader with a USB-C connector that can be connected to a PC and when scanned will use keyboard inputs to write the code from the RFID tag to the PC. The reason for this project is that I use a password manager and it has a master password. Multiple times the password manager has asked me to change the master password and I do not have a system for making and remembering passwords. Also the master password is the biggest weakness as it would let anyone get access to all my passwords and even credit card information. With a randomized long and strong password on a RFID tag would be pretty secure and i would be able to change it on a whim without having to remember the new password or coming up with a good one.
Yeah, project from start to finish would be amazing
I have been following your videos for a few months now, and I find them really great. Do you already have a video about when we could say that we are ready to become an embedded system engineer? about what knowledge about this field do I need to become ready in getting my feet wet in the real world of embedded systems.
Jacob, you are just amazing!
Love from India 🇮🇳
Thanks. My best to India, as well. 😀
I just recently resigned from my software developer job and I’m going to spend a few months preparing for a new position in the embedded world, finger crossed :)
The first book you suggested went straight into my reading list. Another (popular?) choice is “Embedded Systems: Introduction to Arm Cortex-M Microcontrollers” from Valvano, but I still have to check it out.
Looking forward to the project! I personally like the plant waterer a lot: it’s something I would be proud to use and show, and, apart from the electronics, I guess it wouldn’t require many of us to go searching for special components.
Best of luck, and thanks for the recommendation.
During my university time studying electrical engineering, preciously in 18-5-2018, in this day I decided that I need to learn FPGA and embedded systems, I played with Arduino and PIC but I ended up loving FPGA, I start with level under zero maybe it was level -100 at that day, but I loved what I was doing, I remember doing my first VGA controller that only moves a box on the screen up down left and right and my mom saw that and said to me what do we benefit from this, this is useless, I told her just watch I am going to prove that you are wrong, I kept studying FPGA C C++ Verilog Assembly to this day, I work as a C++ computer graphics developer at company called SimLab Soft, but when I get home my FPGA time starts and the awaited fun time starts, this is when I knew I am in love with electronics and embedded systems, I tried to apply for FPGA jobs but no one accepted me till this day and I am not disappointed each time I got rejected I tell myself that I need to improve my skills more, I need to understand everything and do what I can to get a job in that field, I hope I will reach one day, I don't have enough money to continue master degree and my salary is not enough to achieve that or even close to get a master degree in embedded systems but I am happy with my DE1-SoC FPGA board and I do my best to learn everything in that field, Sir I always watch your videos and I wish that you were my professor at university, god bless you
Coming from more software but having taken a lot of circuit theory (but not enough projects to implement) I am trying to learn:
1. Software design/level of algorithms. So i've done HAL on an STM and register writing on a TI board but no bigger complex projects w/ stuff like continuous delivery, etc
2. Practice w/ each protocol. Experienced w/ UART, and a few but want to practice I2C, CAN ,SPI etc what I need to know
3. Implementing circuit theory, so far soldering skills are weak and building on prototype PCB boards w/ limited scope/power supply equipment has prevented some projects involving creating circuits like solar charger, I only know how to solve equations not design
I am on the same boat as you. I've fiddled with some protocols but not enough to say I'm experienced/expert level. I've done a bit of 8bit (Ave Assembly) mcu stuff and some MSP430 / TI higher level stuff (more C less Assembly) but still lacking knowledge in circuit design / ideas to make a project from start to finish
Great suggestion on the book “Practical Electronics for Inventors”. When recruiting candidates, I often recommend that they brush up on the first four chapters before they interview with us.
I really love your Videos 💚💚
I started learning c with your Videos and I was wondering if we can work with APIs in c?
Thanks! Are you asking if it's possible to work with APIs in C? (Definitely , yes!) Or, are you asking if I can do a video about APIs in C on this channel? If so, do you have a particular API in mind?
@@JacobSorber Thank you for the answer :)
I watched a guy on youtube how he programmed a trading bot in python and he used APIs for that and I wondered if that would be possible in c.
@@carsfan3124 Yes, you could do it in C. It might be more difficult. It depends on how the API works, but I might stick with python, and just run the python code from your c program. If it's an HTTP/REST-based API, you could also use LibCURL to make your job easier. But, yes, everything is possible in C, if you're willing to do it.
Looking forward to the project sir. It's maybe a bit abstract, but i would love to see a project with a very constrained memory requirement, or some rtos. But i think the main issue right now in embedded system is energy, i would love to see how you construct a project with energy consumption in mind. But whatever it is, i'm looking forward to it, thanks.
Thanks. I'll see what I can do. You can't do embedded systems very long before energy becomes an issue.
My guess for this video: read the datasheet of a smallish microcontroller, then read it again. Congratulations you are now more than qualified to start working as an embedded engineer?
The skill of being able to read a datasheet definitely seems undervalued in general!
i mean thats what I did and I work as an embedded software engineer now LOL. Self-taught though.
I have to thank you for giving me the motivation and will to continue learning embedded systems. I got caught up in the college work that I lost all the motivation to learn and spend time on anything else. I suddenly stumbled upon your channel and I'm so thankful for that. Great content, I absolutely love and enjoy every topic you covered!
Thanks! All the best with learning embedded systems. And, of course, let me know if there are any topics you think I'm missing.
I would love to see a project related to drones and RTOS.
Hi Jacob, what type of embedded processors do you have in mind? I just love embedded systems.
I'll probably stick with one that have laying around, so probably either an AVR or MSP430. I guess it depends on the project, though.
How about an embedded system for counting people? ;)
This is such an amazing channel btw! Love from Pittsburgh :)
Is that possible to generate interrupt after type overflow (after add or multiply) on any embedded target?
great video
Thanks!
Project Idea: basic operating system with Os-Application differentiation and maybe some syscalls?
@Jacob Sorber, would you mind going over tips on how to overcome frustration / lack of ideas / motivation that new beginners and those who would like to get into embedded face when all the jargon / info becomes overwhelming? I feel like with so much technology at our disposal, it's easy to fall into a rabbit hole and become antsy with all the details and just give up. I have been trying to get back into embedded programming but have come across overthinking where to begin again (should I do 8 bit mcu, some MSP430 dev board, PIC, C or Assembly, HAL or no HAL, what protocols to use, interrupts, etc. Maybe tips on how to come up with a solid game plan / design instead of just trying to jump into software right away. Thank you 🙂 🤙🤙🤙
I'd love to see a smart lock project,
#suggestion let's build some embedded software on top of Ben Eater's 6205 computer.
Lol, I literally just got throwing together a PCB in EasyEDA in about ten minutes. I glanced over and said, “Meh, looks right”, and hit the JLCPCB button. For $4, I can afford to be wrong a few times.
PLS PLS PLS a project series (maybe livestreams?) is what the tutorial world needs
Yes it will be really amazing
A project using tiva C pls ,especially using QEI n encoders, etc!!!!
Universal remote would be a cool project to learn embedded systems
Definitely. I haven't looked into how they work, but...yeah. Thanks for the project idea.
I started making project for poultry farm in order to keep count of the chickens and food level but could not finish it.. 😐
❤️ from India
V.U meter ,... Mic,-> amp ->A/D , write to memory , loop read samples , ,get avg , connect to lcd via spi/i2c draw ■■■■.
Kids would love it.
I am genuinely curious to see what platform you choose, saying embedded systems is like saying plane, a paper plane, an rc plane and a fighter jet are all planes :). I started from assembly so I assume you may want to have CS people start from something like python on a raspberry pi and work their way down. I am curious to see which way is better. I personally think that knowing how the chip works is the best investment, but i get it that sometimes you just want somethung to work and you dont care why.
How about creating bootloader for AVR MCU as a project
Hey! Mr.Sorber, what degree is good for Embedded System Engineer ? Computer Science or Electrical Engineering ? Thank You!
Either works, as long as you're willing to pick up the other side. I approached it from the computer science side, but I have hired great people from the EE side, too.
I have this idea to create my own custom motherboard for my autonomous delivery robot but i don't have any idea on how to create the motherboard i'm more on the software side.
You should try Rust instead of C for embedded programming. Amazing language
Thanks. I probably will as the MSP430 support improves.
I feel like I have to point this out, current will set the house on fine, not voltage. Any battery can set you on fire, even the common AA or AAA. Think before you plug stuff in, measure it, have a safe disconnect and for the love of our dog god, DO NOT USE Li-Ion/Li-Po FOR YOUR FIRST PROJECTS....unless you have a really good understanding of how it work, and why they can catch on fire.
I was thinking a bit on this too - but because of Ohm's Law, V = IR, if voltage is high and resistance is at some small constant value, current will surely be high. On a deeper level, the potential difference of the circuit (the voltage) is what sets the current in motion in the first place, even though "it's the amps that kill."
Good point. It's true that the amps are what kills, but I've yet to hear about anyone accidentally killing themselves with a 3V battery or power supply. When dealing with mains power, there are MANY such examples (see Brandon's comment).
And, a warning about Li-Ion/LiPos is definitely welcome. Though again, I've watched people abuse them a lot, and 99.99% of the time, the worst you ever see is a swollen cell because most current LiPo cells ship with some protection circuitry built-in.
@@JacobSorber im not talking about death by electrocution, Im talking about someone using jumpers on breadboard and doing something silly like shouring a battery, even an AA can deliver a few amps, which can melt that wire and burn you. I actually think that something like a usb power supply, even mains is safer as it has automatic short detection, or a fuse, or even just the regulation will keep it under the rated power. Batteries dont have current limits. Im not saying it to discourage people, Im saying it so that they have that knowledge in the back of their head all the time.
I am Embedded Firmware Engineer and he is right, we focus towards learning coding. We code in Embedded C , I feel sorry for OOPS people , java c++ can go to hell.
C rules in embedded systems XD
I would add 2 tips
1-->Add UART Command Line Interface CLI (Bash-like UART console) in your MCU firmware
2-->Add embedded Unit Tests in you MCU firmware
Regards,
AB
I would like to see a project that involves using ethernet
Could you do some live streaming. ###Embedded systems from zero to hero###
With a basic project as well.. :) :)
I’d love to see some videos about fabrication and provisioning strategies for embedded systems. How many boards do you typically build in one run?
I’d also love to see content around OS for embedded systems. How would you build a custom OS for something like a Raspberry Pi? The Yocto Project? Just taking something like Raspbian, installing it, configuring it, and then imaging the SD card for future Pis does not seem repeatable.
Hey Owen. Great to see you on here. I'll add fabrication to the list. As far as the custom OS idea goes, are you thinking some modified version of Raspbian (or the Linux kernel) or are you thinking from scratch? Both might be doable given enough time, but the later would be a serious project. 😀
I have a question. You see, my eyesight is not the greatest so I have a hard time working with electronics due to how small the parts are. Is it possible to avoid doing the electronics part but still do the programming part in C? Would anyone hire me to strictly use C?
I would say that eyesight wouldn't be much of an issue. It's not unexpected to have a $20-$50 USB microscope by your desk to zoom in on stuff. During embedded development cycles, however, you will often need to tweak the circuit slightly to address for hardware errors in prototypes.
I've done 15 years doing embedded development (predominantly industrial instrumentation and IoT). Within a lot of the teams that I've worked with, there is usually 1 or 2 people that are just better at soldering and electronics assembly than others and the entire team informally relies upon them and asks them for most of the finicky work (soldering fly-wires, deadbugging components, etc). Just treat them with respect, ask nicely and buy them a beer or a lunch for doing you a favour.
Also, if you have a properly trained, disciplined and experienced hardware designer, they will provide test/debug infrastructure to facilitate firmware development and they should be quite easy to access. Sadly, those are really hard people to find though, and I've found that many ill-informed managers push back on such things - which is counterproductive to the whole R&D process. One trick that I use during job interviews is to ask to see the hardware you are expected to work on. You can tell waaaay more from 30 seconds with a PCB: do they have test points for most nets? Do they have a serial port specifically firmware debugging? Did they even bother adding a few test LEDs?
Finally, I've found that industrial electronics have better design practices than commercial electronics. They often still use big components (I've even seen through-hole components still used in active products) for vibration tolerance, heat dissipation, serviceability, etc. Just look for businesses that operate in "small volume/high margin" markets (industrial, medical, etc) instead of "high volume/low-margin" (typically consumer markets).
Hope this helps you!
I would like to see some simple drone project
Project Idea: Networking using libcurl
Learn Free RTOS to land a solid job in embedded systems.
in embedded systems just avoid arduino based projects cuz u will end up doing a tuto like every other channel covering arduino projects just include the library and boom u have ur project and the fact you can't cover subjects like floating point units or direct memory access... in arduino and this ain't interesting at all. what i recomnd is working with different mc like TI's ( tms for dsp applications ) or stm32 or even fpga i mean they sound a big deal in the start but for some small non complicated projects you can great videos.
ps: i just gave my opinion on that topic everyone is free to disagree about it but based on what i'm seeing on youtube i can say i'm not wrong
just put electrical engineering and software engineering into one thing
"computer engineering"
NextPCB is garbage, we used them at my last job and they messed up our orders, missed components, missed deadlines, AND they shipped the boards ionically charged such that they became ESD hazards to contend with on our mfg line