Embedded Computing

Seeeduino Wio Terminal • A Full System on a Stylish Case

6/10/2020

After the minimalistic Xiao board, Seeed continues to explore new options with the Wio Terminal.

This time, the Seeeduino Wio Terminal is more of a complete system. It comes on a stylish white case, brings Grove connectors and relies on a powerful Cortex-M4F SAMD51.

Read the full review.

High-Definition LaunchPad and BoosterPack Boards Pins Maps

4/6/2020

The pins maps of the recent LaunchPad and BoosterPack boards have been updated with high-definition images to ensure an optimal readability.

LaunchPad CC1310, CC1352R1, CC3200, CC32200S-SF, CC3235S-SF, LM4F120H5QR, LPSTK CC1352R1, MSP432P401R, TM4C1294NCPDT
BoosterPack Building Automation Sensors, CC2650 BLE, CC3100 WiFi, Educational MKII, INA226, Sensors, Sharp Memory LCD-128, TI-RSLK MAX, Ultra-Low-Power Sense

Click to enlarge

Seeeduino Xiao M0 Reviewed

3/18/2020

The Seeeduino Xiao M0 is a very compact board based on the popular Cortex-M0 SAMD21.

It features 14 pins with UART, I²C and SPI ports and a USB-C connector. It comes with multiple options for uploading a firmware: standard serial, copy-paste to the board mounted as a volume, and SWD for a Segger J-Link programmer-debugger.

Its compact size and aggressive price will make it a sure hit.

Read the review.

Updated Low Power Home Network Weather Monitoring

3/4/2020

This updated version of the Low Power Home Network Weather Monitoring relies on the Launchpad SensorTag kit CC1352R or LPSTK-CC1352 for the nodes. The hub is a LaunchPad CC1352, connected to Node-RED running on a main computer through serial.

Porting the project from the CC1310/CC1350 to the CC1352 was easy, and so was adding the clock synchronisation. However, EasyLink appears as too basic, especially for the lack of QoS resulting in loss of packets.

Discover the project

Arduino Pro IDE with Debugging

2/28/2020

Arduino announced the release of the Arduino Pro IDE alpha 0.0.5 with the much awaited debugging capabilities.

I was able to use this new feature with an Arduino Zero board after installing the latest version 1.8.5 of SAMD core.

The breakpoint on the main sketch is kept, but not the breakpoint on a local library..

To be continued...

Debugging against the ESP32

1/25/2020

After the widely popular ESP8266, the ESP32 SoC from Espressif features WiFi and Bluetooth.

The ESP-Prog provides JTAG debugging and re-routes the serial console. It runs with a specific version of OpenOCD.

Read the review.

Review of the Launchpad SensorTag Kit CC1352R

12/27/2019

The Launchpad SensorTag Kit CC1352R is the third generation of SensorTag, closer to a finished product than a development board.

The CC1352 is a Cortex-M4F MCU with a dual-band radio, 2.4 GHz and sub-1 GHZ. The 2.4 GHz radio supports Bluetooth Low Energy, ZigBee, OpenThread, 802.15.4.

The Launchpad SensorTag kit CC1352R inaugurates a new form-factor with 40-pin connector so it can be expanded with the BoosterPack boards.

Read the full review

Visual Studio Code -- Updated Review

8/18/2019

I've updated my review of Visual Studio Code, with three new extensions:

Visual Studio IntelliCode by Microsoft brings AI to the already excellent Intellisense
Cortex Debug by marus25 replaces Native Debug by webfreak
Shortcut Menu Bar by Jerrygoyal brings a much awaited solution for a toolbar.

Even with the new set of extensions, the roadmap for Visual Studio Code still remains unclear for me. Microsoft seems to be over-reliant on the community for bringing improvements to the GUI and the integration with external tools, and doesn't realise the true potential of Visual Studio Code.

Read the updated review.

Visual Studio Code updated logo with language pack and new extensions: IntelliCode, Cortex Debug, Shortcut Menu Bar and Language Pack

PlatformIO Plus Turns Open-Source

6/20/2019

In a statement released 18 June 2019, PlatformIO announced PIO Plus is now open-source.

As a consequence, the debugging, unit testing and remote agent features are now free.

This is a welcome option to consider when looking for a more capable IDE.

Read the updated review.