tools
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Drone for Continuous Integration
Recently, we have been evaluating Continuous Integration (CI) systems for a variety of projects (both OSS and customer). There are many OSS options to chose from. Because we already use Docker containers for Yocto/OE builds, Concourse and D…
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Reflections on KiCad and EDA Tools
A recent interview with a KiCad developer prompted some reflection on KiCad and EDA (electronic design automation) tools in general. Below are samples of several PCB (printed circuit board) designs, created with KiCAD, and implemented as pa…
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Auto-formatting/linting Go code
Some things in life you just have to experience to truly appreciate the value. One of these is auto-formatting/linting source code. When I started programming in Go in Vim, I naturally looked for editor support, and found the excellent vim-…
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SD Card Write Speed Tests
During Embedded Linux development, we often need to write large operating system images to SD cards for testing. Recently, I purchased a USB 3.0 SD card reader from Plugable. Before that, I used a USB 2.0 SD card reader from IOGear. How mu…
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Why Git?
Some time back, I gave a presentation that included an overview of the Git version control system. I still occasionally get asked why Git should be used instead of Subversion, as it seems harder at first. Most developers don’t really unde…
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Using Go in place of a Spreadsheet
Recently I needed to calculate NAND partition tables for a project where we will be supporting a number of different flash parts from 500MB to 2GB. I first tried this in a spreadsheet, but found it difficult to work easily with hex numbers…
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PCB Schematics Style Guide
As I work at the intersection of hardware and software, I spend a fair amount of time reading schematics for printed circuit boards (PCBs). I’m astounded at how sloppy most schematics are, and have come up with a few suggestions to conside…
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A quick way to share files from any directory
Did you ever need a quick way to share files from a directory on your computer? Or perhaps transfer a large file to another person? With nodejs and express, you can easily set up a temporary web server that allows users to browse and acce…
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Perisistent device names for USB serial ports
Currently, my workstation has two 8-port USB<->RS232 devices, one dual port USB<->RS422/RS485 adapter, and several single port adapters such as the very useful BUBII. So with around 20 USB->serial devices, figuring out which…
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A Linux Kernel Tracing Tutorial
The Linux kernel has a fairly extensive tracing infrastructure that is quite useful for debugging. There are a number of things you can do with tracing, but the focus of this article will be the traditional printk type debugging we often e…
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The easy way to get serial terminal in Linux
When doing embedded Linux development, most of us spend out time tethered to a target system with a serial cable, which is used for a serial console. Minicom is the defacto serial terminal software for Linux. However, Minicom is a little …
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Qt Creator for C/C++ development
Recently, I’ve been evaluating Qt Creator for general C/C++ development. I’m currently involved in the development of a rather large C++ application that is approaching 200,000 lines of code and 1000 source modules. In the past, I’ve typi…
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A quick serial logging application
Recently when debugging a device connected to a rs485 bus, I needed a simple application to dump the raw data coming over the rs485 bus. Minicom does all kinds of weird terminal stuff, plus it will not display binary data, so that was out.…
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Apache and how to correctly use NameVirtualHost
As I often get involved in server administration (SVN, git, redmine, etc setup), I deal with Apache on a regular basis. For simple configurations, the default Ubuntu/debian config works well. However, for a more complex setup with virtual…
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converting digital camera movies to ogg format
Now that firefox (v3.5) has built in support for ogg videos, ogg is now the most convenient format for “easy to view” video files (assuming you don’t want to use a service like youtube). Some digital cameras (like my Canon) records movies …
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How to capture source changes to an OpenEmbedded package
One task that is a often confusing to new OpenEmbedded users is how to capture changes to the source code for a package/recipe. First, lets review the progression in tools use to capture source code changes. Figure 1: Progression of tools …
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Installing Ubuntu on a Core i7 DX58SO motherboard
UPDATE: 2009-03-17 – It appears that hard drive issues I encountered are likely due to the HW RAID formatting on the drive I tried. I just tried a brand new hard drive, and Ubuntu 8.10 installed flawlessly, and everything works. I’m not s…
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How to disable SSH host key checking
This article presents a very nice overview of options to disable ssh host key checking. When working with embedded systems where you are constantly reloading the rootfs, it is really annoying to have to edit your ~/.ssh/known_hostsevery ti…
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Things that work!
Running a small business has a special set of challenges, and if you are not careful, the overhead can quickly consume you. This article is a list of things that I use in my business that work well for me, and help me to be efficient when …
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Open JTAG debugging tool for the PXA270
Looking for a low cost, high functionality JTAG solution for the PXA270? As of several weeks ago, the openocd project now works with the Intel/Marvell PXA270 processor. There are a number of USB based JTAG debuggers available for under $1…
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How to control the cable nightmare
Do you ever wonder if there is a better way to manage cables in your lab? I typically have have 5-10 embedded systems on the bench powered up at any give time. When you start thinking of all the cables required to connect these systems (e…
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TRAC and Distributed Development
I have long been a big fan of source control tools and issue tracking systems. The “concurrent” model made popular by CVS is a tremendous benefit any time there are multiple people working on the same project. For most of the projects BEC…
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A Really Nice Hex Calculator
When working with embedded software, I often have a need for a hex calculator. Over the years I’ve used a number of different tools. Through college and for several years after, I used my HP48 calculator. It is a great tool. Around 1998…
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Total Phase USB Protocol Analyzer review
I recently purchased a USB protocol analyzer from Total Phase. The device will analyze full speed USB traffic and works well with Linux. On Linux, the software makes use of libusb, so there is very little setup required to get the device …