Fred Eady

Go ARM in ARM with Hardware and Firmware
Column: The Design Cycle
December 2017
Are you ready to get serious about ARM hardware and firmware?

Up Close and Personal with the ME Labs Advanced PIC18 D-Stick
Column: The Design Cycle
November 2017
Get hands-on with the ME Labs Advanced PIC18 D-Stick.

Is This Thingy Your Key to IoT?
Column: The Design Cycle
October 2017
Nordic’s new “Thingy”— a compact, power-optimized, multi-sensor development kit!

Try the RAD B4R for ESP8266 Coding
Column: The Design Cycle
August 2017
An introduction to the B4R programming environment utilizing the popular ESP8266 module

Put on a PiFace
Column: The Design Cycle
July 2017
Working with PiFace and a RAD tool called B4J.

Putting the Digital Discovery to Work
Column: The Design Cycle
June 2017
Digilent’s new Digital Discovery is designed to be the ultimate embedded development companion.

D-Stick is Delightful for Development
Column: The Design Cycle
May 2017
For about $30, you can get the ME Labs D-Stick which is a stand-alone development environment that is based on the Microchip PIC16F1937.

Get “Patriot”ic with Lemos’ LoRa Radio Module
Column: The Design Cycle
April 2017
We are going to dig through the datasheet, push the buttons, and turn the knobs on the new Patriot PW1-928 RF data transceiver module from Lemos International.

See C More Clearly with the E3mini
Column: The Design Cycle
February 2017
The folks at CCS want you to C more clearly. So, they have assembled a very high quality C language training package.

A Look at the nRF52832’s SPI Peripheral
Column: The Design Cycle
January 2017
The ARM-based nRF52832 blinks LEDs, speaks SPI, UART, and I2C just like any other microcontroller, so we will continue our exploration of the nRF52832’s peripherals.

Exploring the Nuances of Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF52832’s Timer and GPIO Peripherals
Column: The Design Cycle
December 2016
The nRF51 Series is a family of highly flexible, multi-protocol, system-on-chip (SoC) devices for ultra-low power wireless applications. This time, we’ll focus on treating the nRF52832 as a very powerful microcontroller.

Nordic’s New nRF52832 Gets You On Track with BLE Apps
Column: The Design Cycle
November 2016
Design the hardware and write the code for Nordic Semiconductor’s ubiquitous nRF5 SoCs. The nRF51 Series is a family of highly flexible, multi-protocol, system-on-chip (SoC) devices for ultra-low power wireless applications.

Get Up and Running Quickly with BLE
Column: The Design Cycle
October 2016
Use Microchip’s new BM70 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio module and you’ll be able to communicate with your smartphone without any low-level BLE programming or expensive compilers and programmers.

Help is Finally Here for 32-bit PICs
Column: The Design Cycle
September 2016
Microchip has released a new 32-bit microcontroller that is now supported by the MPLAB Code Configurator.

Getting Graphic(s) with the A40 Mesh Networking Alarm Controller Project
Column: The Design Cycle
August 2016
If you can generate a standard 24-bit BMP image using a graphics editor program, you can integrate that image into a professional touch screen application.

Let Your PIC Push the Buttons in this IoT Device
Column: The Design Cycle
June 2016
Use a PIC32MX575F512H to monitor and control the A40 network.

Portable RF Mesh Alarm System Can be Monitored from Anywhere
Column: The Design Cycle
May 2016
Combine an easy to set up and use RF alarm system with a 32-bit IoT node and you get a portable 40-node RF mesh alarm system that can be monitored from anywhere in the world.

Basic Training for All Programming Languages
Column: The Design Cycle
April 2016
Test driving the new M.E. Labs trainer. Everything you need to enhance your coding skills is included!

JumpStart Your ARM Development
Column: The Design Cycle
March 2016
JumpStart your coding with ARM microcontrollers and ImageCrafts’ special API.

ARMed and Dangerous
Column: The Design Cycle
February 2016
If you’ve ever written code for any other microcontroller, you can write code for an ARM microcontroller.

Automagic with the MPLAB Code Configurator.
Column: The Design Cycle
December 2015
Join us as we put the Microchip MPLAB Code Configurator through its paces.

Make Mine MURS
Column: The Design Cycle
November 2015
If you need a radio that can transfer data and control devices over long distances and don’t want the hassle of having to obtain a license, MURS is for you. This month’s edition of Design Cycle will introduce you to the world of Multi-Use Radio Service through the eyes of a NiM1B VHF radio mounted on a narrow band evaluation kit carrier board.

From Data Logger to On-Demand Data Storage Device
Column: The Design Cycle
October 2015
Roland Riegel, Bill Greiman, and the folks at SparkFun laid the ground work for the OpenLog. OpenLog was originally designed as an “out of the box” data logger. We’re going to add some PIC32MX electron spice to the OpenLog design and turn it into an “out of the box” general-purpose microSD-based storage device.

Take Your PIC of a Super-Fast Embedded Computing Machine
Column: The Design Cycle
September 2015
It just doesn’t get any better than this. It’s time to gather the components, get the circuit boards made, lay down the parts, and write the code. When the dust settles, you’ll have built a super-fast 32-bit embedded computing machine that can converse via multiple logic-level serial ports, a true RS-232 port, USB, and Wi-Fi. If all of that data is important to you, just store it away on the onboard microSD card. And it does get better.

Building a Multipurpose Communications Board
Column: The Design Cycle
July 2015
Clear your bench and tin your soldering iron. In this installment, we’re going to scratch build a multipurpose embedded communications board. While the soldering iron is cooling down, we’ll fire up the Microchip XC32 C compiler under MPLABX and bring our new garage-brewed creation to life.

Adding a microSD Card Demystified
Column: The Design Cycle
June 2015
You don’t have to be a certified rocket scientist to add microSD capability to your 32-bit PIC microcontroller project. This edition of Design Cycle will demystify the process of adding a microSD card to your design. To make adding that microSD worthwhile, we will also implement a PIC32MX microSD bootloader.

Wi-Fi on the Big Wire
Column: The Design Cycle
May 2015
Classic embedded Wi-Fi web servers based on microcontrollers have met their match. The ACKme Numbat stuffs an ARM microprocessor, Wi-Fi radio, TCP/IP stack, UART, real time clock, multiple GPIO pins, analog-to-digital converters, PWM generators, SPI portals, 1 MB of serial Flash, and an I2C interface into a 0.8” x 0.6” x 0.11” SMT package. All you need is a PC serial port and a terminal emulator to gain access to the Numbat’s rich set of resources.

The RN4020 PICtail Plus BLE.
Column: The Design Cycle
April 2015
Bluetooth 4.0 is becoming the de facto standard when it comes to embedded device monitoring and control from iPhones and Android devices. Microchip’s BLE radio module is called the RN4020. Unlike many of the other BLE offerings, the RN4020 Bluetooth Low Energy radio module comes backed with a full load of example code and hardware development tools. This month, we’ll get started on the BLE path with Microchip’s RN4020 PICtail, a terminal emulator, and a laptop.

A Blueprint for Embedded Wi-Fi
Column: The Design Cycle
March 2015
Last month, we discovered that the Numbat Wi-Fi module on the Moray development board can take care of itself in the wild. However, you can’t Wi-Fi in the woods if you have to be attached to the USB port of a laptop. This month, we will replace the USB cable, laptop, and terminal emulator with a simple PIC microcontroller and some tricky CCS C code.

Numbats and Morays and Wi-Fi, Oh My!
Column: The Design Cycle
February 2015
Numbats and Morays and Wi-Fi, Oh My! Biologically, eels and anteaters are on the opposite ends of the animal world scale. Convert them to silicon and the combination of snouts, hair, teeth, and scales makes for a pretty good W-Fi sensor node development platform. This month's column takes the brand new Moray Wi-Fi development board and its Numbat networking module for a monitor and control spin on the Internet.

Atmosphere Takes Bluetooth Apps to New Heights
Column: The Design Cycle
January 2015
Anaren is bringing Bluetooth “out of the stone age” with their new web-based tool that lets you simultaneously code an embedded Bluetooth monitor/control application and its associated smartphone GUI app.

PICs and a Stick Pack Big Computing Power in a Small Package
Column: The Design Cycle
November 2014
The Rapid USB prototyping stick is powered by an enhanced PIC16 microcontroller that can do the work normally relegated to PIC32 silicon. The PIC16F1459 under the USB stick's hood can spout USB lingo at one end and spit RS-232 bits out of the other. No external clock crystal is required to utilize the stick's ADC, comparators, DAC, SPI module, and timers. This installment will show you how to take advantage of the tremendous amount of computation power stuffed into a very small package.

Building a ZigBee HAN
Column: The Design Cycle
October 2014
ZigBee has finally come home. This month, we will lay the groundwork for installing a ZigBee Home Automation Network. Our HAN can be accessed from the living room LAN or from anywhere in the world via the Internet.

Finishing Touches
Column: The Design Cycle
August 2014
We have finally eaten most all of that elephant we started cooking a couple of issues back. This month, we will add touch and audio routines to our FT800 driver. By the time you have digested this edition of Design Cycle, you will be able to command the FT800 to draw buttons and text, detect touch events, and generate audio.

Learning Core Values
Column: The Design Cycle
July 2014
In the previous Design Cycle offering, we walked around the 32-bit EVE support hardware. This time, we will put that hardware to work. By the time your eyes encounter the final period of the final sentence of this month's column, we will have written and verified all of the FT800 core firmware needed to drive our LCD panel.

The Dawn of a New EVE
Column: The Design Cycle
June 2014
This is the first in a series of tutorials aimed at enabling FTDI's new Embedded Video Engine technology using a PIC microcontroller. Along the way, we will use Microchip's XC32 C compiler to code the various elements of our EVE firmware driver. Plus, with the help of a PICkit3, we will exercise this driver onboard a Digilent MX3 which is based on the PIC32MX320F128H.

Total Eclipse of the Cross Compiler
Column: The Design Cycle
April 2014
The BeagleBone Black and Raspberry Pi are different in many ways. They are also alike in many ways. However, when it comes to programming them, the equalizer appears in the form of a Linux-based GNU cross compiler toolchain running under the umbrella of an Eclipse IDE.

Setting Up Linux With Bones is a Piece of Pi
Column: The Design Cycle
March 2014
I'm a Microchip PIC kind of guy. However, when it comes to Linux, almost any flavor will do. The Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black are getting lots of press. So, instead of deciding whether to bake a Pi or walk the Dog, we are going to do both. In this installment of Design Cycle, we will make the crust and put a leash on the Dog.

Utilizing Embedded Web Development
Column: The Design Cycle
January 2014
Remember drilling that slightly off-center toggle switch mounting hole for your project's front panel then have it be a bit too large? Those days are long gone. Trade in that drill and dull set of metal bits for some silicon versions that machine a perfect virtual front panel every time.

Discovering a Better and More Powerful Engineering Workstation
Column: The Design Cycle
November 213
One of the first commercial operational amplifierbased computing components was the Model K3-A Adding Component. Unfortunately, you needed a full blown lab to gather the K3's analog results. In contrast, the Analog Discovery packs an oscilloscope, waveform generator, voltmeter, and digital I/O into a space smaller than the first vacuum tube operational amplifier.

Programming the Brains Behind CNC Milling Tools and Motors
Column: The Design Cycle
October 2013
Whether you’re planning a custom CNC application or an embedded monitor and control project, these gizmos will help things add up in your automation.

Home Automation Telegesis Style
Column: The Design Cycle
September 2013
Absolutely zero ZigBee technical knowledge (or a third mortgage) is needed to put the Telegesis home automation radios to work.

Score Big With The Lemos LMZ ZigBee Module
Column: The Design Cycle
August 2013
ZigBee networks can cost upwards of $7,000 to roll your own custom embedded ZigBee radio application. See how to get an embedded ZigBee application on the air with just a microcontroller, an inexpensive radio, and some simple C code for way less.

Accessing Bluetooth For Remote Control Action
Column: The Design Cycle
July 2013
This month, we will eliminate the wires and use a $2 Bluetooth dongle to connect Microchip's most powerful microcontroller to our PlayStation DualShock 3. By the time you read the last sentence, you will be able to remote-control enable anything you can attach to the I/O pins of a PIC32MX.

Taming the DualShock 3 Beast
Column: The Design Cycle
June 2013
Taming the DualShock 3 Beast. Get ready to rumble with this Playstation game controller with USB driver code that gives access to all its pushbutton, joystick, and position sensor data.

Controlling Homebrewed Devices With a PS DualShock 3
Column: The Design Cycle
May 2013
What can you do with a wireless Play Station controller?

Walking the USB Bridge into Androidville
Column: The Design Cycle
April 2013
FTDI gave us the power to easily embed USB functionality into our projects with the FT232RL. The FT311D USB Android host IC enables us to walk across the USB bridge that FTDI built into Androidville.

Herding Data Over Bridges.
Column: The Design Cycle
February 2013
This month’s discussion centers on moving data back and forth between a small embedded network and the Internet.

LMX-ISM-242 State of Mind
Column: The Design Cycle
January 2013
While you were gone, I managed to get my hands on the official Lemos hardware.

Using the MPLAB X Factor With Data Radios
Column: The Design Cycle
December 2012
The PIC18F46J13 was chosen for this project because of its unique capabilities and absence of built-in USB.

Give Your Data Radio the AX8052F100.
Column: The Design Cycle
November 2012
There are microcontrollers that specialize in motor control and those that excel in number crunching. In this installment of Design Cycle, we are going to closely examine a microcontroller that was designed to drive RF ICs.

Building an Intelligent Data Radio
Column: The Design Cycle
October 2012
Before we’re done, I am going to show you how to scratch-build a data radio using an RF IC that is melded with a microcontroller.

Putting Basic4android in the Driver’s Seat
Column: The Design Cycle
August 2012
I'm a programmer and the Android devices are programmable. If you're interested in plugging into that intelligent Android brick you call a phone, get in the truck.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
June 2012
Some IEEE 802.15.4 Transceiver Magic.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
May 2012
Control Gadgets With Your Smart Phone.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
March 2012
It‘s All About the Uno32 Hardware.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
February 2012
CLC Culture.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
January 2012
MPLAB's X Factor.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
November 2011
You CAN Do It With the chipKIT MAX32.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
October 2011
Invasion of the chipKIT Max32.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
September 2011
Slaving Away From USB Host.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
August 2011
Give Your Bits Some AIR.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
July 2011
FlashFly System Gets Stamp of Approval

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
June 2011
Pedaling the STC12C5A6OS2 from STC Microcontroller.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
May 2011
Riding an RF Energy Harvester.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
April 2011
Drive your projects with the SPECTRUM ACE ECS.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
March 2011
Fly High With the New SPECTRUM ACE Embedded Control System.

Time for Some RTCC Translating
Column: The Design Cycle
January 2011
Our goals this month are to write drivers for the EA DOGM162L-A LCD and the PIC18F47J53’s hardware RTCC (Real Time Clock Calendar).

Still Rockin’ the microSD Card
Column: The Design Cycle
December 2010
took a while, but paper punch cards finally bit the dust. Good old RS-232 is in the rocking chair, as well.These days, thanks to the microcontroller industries’ hardware refinements and ready-to-run library code, putting a USB portal online is just as easy as building an RS-232 interface.

A Universal Micro Design
Column: The Design Cycle
November 2010
When I’m not writing, I’m soldering. With that, I figure most of you are not looking down the sights of a soldering iron as much as I am. So, instead of subjecting you to soldering up my SERVO-inspired experimental micro-SD card interface, I decided to design a simple and super-low-cost microSD interface card that you can build on your bench.

Thumbs Up for the Vinculum-II Toolchain.
Column: The Design Cycle
October 2010
The Vinculum-II embedded dual USB host controller takes all of the hard work out of interfacing and controlling USB devices. In this case the Vinculum-II goes one step further to save us both money and time.

Gettin’ Jiggy with the Vinculum-II Hardware Design
Column: The Design Cycle
September 2010
Heat up your soldering iron. It’s time to forge some solder, silicon, ceramics, plastic, metal, and fiberglass into an electronic instrument capable of transferring our ideas to a piece of silicon we know as the FTDI Vinculum-II. The first order of business is to pick up where we left off last month.

Taking USB Downstream
Column: The Design Cycle
August 2010
Up to this point, we’ve been working our USB device magic on an upstream connection to a USB host. The time has come to take on USB host responsibilities and originate a downstream connection from the Type A USB connector of a USB host we will design and assemble.

Bringing a USB-to-UART Protocol Converter to Life
Column: The Design Cycle
July 2010
Did you know that Microchip offers a USB 2.0 to UART protocol converter? It’s called the MCP2200.

ZeroG Goes USB
Column: The Design Cycle
June 2010
The ZeroG - PIC24FJ128GA006 Trainer project sparked quite a bit of Nuts & Volts reader interest.

Shuffling The TCP/IP Stack
Column: The Design Cycle
May 2010
This month, in addition to shuffling bits in the Microchip TCP/IP stack, we’re going to perform some soldering iron surgery.

Become a Wiz with Wireless Ethernet Devices
April 2010
This month, we are going to design and construct the first device of the next generation of embedded wireless Ethernet devices. While we’re at it, we’ll also lay the groundwork for incorporating Microchip’s 16-bit line of microcontrollers into future Design Cycle projects.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
March 2010
Making a mesh of things.

Go Nuts with the Kadtronix USB HID API Library
Column: The Design Cycle
February 2010
The Kadtronix USB HID API Library was initially designed to support Visual Basic 6 and Visual C++ 6.

SuperPIC to the 32-bit Rescue!
Column: The Design Cycle
January 2010
I also have the latest version of the MPLAB C32 Compiler for PIC32 microcontrollers which supports all of the new SuperPIC features. I don’t know about you, but having all of this development stuff in front of me says “Build something!”

Find the HIDden virtues of USB
Column: The Design Cycle
December 2009
While we were extolling the virtues of USB as an RS-232 killer, we were totally ignoring one of USB’s greatest strengths: the HID class.

Take An IO-Warrior Into Your Next Embedded Battle
Column: The Design Cycle
November 2009
We are all used to stuffing code into a microcontroller to enable our embedded applications.This month, the tables are turned.The microcontroller work has been done for us and we must perform some Bill Gates C++ coding to force bits back and forth across the USB pipe.

The Design Cycle | October 2009
Column: The Design Cycle
October 2009
Unlocking a 16-bit USB front end for the new ENC624J600 stand-alone 10/100 Ehternet controller.

USB To Ethernet Using Microchip’s Free Stacks: Part 2
Column: The Design Cycle
September 2009
Now that we’ve had a taste of the free Microchip TCP/IP and USB stacks, it’s time to put the chocolate in the peanut butter. As promised, this month we’ll put a Microchip PIC18F14K50 Low Pin Count USB microcontroller in front of a PIC18F67J60 Ethernet microcontroller and put another RS-232 converter IC out to pasture.

USB To Ethernet Using Microchip’s Free Stacks: Part 1
Column: The Design Cycle
August 2009
This month, the mountain man is coming to town as the coders at Microchip have put together a brand new TCP/IP Stack to support the new Ethernet ICs and wireless Ethernet modules that are coming out of the pipe.

Kids CAN Love Engineering
Column: The Design Cycle
July 2009
This year’s science station consisted of a Lenovo NetBook coupled to a USB-to-CAN bridge. The goal was to introduce the students to a working network they could actually see and touch.

Into the Guts of USB Drivers
Column: The Design Cycle
June 2009
When it comes to replacing a Legacy RS-232 Interface with USB, try a Microchip PIC18F14K50 USB Flash microcontroller.

And Now, A Riff From Jeff Beck
Column: The Design Cycle
May 2009
Designing a wireless guitar.

The Design Cycle
Column: The Design Cycle
April 2009
Older language, newer interface.

Demystifying USB To Serial
Column: The Design Cycle
March 2009
It's time to stop talking and start soldering. This month, you have your choice of USB projects.

A Reasonable Replacement For RS-232
Column: The Design Cycle
February 2009
I'm going to include USB interfaces on subsequent Design Cycle projects that require serial communications with a personal computer.

Managing The Real World
Column: The Design Cycle
January 2008
No matter how powerful a microcontroller may claim to be, a microcontroller by itself cannot do everything in a real-world, I/O-oriented embedded system. For instance, I don’t know of any microcontroller that can directly drive a one ampere resistive or inductive load directly from one of its I/O pins. That means if you’re working on putting together a microcontroller-based system that will interface to motors and relays, a great deal of your design time will be expended on the I/O interface...

Introducing the 32-bit PIC!
Column: The Design Cycle
February 2008
I can still remember fiddling with my very first PIC project, which was based on (at that moment in time) the brand new and unbelievable PIC16C54. I don’t recall ever complaining about the size of the PIC16C54 SRAM or its 1 µs instruction cycle time. And, I don’t recall ever filling up a PIC16C54’s program memory as we all programmed in assembler back then. As time passed, I quickly “outgrew” the PIC16C54’s limited I/O system (12 I/O lines) and moved up to using the “bigger” PIC16C55 device...

PIC32MX Internal Addressing
Column: The Design Cycle
March 2008
I recently saw a sign that read, “Everything is hard until you figure out how to do it.” As an adversary of all things complex, I grinned to myself as I passed the sign by on the highway. The PIC32MX is a prime candidate to fall into the spin of the highway sign writer’s sage observation. However,someone on the Microchip PIC32MX team saw that same sign somewhere along the way as the road that leads to the understanding and application of the PIC32MX is paved with easy to use C language macros...

Welcome To the land of CPLD
Column: The Design Cycle
April 2008
If you’ve been following Design Cycle, you know that we do lots of neat stuff with Microchip’s family of PIC microcontrollers. When a new variant of the PIC goes public — such as the PIC32 — we most always need to ride the learning curve to figure out what we can do with the new part. That’s what Design Cycle is all about. And, yep. I’m setting you up for something new. And, nope. This time it’s not a PIC...

Building A CPLD Development Kit
Column: The Design Cycle
May 2008
Pour some distilled water on that dried up soldering tip cleaning sponge and fire up your soldering station. In this edition of Design Cycle, we are going to tie down that Xilinx XC2C64A CPLD you see in Photo 1 onto the ExpressPCB printed circuit board we’re beginning to put together in Screenshot 1...

Firmware You Can Touch
Column: The Design Cycle
June 2008
I can remember as a kid I used to build simple little transistor circuits that would activate a relay when someone touched the doorknob to my room. My “DO NOT ENTER” adventures were far more exciting than the circuitry involved. As I recall, the base of the transistor was hung out to dry and connected to the doorknob with a loop of wire. When someone (my pesky little sister, for instance) injected noise into the transistor base via the doorknob, the transistor would turn on and pass current...

PCB Basics: From Your Brain To A Finished Board
June 2008
You’ve seen me do it most every month in Nuts & Volts and SERVO. I make them in two-layer form and I make them in four-layer form. I make them as prototypes. I make them as production quality. I identify them with silkscreen legends. I ruggedize them with soldermask. I make them large and I make them small. What is this thing I do that you see in Design Cycle and SERVO every month? The answer is easy. I create printed circuit boards...

A Discerning Touch
Column: The Design Cycle
July 2008
I had the pleasure of taking last month’s Xilinx/Microchip capacitive touch sensing prototype hardware on the road to Abel Elementary School in Sarasota, FL. The occasion was Space Day, which is an annual space-science event sponsored by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Over 150 fourth and fifth grade fingers touched the tin touch sensor, which was insulated by and tied down to a desk with a piece of cellophane tape I scarfed from a teacher’s desk. Thanks to a CleverScope and my Lenovo laptop...

Roll Your Own FPGA Design
Column: The Design Cycle
September 2008
To really get to know a microcontroller, CPLD, or FPGA, one may take the programming and hardware design knowledge gleaned from a factory-generated development kit and apply it to a unique personal application. We’ve paid our dues with a factory Xilinx FPGA development board. So, our goal this month is to get down and dirty with our own Xilinx XC3S50A FPGA design...