scottyau

So for the last couple of months the bit of bench time I've been able to get has all been spent on the edx course I mentioned in my previous post.  There was quite a bit of content to get through before the course wrapped up, so to get it done in time I wasn't letting myself play with any other projects or bits.  I was however ordering bits and pieces here and there which have slowly started to arrive.  Now that the course is done I've got time to play with what's arrived! Something I should point out is that while all (or at least some) of the individual bits I've ordered will hopefully end up working together, one of the most common ways to test them individually seems to be with an Arduino.  I have almost no experience with Arduino's so it's a good chance to get to do a little more Arduino too! One of the things I ordered was a  Tiny RTC v1.1    The DS18B20 you see in the picture above doesn't come with the kit - I ordered that separ...

So for the last couple of months now I have been taking the edx course  UT.6.01x: Embedded Systems .  Like all edx courses it's delivered 100% online.  The course does a great job of teaching the fundamentals of embedded design, and is built around a Texas Instruments Launchpad.  If you haven't used one of the TI Launchpad's before I'd highly recommend taking a squiz.  They're super cheap for what they are and after taking the UT course I feel I've got a somewhat ok understanding now of the processor used for the course.  Setting registers, performing I/O - it's all covered. All of the labs are hands on.  They can be completed in simulation using just the free (Trial Licence) Keil IDE software, or can make use of the TI launchpad and a few common components.  The work the UT guys did to develop the grader plugin for both simulation grading in the software debugger as well as debugging using the actual TI Launchpad was awesome!  So even thou...