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SeanLiming.com was created to help developers find the needed resources for their IoT/embedded project. The site provides information on books, articles, community links, sample applications, sample components/packages, and other resources for different embedded operating systems and other topics of interest. Please let me know if you have any questions or you cannot find a specific answer for your embedded project.

 

 

Current News and Events

Azure RTOS and ST Microelectronics STM32 Discovery Kit IoT (STM32L4S5) – May 2023

The final Azure RTOS article for this run covers the ST Microelectronics STM32 MCU. Like the previous articles, this third article walks through all the little steps to set up the development tools and an application on Azure IoT Central. With all the tools installed, Visual Studio Code allows you to step through the source code running on the STM32L4S5 Discovery Kit.
Azure RTOS and Microchip ATSAME54-XPro Evaluation kit - May 2023

Our second article for Azure RTOS covers the SAM E54 MCU from Microchip. Like the first article in the series, this second article walks through all the little steps to set up the development tools and an application on Azure IoT Central. With all the tools installed, Visual Studio Code allows you to step through the source code running on the ATSAME54-XPro Evaluation kit.
Azure RTOS and the MXCHIP IoT DevKit - April 2023

Last year, we kicked off a series of articles with “The Current MCU Strategy for Azure”. The article proposed what appears to be Microsoft filling the gap to address support for MCUs and connection to Azure. The series of articles that followed focused on FPGA development, which lay the foundation for phase 2 later this year. Before we get there, we have a series of articles on one of the go-to market MCU products: Azure RTOS. There are a number of quick-start guides for Azure RTOS. These guides simply build the firmware from the command line and upload to the board. Simple and easy to get something up and running, but real development requires stepping through code with a debugger. The quick-start guides mention debugging in passing. This first article titled “Azure RTOS and the MXCHIP IoT DevKit” walks through all the little steps to setup the development tools and build files to debug the firmware using Visual Studio Code.
Nios® II and I2C Master Implementation on the on the Intel® MAX® 10-10M08 Evaluation Kit - January 2023

We close out phase 1 of our FPGA articles with adding I2C port to a Nios® II design. The Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C or I2C) provides chip-to-chip communication on a two-wire bus. I2C has become very popular as more sensor chip manufacturers provide more solutions with I2C as the interface bus. For NIOS II, there is an I2C Master IP that can be added to a design so you can connect various external sensor and memory I2C devices, but there is a catch as some extra circuity is needed to create the two wire interface. The article demonstrates a solution to create the two wire interface and communication with a I2C temperature sensor.
Nios® II and the Interval Timers’ Alarm and Timestamp Functionality on the Intel® MAX® 10-10M08 Evaluation Kit - January 2023

Timing is everything. The Interval Time IP that comes with Quartus not only provides the date and time for a Nios II processor but also supports alarms and timestamp functionality. The paper walks through a couple of applications that test both.
Nios® II + UART Project on Intel® MAX® 10-10M08 Evaluation Kit - December 2022

Serial ports are the most common I/O in any MCU. Building on the previous Intel® Max® 10 + Nios® II articles, this article looks at adding a UART to a  Nios® II processor.
Nios® II ADC Implementation on Intel® MAX® 10-10M08 Evaluation Kit - November 2022

The previous article covered creating a design with the Nios® II soft processor. This article adds the built ADC peripheral to the Nios® II. Taking advantage of the hardware on the Intel® MAX® 10-10M08 Evaluation Kit, an application will be written to test the ADC input. As with the other articles it is the little things that trip a designer up, and this example is no exception. In this case, a work around to a generated BSP issue is required.
A Simple Nios® II Implementation on Intel® MAX® 10-10M08 Evaluation Kit - November 2022


The Nios® II softcore processor allows developers to create their own MCU with peripherals and other glue logic in an FPGA. The article looks at creating a Nios® II design using the Intel® Quartus® development tools, and writing a C program to test the design.
Implementing the ADC on Intel® MAX® 10-10M08 Evaluation Kit - October 2022

The paper explores the MAX 10's built in ADC and the ADC Toolkit that comes with Intel® Quartus® Prime.
Getting Started with Intel® Quartus® Prime v21.0 and the Intel® MAX® 10-10M08 Evaluation Kit - October 2022

The first FGPA article discussed how to install the Intel® Quartus® Prime tools. In this second FPGA article, we look at creating a couple of circuits using VHDL and the schematic editor. The Intel Max 10 -10M08 Evaluation Kit will be used to test both designs.
Annabooks Announces New Book: Start Guide for Windows 10 IoT Enterprise, 2nd Edition

Windows® 10 IoT Enterprise is a special version of Windows 10 designed for OEMs to build IoT/Embedded Systems. To help to create custom images, the Windows® System Image Manager (SIM) tool allows PC Manufacturers, IT Managers, and IoT/Embedded Developers to automate the installation of Windows operating systems. SIM allows developers to install applications, device drivers, and Windows updates along with the Windows operating system. The ability to automate operating system installation helps to remove any human error that can occur with manual installation. The ability to maintain and support many platforms over a long life-cycle is also an important asset in today’s ever-changing technology. To perform all these tasks, a solid workflow to develop the image from the ground up is important. This 2nd edition dives deeper into the development process.

Development Workflow – A development process that has been in use since Windows XP Embedded and evolved over the different Windows Embedded releases. The development workflow provides the best-known steps to create and maintain a custom image using System Image Manager.

Security – Windows security features and terminology have changed since Windows 10 was first released. The current security features are discussed in clearer detail and integrated into the larger lockdown.

Synchronous commands scrips – SIM doesn’t have a setting for everything. The downloads for the book contain some of the popular scripts for custom settings such as audio volume level, sticky keys, network IP setup, hide the taskbar, and visual effects.

Other tools – the book covers the Shell Launcher, UWF, and Key Filter utilities from Annabooks, as well as, other tools for partitioning disks and setting Group Policy.

Footprint reduction – various tips to help reduce the image footprint for systems that have smaller drive space are discussed.

Performance – discover how to get the best performance out of the system.

Low-Speed Bus API – creation applications that access GPIO, SPI, I2C, and UART is presented.


There are 17 chapters with hands-on exercises to focus on the workflow and specific features. The final chapter pulls all the topics together to walk through the workflow to create a weather station device that sends data to Azure IoT Central.

Intel® Quartus® Prime Lite and Nios® II SBT for Eclipse Installation Instructions - October 2022

This article covers the setup for Quartus® Prime Lite and Nios® II SBT for Eclipse for two different development systems: Windows 10 and Ubuntu 18.0.4.
The Current MCU Strategy for Azure - September 2022

With Windows CE long gone, Microsoft has slowly developed a strategy to support 32-Bit MCUs and connecting these devices to Azure.
   
 

Upcoming Training Courses and Seminars
 

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Windows® 10 IoT Enterprise