Category Archives: Software

OSX mishandles SSID with @ sign

Posted on 2015/08/01 by andy

Lately at the airport so-called user-friendly Apple operating system  was stubbornly failing to log into WiFi without giving me any clues. Meanwhile Android phone was happily sucking data from the same hotspot. It turned to be an OSX (Yosemite 10.10.4) … Continue reading →

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External RAM and lost MCUCSR

Posted on 2015/06/18 by andy

Atmega’s MCUCSR status register gives info about restart reason like regular reset-pin shorted, watchdog initiated reset, or brown-out on low voltage from power supply. Pieces of valuable information for device defect tracking. Reading MCUCSR early in test program was fine, … Continue reading →

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Pimp my bus: from 8-bit AVR to 32-bit ARM

Posted on 2015/04/13 by andy

Going to newer architecture is unevitable evolution. ARM series is particularly good choice as knowledge of its core functionality is to large extent portable across manufacturers. While ARM Cortex-M chips are close to 8-bit AVRs in footprint size and price … Continue reading →

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Water Level Logger – Firmware over-the-air

Posted on 2015/03/10 by andy

Over time firmware stabilizes but rework never entirely completes, either due to inevitable bugs or further enhancements. Manual firmware update applied to couple stations in the field has relatively low effort and is just dauting task. While number of stations … Continue reading →

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Water Level Station – field tests

Posted on 2014/12/29 by andy

Solar panel, probe and main unit is part of my balcony landscape for over a year now. This setup is running from many weeks to several months uninterruptedly depending purely on firmware upgrades. Field tests being final proof are needed though … Continue reading →

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Water Level Station – rain gauge

Posted on 2014/10/16 by andy

Measuring water level is fundamental goal of WLS experiment, hence its code-name (Water Level Station). Early summer 2014 hardware and software system had enough base services to make addition of entry-level pluviometer easy. Prior to PCB redesing for chinese factory I … Continue reading →

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Water Level Logger – insufficient RAM

Posted on 2014/05/24 by andy

For prototype I estimated that 128kB or flash would suffice and I was right; firmware took 75kB even though fatten up by embedded strings used across the code for tracing. On the other hand 4kB RAM of Atmega128 turned to … Continue reading →

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iGO out of memory – solved

Posted on 2014/01/09 by andy

iGO Primo navigation software surprised me right at the moment I needed it badly. As always I forgot to upload maps, etc, before travel, so, as usual, I did it at the hotel googling for solution. Visiting Singapore was not … Continue reading →

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Water Level Transmitter – microcontroller

Posted on 2013/10/18 by andy

Once the signal from sensor is converted in ADC it has to be processed and delivered to remote master unit. Having extra local measurements sources, like temperature, it has to be combined altogether. Multiple transmitters coexisting on single line (bus) … Continue reading →

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Water Level Transmitter – digitization

Posted on 2013/10/09 by andy

It was a long and bumpy way from taking pressure transducer hardware in my hands to having stable digitized values. Most of the time I spent learning instrumentation circuitry from app notes and books, just to make sure the solution … Continue reading →

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