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resources

Resources on various topics being worked on at IvLabs

C Programming For Microcontrollers Featuring ATMEL’s Butterfly and the Free WinAVR Complier Why this book?: This book starts from the absolute basics. It presents C programming with an assumption that you are completely new to the programming scene, while simultenously ensuring a healthy level to technical recourse. It is a quick and easy read; with a lot of code and project examples. What to keep in mind?: Both the butterfly board and the WinAVR compilers are outdated and suitable substitutes might be found to follow the book properly. Estimated Time to complete: 20 hours
Tiva Launchpad Workshop Why this workshop?: This workshop will give you in-depth knowledge on how to use a microcontroller. It covers topics like ADC, PWM as well as topics like USB and DMA. The second chapter also serves as an introduction to the tools available to make programming a microcontroller easy. Estimated Time to complete: 20 hours

AVR Hardware Design Considerations Application Note from Atmel Why this Document?: Every microcontroller needs a power supply, a crystal and a debugging/programming interface to get started. This application note describes how to design these for the simplest possible controller. It also covers some basics of PCB layout and electromagnetic noise. Estimated Time to complete: 30-60 mins
TI RTOS Workshop Why this Workshop?: RTOS is one of the fundamental pieces of embedded software. This workshop gives a good understanding of RTOSes in general and TI RTOS in particular. Estimated Time to complete: 20 hours

Kicad: KiCad is a free open-source schematics entry and PCB Layout tool. It is a professional grade tool developed, maintained and used by CERN.
NGSPICE: NGSPICE is a SPICE based circuit simulator mainly used in academic settings.

Kicad Tutorials Why this playlist?: This tutorial was produced by Digikey, one of the leading vendors of electronics components and an active supporter of Kicad. It has great production values and has easy to follow step by step screen captures. Estimated Time to complete: 3 hours

EEVBlog: Excellent video blog for Electronics Design. The host, Dave Jones, covers various electronics topics as well as tears down different devices and explains what’s inside.
Embedded.com: The go to trade magazine for embedded systems. Covers everything from current economic trends to new design techniques.

When learning about embedded systems, try to explore atleast 2-3 controllers.
Keep an eye on similarities between different controllers.
Search for and read application notes from microcontroller manufacturers and vendors.
Most manufacturers have a wealth of reference projects with schematics and documents on their websites. Take a look at those instead of hobby electronics sites.