Category Archive: embedded C

Feb
09

Freescale KL25 Cortex M-0+ Review

One of the projects I’m working on I chose to use one of the new Freescale KL25 MCUs.  They have an ARM Cortex-M0+ core and lots of peripherals to boot, including ones specifically designed for low power usage.  Below are some of the reasons why I chose it, and what my experiences with it have …

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Permanent link to this article: http://blog.curioussystem.com/2013/02/freescale-kl25-cortex-m-0-review/

May
19

The Case of the Random Lockup

We had a bug that just wouldn’t go away. Sometimes it would show up quickly, sometimes it would show up after the code had been running for a few days… but it would show up. What’s the programmer to do?

Permanent link to this article: http://blog.curioussystem.com/2012/05/the-case-of-the-random-lockup/

Jan
07

Of embedded black boxes

Over the last few months I’ve been working on projects using PIC microcontrollers. At first I had a rather negative view of the PIC processors. Since I started coding on them, I have come to realize that it is the compiler that I have issues with much more than the hardware. The compiler we’ve been …

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Permanent link to this article: http://blog.curioussystem.com/2012/01/of-embedded-black-boxes/

Jun
14

Capacitive Touch Sensing on the MSP430

One of the projects I’m working on involves using capacitive touch sensing (CTS) on the TI MSP430.  TI has been pushing their touch sensing capabilities recently and has even released a library that helps in implementing touch sensing on the MSP430.  I decided to give it a try.  The short story is that there is …

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Permanent link to this article: http://blog.curioussystem.com/2011/06/capacitive-touch-sensing-on-the-msp430/

Feb
14

A Valentine Example for Blinking Lights

For Valentine’s Day my son needed to make a “mailbox” for his kindergarten class. He & his mother made a rocket out of an old oat container. Since this was a family project, I decided that my contribution would be lighting it up. My son was quite excited when I told him that I was …

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Permanent link to this article: http://blog.curioussystem.com/2011/02/a-valentine-example-for-blinking-lights/

Jan
21

The Never Ending Conversion

When using the ADC10 in an MSP430 with multiple conversions, the ADC10BUSY bit will stay on even after the conversions are done. Trying to be a good little programmer and checking to make sure the ADC is done will leave you hanging… forever. The conversions must be done for the data transfer and the data …

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Permanent link to this article: http://blog.curioussystem.com/2011/01/the-never-ending-conversion/

Jan
21

Accidental Double Interrupts on a Timer

I had a program where I was using a timer and an ISR to flip a bit on a TI MSP430.  Well, the bit would only filp for a few milliseconds and then revert back to its prior value.  As it turns out, I was calling the ISR twice every time I wanted it.

Permanent link to this article: http://blog.curioussystem.com/2011/01/accidental-double-interrupts-on-a-timer/

Jan
21

MSP430, Entering and Exiting low Power Modes while Debugging

On a recent project I had one heck of a time trying to debug the program flow in CCS 4.2.  I thought the code wasn’t going anywhere because when I would break the program, it would stop on a line before where it should have been executing.  After a couple days of troubleshooting with an …

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Permanent link to this article: http://blog.curioussystem.com/2011/01/msp430-entering-and-exiting-low-power-modes-while-debugging/