FatFS demo coming soon [Updated]

FatFs is a generic FAT file system module for small embedded systems.

I'm working to integrate the Open Source project FatFS in the ODeV framework.


Stefano

[Update]
The demo is available at http://www.stf12.org/developers/FatFS.html

The new web site is up and running!

Starting from today I'm moving my developer's experience to the new web site.

http://www.stf12.org

It is not a revolution, but just an evolution of all my previous work on embedded firmware development.

The old web site (http://developers.stf12.net/) will be always available because it contains many stuff, it is linked many external sites and... so many people help me to share a few bits of code that... 

The new site is built around the ODeV idea and the Firmware Component Architecture (FCA). It is also a service through its public SVN repository - http://code.google.com/p/stf12/. Start a new project is as simple as checkout all needed component from the repository.

Incoming mail service down

I (and all people in the STF12.net domain) was not able to receive e-mail from 3th of February due to a problem with MX Records.
All services are now up and running.

Sorry for the inconvenient,
Stefano

New ST web site => New Broken Link Problem!

All links to the ST Evaluation boards and other material are not working after ST has published its new site.

I'm working to restore those links. Sorry for the inconvenient.

Ready for Eclipse Helios

All STM32 based demo are now tested with Eclipse Helios.

I have also added the GNU ARM MBS Plugin support. Each workspace contains now two projects. One is configured as a Makefile project (as usual until now). The other project (which name ends with "_mbs") is configured as a managed build project. This means that the Makefile is automatically managed by Eclipse. Add a source file to the project and Eclipse build it. Use the Settings section of the project properties dialog to modify the build option like compiler optimization and so on.


Both projects share the same source file.

Regards,
Stefano

The Eclipse Managed Build Sytem (MBS)

Wooow! I found an open source Eclipse Plugin that extend the Managed Build System for the CodeSourcery tool-chain. It is a great job. For more information look at the GNU ARM Eclipse Plug-in in this web page.

This plug-in allows to build embedded ARM applications, using the managed project features of Eclipse CDT, i.e. there is no need to manually create and maintain a makefile.

I tested it with my C++ Demo.

It's time for a new evolution in the embedded developers world

How to add more design pattern to FreeRTOS.org? How to make easier the multitasking development? What is the next step in the embedded developers world?

I think that C++ is the answer. The today MCU are powerful enough, in term of memory, to profitable the Object Oriented approach for firmware development.

I'm working at a set of class that expose the FreeRTOS features. This is the first step to develop more design pattern useful to build embedded application.

Look at my demo page Multitasking meets C++ in the embedded world for more details.

...It is only the beginning! :-)

Formun service down (Updated)

The Forum service (hosted by hostingphpbb.com) is down from many days.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Stefano

[UPDATE] The service is on... again! :-)

The importance of knoledge sharing (one year after)

Ok, it is about one year and a half that I have shared my idea by publishing them on my "A few bits of code" web site.

The number of visit is increasing each month as showed in the above picture. It is not a success story but I'm happy to have had the opportunity to discuss about embedded technology with so many people. Until today I received more than 300 mails and I followed about 100 discussions. Sometime I had the right answer, sometime I didn't success. In each case my know-how is increasing thanks to all these question I received, that focused my attention.

Even if three hundred e-mails is not so much during one year, it is not so easy to reply to all due to this is not my primary work. Many time I received a question more than one time from different people, and I searched in my e-mail to quick find the answer (thank spothlight! ;-). Other time I was so full that I delayed the reply for too long time. I apologize.
For these reason I think that the e-mail is not always the best tool to discuss about my shared bits of code. For these reason I setup the open discussion forum: everyone could access the knowledge in the forum for free. To search for an answer in the forum is more quick than wait for a reply to an e-mail. More over, in the forum we can find more people able to solve a problem better than me! ;-)

So, I definitively suggest to use the forum to ask for support.

All this effort is focused on my idea (that is each day more clear): ODeV. It is both a way to develop embedded application based on the multitasking approach, and a set of tools focused to make this approach easy and based on Eclipse. I hope to release the first ODeV plug-ins in the next year, 2010. :-)

The ODeV idea (#1)

Look at the following picture.

It shows a debugging session of the STM32 FreeRTOS demo. I use Eclipse (on the left) to debug my firmware... for sure! Let me call it Eclipse1.

But... The most interesting thing happens on the right side of the picture. It is Eclipse (another instance), and it is debugging Eclipse1!!

This is an extension of the debugger I'm working on. This is a piece of the ODeV idea. This is the power of Eclipse.

There are a lot of thing I need to study about the Eclipse Debug Framework, so... I come back to study! :-)

Stefano

STM32-P103 board

This post was moved in the forum of the web site: http://developsers.stf12.net

See the A few bits of code forum.

tiny error

This post was moved in the forum of the web site: http://developsers.stf12.net

See the A few bits of code forum.

24th January 2009

Happy 25 Birthday Macintosh

128 KB of RAM, 64 KB of ROM; Motorola MC68000 at 8MHz and 500 byte of cache; 400 KB single-sided 3.5 inch floppy drive; built-in one-bit black-and-white 9-inch CRT display with a resolution of 512×342 pixels; 8-bit sampled monaural sound at the 22.25 kHz horizontal blanking rate; Mac OS

Think Different

The ODeV idea

Why only two MCU?
Why only manual managed Makefile?
Why long time-consuming debug sessions?
Why not application ad-hoc integrated tools?

The Eclipse revolution takes the power of hi-end software development tools into embedded world. The Eclipse open architecture allows to customize the IDE both, for general embedded multitasking development, and for end-application specific features.

For example I could image a Plug-in to trace the tasks context switch during a debug session, and plot the result in a graphical manner. I could have also a Plug-in displaying a GUI to configure a motor control application (SPEED, PID, etc.) and automatically generate the needed source files.

This is the ODeV idea (http://developers.stf12.net/odev)

I'm working on it. I'm analyzing it. I will update both this post and the web page.

Should you be interested on this idea, or if you would like to contribute to this idea, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Stefano