Articles - Microcontrollers Usage

Impact of ADC resolution and its reference Engineers always want to get all they can from their circuits; this holds for analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). To maximize performance from an ADC, resolution is perhaps the primary spec to focus on. ...

Microcontrollers must often read the status of switches in control applications. A typical switch configuration uses pullup resistors on both of the switches to pull the signals high or low for the microcontroller to read. The controlling output in ...

Basic programmable rheostats For many variable resistor (rheostat) applications, one of the device’s terminals is connected to a voltage source VS. Such a source might be a reference DC voltage, an op amp output carrying an AC plus DC signal, ...

Capturing transient analog signals with a microcontroller normally involves adding a full-fat peak-hold circuit as an external peripheral. This novel approach minimizes that extra hardware by using a µP’s ability to switch its pins ...

Filtering occurs frequently in the analog world. Unfortunately, in the digital world, engineers apply it mainly to the DSPs (digital-signal processors) and not to the small 8-bit microcontrollers that designers commonly use. This situation occurs ...

Light and Versatile Graphics Library (LVGL) is steadily making inroads in the graphics realm by efficiently facilitating graphical user interface (GUI) designs in small, resource-constrained, and battery-powered devices such as wearables, e-bikes, ...

Sensors such as strain gages, RTDs (resistance temperature detectors), and thermistors produce a resistance that’s proportional to force or temperature. If you measure a sensor’s resistance, you can calculate the physical parameter. ...

Cortex-M0+ is not the newest small, low-power processor and, in fact, some newer offerings may surpass it. However, its broad deployment and mature environment continue to make the processor a compelling offering for low-power applications. So, ...

Abstract In this three-part series, we have been exploring the properties and applications of convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which are mainly used for pattern recognition and the classification of objects. Part 3 will explain the hardware ...

Abstract This is part 2 in a series of articles focusing on the properties and applications of convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which are mainly used for pattern recognition and the classification of objects. In the first article ...