Tutorials

• Linux & Python on RISC-V using QEMU from scratch

  This article explores how to set up RISC-V on QEMU, boot a simple application on it using the PK kernel, and boot a cross-compiled Linux on the emulation platform. We top it by booting a standard Linux distro with python support.

• A hands-on approach to measuring microcontroller performance using Coremark.

  A hands-on approach to porting the Coremark benchmark to measure and compare bare-metal microcontroller performance.

• Analyzing size of ELF sections and symbols to generate a modular report.

  If you are working on any serious embedded systems project, you will come across the need to optimize the memory footprint of your code sooner or later. When the crude methods like high levels of compiler optimization and the standard tips and tricks wont cut it any more, you will have to break out your work boots and the hardhat and get to digging.

• Setting up a Github Actions based CI system for embedded development using PIC32

  GitHub Actions is a workflow automation offering from GitHub. While there are a lot of tutorials out there talking about using GitHub Actions on your web/software project, there are not many on using it for CI/CD workflows for embedded firmware development. In this article, we will go through the steps involved in creating a build test environment for a PIC32 based projects hosted in GitHub.

• Decrypting embedded TLS communication

  While developing cloud connected products, one of the major challenges is debugging application layer errors within a TLS connection. This article describes a scalable method to decrypt application level communication within a TLS connection even when it happens with a cloud based server.

• Understanding JSON Web Tokens

  JSON Web Tokens (JWT) are becoming popular even outside the traditional web authentication use-cases with the advent of IoT and connected devices. This article gives you a concise overview of JWT and and all that is need to get started with using them

• A refresher of new C coding features for embedded system developers

  A refresher of new C coding features included in C99 and C11 for embedded system developers.

• Developing a smart home application for Google Assistant

  Steps to create a smart home agent for Google Home / Google Assistant to control smart home devices in AWS IoT

• Developing an Alexa Smart Home Skill

  Quick start guide on developing smart home skills for voice based control of smart devices using Amazon Alexa.

• letsencrypt+namecheap+Apache in DigitalOcean

  Notes on how to setup a trustable, secure web server using free/low cost tools from namecheap, letsencrypt and digitalocean

• Hijacking openssl renegotiated keys for server wiretaps

  Notes on how I hijacked the re-negotiated SSL keys between Azure server and openssl s_client to decrypt TLS1.2 protected communication logs

• Setting up my blogging environment

  My notes on how to setup the blogging environment for adding pages to embeddedinn

• Secure firmware upgrade for embedded systems

  General principles, architecture, guidelines and good practices for secure over the air (OTA) and over the host (OTH) firmware upgrade for an embedded device

• JTAG basics and usage in microcontroller debugging

  JTAG is omnipresent in the microcontroller and FPGA world in the form of programmers and debuggers. Let us peek under the hood and understand how JTAG works and understand how IDE based debug works with microcontrollers.

• Understanding X.509 Certificate Sructure

  An insight into the format and technologies used to pack a X.509 certificate. This tutorial introduces the concepts and parses through a TLS certificate to bring the concepts together.

• Introduction to digital certificates

  Introduction to digital certificates and the basic concepts of hashes and cryptographic algorithms that are used to build trust based secure systems

• HDLs and basics of hardware design

  introduction to hardware description languages and basic hardware design principles.

• Building a custom IoT dashboard

  Development notes of an end-to-end IoT dashboard implementation for an embedded device.

• Docker : Scratching an itch to build from ground up

  Understand the innards of Docker container system by building one from scratch (including a minimal fs)

• IoT: Networked embedded system caveats

  Points to keep in mind when you are moving to an embedded networking stack from a fulle fledged one.

• Getting started with ESP8266 WiFi Module

  One of the first articles on getting started with an ESP8266 module

• Building an E2E IoT system with Raspberry Pi

  My experiences with building an end to end IoT system using a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino and a MPU6050. The post describes the details of how to compile and setup a minimal kernel with networking and web server support and developing a minimal websocket server to get real time data into the web page based user interface.

• Buildroot and Raspberry Pi

  Steps to compile and bring up a minimalist kernel for Raspberry Pi using Buildroot

• Building a RaspberryPi daughter card - warnings and pitfalls

  mistakes I made while building a dauter card for Raspberry Pi

• MQTT for IoT - a quick hands-on trial

  Give MQTT a test drive

• Writing Linux Device Drivers - Part 2

  This tutorial gives a quick introduction to writing Linux device drivers. [Part 2]

• Writing Linux Device Drivers - Part 1

  This tutorial gives a quick introduction to writing Linux device drivers. It will not make you device driver experts, but will give you a starting point to start learning about Linux device drivers.

• cscope + vim for code navigation

  A tutorial on 8 bit PIC Microcontroller architecture and development tools

• XML parser Pitfalls

  Things to keep in mind while parsing XML

• Adding new menu item to PuTTY

  I came across a requirement to add a new easy access menu item to the putty terminal window for Windows. This article explains how I did it.

• Booting your first cross-compiled Linux based embedded system

  An introduction to getting started with embedded linux. This article will get you started with booting up your first cross compiled kernel

• Advanced Shell Scripting

  A collection of advanced tips and tricks to create wonderful shell scripts

• Test coverage analysis with GCOV

  A quick tutorial on using GCOV for test coverage analysis. This will get you started to run analysis on your complex test cases.

• Home made single sided PCBs

  an old school home made PCB fabrication technique tutorial

• UPnP Device Architecture

  An article that provides an in-depth understanding about the UPNP protocol and its foundational technologies like HTTP, XML, SOAP etc

• USB-3.0

  An introduction to the core concepts and building blocks of USB 3.0 device side protocol for those who are aware of USB 2.0

• USB-2.0

  An in-depth tutorial introducing the USB2.0 device side protocol with detailed illustrations on how transactions happen.

• PIC microcontrollers

  A tutorial on 8 bit PIC Microcontroller architecture and development tools