Author Topic: where to stop and when  (Read 1314 times)

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Offline R_G_B_Topic starter

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where to stop and when
« on: January 27, 2023, 09:59:27 am »
I have been involved in designing a wireless sensor. The embedded stuff bare metal stuff. Low level. Then as i worked towards the serial port this is when the problems started.

I needed to interface to the hardware with a user interface. Well this is not a problem with UART and a PC or LCD. However everything seems to want to be connected to the internet of things and tablets mobile phones ETC.

I went down this rabbit hole and went around in circles with all the wireless technologies. such as blue tooth LE, WI-FI, zig-bee, xbee, NFC, NB-IOT, LTE-M,..etc etc.....and many more......so i could interface with a tablet..or smart device...seems there is this expectation of connecting devices to tablets phones etc.. I had spoken to a mate who is a systems engineer.  His belief from his experience is today embedded electronics are expected to  interface with a tablet and smart phone. Gone are the days of using a serial port to connect a laptop. I disagree with this statement

Then comes the software for the various devices  UI . Swift , Andriod studio, react, ionic, flutter, windows visual studio....the list goes on and on.....then i looked html and CSS java |O |O |O |O


Dave rant here:



some use cases for devices without a tablet but it does have wi-fi

https://www.bestheating.com/milano-connect-smart-radiator-thermostat-81992?gclid=Cj0KCQiAic6eBhCoARIsANlox859U3pLkv73KZw2pOkJ9yEkmY4WOdf0KV8hLJmIgxrEy8NeJcTs_woaAtBGEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

https://moeshouse.com/en-gb/products/smart-bluetooth-sprinkler-water-timer-with-rain-delay-filter-washer-programmable-irrigation-timer


https://www.gardena.com/int/products/watering/water-controls/irrigation-valve-9-v-bluetooth/970480401/



 forgive me for  the message rant if it's not understood what i am getting at. My point is do i just stop at the hardware interface to the serial port. My concern is  that it seems you have to have a good grasp of software engineering if you want to use wireless technology and also customers seem to expect products to connect to tablets, smart phones. As shown above.

Can Dave Jones look into this and do a video post on this topic. The convergence of software and hardware and embedded electronics IOT IOET IIOT and what it means for software and electronics engineers. Will electronics engineers be forced to understand software engineering to create a successful product or out source to get the software side done?

I have been struggling with this one.



R_G_B





   


 
« Last Edit: January 27, 2023, 02:40:10 pm by R_G_B_ »
R_G_B
 

Offline R_G_B_Topic starter

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Re: where to stop and when
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2023, 05:40:08 pm »
This is an interesting article to read ....

It answers some of my questions:

https://www.designnews.com/design-hardware-software/soon-be-extinct-embedded-software-engineer
R_G_B
 

Offline R_G_B_Topic starter

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Re: where to stop and when
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2023, 06:51:55 pm »
karpouzi9 good points.



I guess for me at least it's been a learning experience gained something.


I guess this is why flutter was created to make some kind of standard cross platform interface. Maybe this will happen with Wireless technology it will be one protocol that interfaces with many different wireless systems. Kind of like a software configurable radio. Done at the hardware abstraction layer. it's getting that way some modules combine blue tooth and WI-FI.

 
R_G_B
 

Offline james_s

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Re: where to stop and when
« Reply #3 on: January 27, 2023, 08:52:33 pm »
There's a reason hardly any one-person shops bother doing full-stack development of consumer hardware from designing the embedded wireless widget to the iOS/Android app and website. By the time you've finished all of the 600 steps involved, your competitors have already released their 3rd-gen widget.

If you don't know why you'd need an app to connect to your gadget via bluetooth, you don't need an app.

Unnecessary apps are annoying. Many of the new Roombas require an app just to configure them to run on a schedule. The older models all have the scheduling built in with a LED display to set the times, it's super easy and reliable. I fail to see what is improved by having an app.
 

Offline R_G_B_Topic starter

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R_G_B
 

Offline Kim Christensen

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Re: where to stop and when
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2023, 05:58:44 am »
interesting read:

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/designing-for-the/9781491971468/ch05.html

I love the irony of a page explaining how important cross platform compatibility is, fails at properly rendering text in my Web browser.   :-DD
« Last Edit: January 29, 2023, 06:02:36 am by Kim Christensen »
 

Offline rstofer

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Re: where to stop and when
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2023, 04:38:50 pm »
It turns out that I am working on a little IOT gadget that wants to post a sensor state to some UI over WiFi.  I don't care which UI is used but it seems that HTML is the way to go (for me).

Enter the Raspberry Pi Pico W, a little MicroPython code, a little of HTML (to send out) and it's done.  There is library code for the network stack up to and including the web server.

Something on the order of 120 lines of code and it's done!  I really like the Pico W!

https://www.adafruit.com/product/5526

 

Offline R_G_B_Topic starter

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Re: where to stop and when
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2023, 06:42:58 pm »
It turns out that I am working on a little IOT gadget that wants to post a sensor state to some UI over WiFi.  I don't care which UI is used but it seems that HTML is the way to go (for me).

Enter the Raspberry Pi Pico W, a little MicroPython code, a little of HTML (to send out) and it's done.  There is library code for the network stack up to and including the web server.

Something on the order of 120 lines of code and it's done!  I really like the Pico W!

https://www.adafruit.com/product/5526

Yes I looked at the Raspberry Pico W.

I have looked at using a ultra low power  WI-FI module.  I was looking at trying to design a web server on a micro controller. It's quite a bit to do if you need a filing system to store the html and CSS. This has all been done on the esp32. But I have not seen it done anywhere else. If you can port it to other microcontrollers?

https://os.mbed.com/blog/entry/littlefs-high-integrity-embedded-fs/


 interesting link:
https://iosoft.blog/2022/12/06/picowi/



 
R_G_B
 


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