December 2015Monthly Archives

There’s a lot of seasoned coders out there who are so stuck in the mindset that C is the fastest language, that they are willing to use antiquated and sometimes dangerous coding practices. I came across this on the Arduino forums recently . . . I’m using String because its… Continue Reading StaticString Performance Tests

So you want to create a remote controlled device using an Arduino? To put an Arduino between your RC receiver and servos, you’re going to need to know how to read PWM signals. Getting your Arduino to read signals from an RC receiver is an easy task if you don’t… Continue Reading Reading PWM Signals From An RC Receiver With Arduino

Fuzzy Logic Control Some people describe fuzzy logic in mystical terms, as if it’s a magical way of making a computer think like a human. It’s not. It’s a simple way of mapping an input to an output. There’s nothing fuzzy about it. Let’s look at an example. Say you’re… Continue Reading Fuzzy Logic Control

Using the C standard libraries for string processing is a terrible option when it comes to programming micro-controllers. The standard C string functions can be unsafe and most C string functions are prohibited by high integrity coding standards. They will also bloat compiled binaries by up to 30Kb. The Embedded… Continue Reading Embedded String Programming

A while ago I had the displeasure of fixing a bug in an embedded application. Every 11hours and 55mins the micro-controller would halt. It wasn’t a hard fault, it would simply freeze. Just to fill in some background information: The target MCU was an STM32F415 and the application had made… Continue Reading ETK Time

EvoPid EvoPid is an auto-tuning PID controller from ETK. It uses evolutionary algorithms to search for optimal PID gains. There are a number of ways to tune a PID controller. PID gains can be calculated using hard rules and previously gathered data. Methods that use this approach include the Zigler… Continue Reading EvoPid – Autotuning PID Controller

First blog post on new blog. About three years ago I started Firetail UAV project. I also started a blog to post my progress and any interesting discoveries I made along the way. As Firetail grew, it got it’s own website ( firetailuav.com ) but my blog remained at camelsoftware.com/firetail/blog.… Continue Reading Fresh Blog