Embedded Systems Academy

The number of product developments supporting the automotive standard for ‘add-on devices’ CiA447 is on the rise.

The standard supports electronic devices used in taxis, emergency response vehicles and other governmental service vehicles. Typical components include roof bars (light & sound), radios, control units, taximeters, printers and similar devices.

Using a CiA447 gateway, automotive manufacturers like Daimler already provide access to the vehicles internal data today. The standard allows sharing some of the car’s resources like switches and displays with CiA447 devices. A steering wheel button can be used as the PTT (push to talk) button for a radio, which in return can use the car’s display to show channel numbers, volume settings or such. Read more…

Texas Instruments have released a lost cost evaluation board for their MSP430 microcontroller family and Value Line series. Utilizing free code-limited compilers, the board with cables costs $4.30 direct from Texas Instruments, with free shipping. This represents a very low-cost way to get started with this microcontroller family.

Visit the Texas Instruments site MSP430 LaunchPad (MSP-EXP430G2) to learn more.

We have released a new product called “Flash Magic Production System NET” which contains support for writing Flash Magic based applications in .NET languages.

Included are .NET assemblies for each of the driver DLLs used by Flash Magic. The API has been designed to take advantage of .NET features such as exceptions while maintaining familiarity for those already working with the existing C-based API.

The users of these new .NET assemblies allow developers to quick start working with Flash Magic technologies using the .NET language of their choice.

View a comparison table (scroll down) showing the differences between the new product and the existing Flash Magic Production System.

The Production System version can now be installed by an Administrator User and then used by a Limited User, ideal for production line use. The Limited User can access all the functionality of the application (with the exception of Ethernet bootloader support) and they cannot uninstall it.

This release also contains some minor improvements for the P89(L)V51Rx2 and LPC1751 devices. Get it now from http://www.flashmagictool.com.