How can I improve my level of embedded systems quickly?
Ok firstly, embedded systems are no different from any other system engineering. So you still need to learn good software and team development practices. Things like the use of configuration control, unit testing and all the soft skills like team working, agile, etc. common failure modes and how to test for them would be great
Where things change is that you will have a closer relationship with the hardware and if designed in house the hardware designer. This means a good understanding of electronics is useful because it allows you to speak the same language.
you also need to gain a good understanding of processor and bus design because you are going to spending a lot of time at that level. Good experience with tools like in-circuit emulators, bus analyzers, logic analyzers, and jtags tools will also be invaluable, especially if the hardware is still being developed. The use of memory analyzers is essential and understanding tools like Wireshark are useful. Saying that most debugging is still done via console output so the ability to create a serial port is essential
The simplest way of doing this is to learn by doing. Grab an Ardunio or a raspberry pi and start doing things with them. Give yourself a project that requires high performance or extension of the basic hardware and work out how to do it. Exploring Raspberry Pi: Interfacing to the Real World with Embedded Linux Paperback by Derek Molloy is an excellent book if you want to use a Pi as an embedded device.
Learning how to communicate with other hardware is also an excellent learning tool because you will be spending a lot of time learning how to decode datasheets, almost all of them poorly written or out of date. Learning to navigate these is a skill
What an entree level should know in this field? A basic understanding of hardware and how software interacts with it. However all hardware is different, so the ability to quickly learn is essential.
Embedded system development is fun and challenging, but because of its bespoke nature, there are no quick answers. good luck!
You may follow these steps but this isn’t obvious.
- First, start with 8bit PIC or AVR Microcontroller programming in C and try to learn GPIO, UART, SPI and at the end Timer and Interrupt. As long as you have a clear concept in Timer and Interrupt, it’s time to jump into 32bit Microcontroller(But you still have to learn CAN, SPI, UART etc Peripheral Driver Development). You will find many resources by searching google. If you want you can start from the first article of this blog(Introduction to PIC 18F2550 Microcontroller) “Introduction to PIC18f2550″
- In 32bit microcontroller programming is a complex thing and ARM Cortex M based 32bit microcontroller is a good choice. I recommend STM32 and Texas Instruments Tiva C Launchpad(TM4C123GH6PM Microcontroller). There is a free course from EDX offered by the University of Texas. Embedded Systems – Shape The World: Microcontroller Input/Output This course is totally free and awesome.
- Learn Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) Check out this link and you will find RTOS instructions using TM4C123x Launchpad. Modern Embedded Systems Programming video course — Quantum Leaps
- Learn Embedded Linux.
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