ePanorama.net » Embedded Development

I found an old smart card test card with PIC16C84 and a memory chip.
Depending on the software put to PIC it could have maybe emulated telephone booth calling card, SIM card, satellite TV smartcard, cable TV smartcard or something else.

Micro:bit Create AI

Tomi Engdahl — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 21:10:29 +0000

Using the accelerometer and processor of the micro:bit V2, you can experience and learn about artificial intelligence in the real world through movement and machine learning (ML). micro:bit CreateAI is a free, web-based tool that makes it easy for students to explore AI through movement and machine learning, and take it into the real world with a BBC micro:bit development board (v2). You can training a machine learning model with your own movement data with your web browser. Then you can then create a MakeCode program that uses this machine learning model and runs on micro:bit v2 board.

Adding artificial intelligence (AI) to the BBC micro:bit is made possible with a free online education tool that allows your students to combine AI with coding in Microsoft MakeCode blocks. The plan is that with the micro:bit and CreateAI students can develop an AI-powered piece of tech from scratch in 90 minutes! If you have experience with embedded system and micro:bit, you can do that much faster.

micro:bit CreateAI is a free, web-based tool that lets you program a micro:bit to recognise and respond to your movements, like clapping, waving, dancing or jumping. The movement data used for AI model teaching is recorded from the micro:bit’s accelerometer and transported to PC using Bluetooth. The recorded data is used to train, test and improve your own machine learning model, then use it in a Microsoft MakeCode tool that is used to program the micro:bit board.

Getting started with micro:bit CreateAI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWl3WxDE6QI

Discover micro:bit CreateAI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqNy5N3WLtM

Try it at createai.microbit.org
Discover more at microbit.org/ai

BBC micro:bit is a dev board designed for computer science and technology. It runs on a Nordic Cortex-M4 chip with radio + FPU capabilities. The version v2 boasts of a speaker, touch sensor, 25 LEDs, 2 buttons, accelerometer, bluetooth, a mic and a couple of GPIO pins.

The nRF52 application processor is where user programs run. A single, complete application including user code, runtime code and Bluetooth stack is loaded and run directly from on-chip flash memory.

The display is a 5×5 array of LEDs. It is connected to the micro:bit as a 5×5 matrix. Runtime software repeatedly refreshes this matrix at a high speed, such that it is within the user persistence of vision range, and no flicker is detected.

The micro:bit has a combined accelerometer and magnetometer chip that provides 3-axis sensing and magnetic field strength sensing. It also includes some on-board gesture detection (such as fall detection) in hardware, and additional gesture sensing (e.g. logo-up, logo-down, shake) via software algorithms.

Links to more information:
https://microbit.org/get-started/user-guide/microbit-createai/
https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/microbit-rs
https://microbit.org/get-started/features/ai/
https://microbit.org/new-microbit/
https://microbit.org/news/2024-11-20/microbit-CreateAI-launch/
https://microbit.org/news/2024-11-20/teaching-and-learning-about-ai-with-the-microbit/

Embedded Conference Finland 2024

Tomi Engdahl — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 12:33:33 +0000

Embedded Conference Finland is Finland’s only independent embedded technology conference. I took part in the Embedded Conference Finland 2024 few weeks ago.

Program Thursday September 26 2024

The morning started with congatec’s presentation, where the topic is the aReady concept announced in the spring. In it, the customer is offered the building blocks of a ready-made embedded application, from the COM card all the way to the cloud service.
9.30 congatec
aReady – your cyber secure building block
Timo Poikonen, Senior Key Account Manager Nordics

Testhouse Nordic presented Keysight’s new product. The HD3 series is a 14-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) oscilloscope.
10.15 Testhouse Nordic
The All-New InfiniiVIsion HD3 series from Keysight. HD3 series is a 14-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) oscilloscope that delivers four times the signal resolution and half the noise of other general-purpose oscilloscopes.
Sales manager Petri Sutela

CVG Convergens’ presentation considered the differences between customized embedded iron and ready-made commercial solutions. What should the designer pay attention to right now? This was my presentation.
11.00 CVG Convergens
Custom vs off-the-shelf – perspectives for 2025
Choosing custom embedded hardware over Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware depends on several factors. What should you consider in 2024/25 before making the decision?
Tomi Engdahl, Senior Software Engineer

12.00 Lunch

Adlink Technology presents the role of OSM modules in the selection of different COM standards.
13.00 Adlink Technology
OSM – a shortcut for full custom single board computers
Adlink will be presenting the latest open standard for Computer On Modules (COM) called Open Standard Module (OSM). The presentation will be focusing on the advantages the new OSM standard has compared with full custom single board computers and existing COM standards like Q7 and SMARC.
Henrik Petersen, Key Account Manager, Adlink Technology

Science Information Technology Center told about Europe’s most powerful LUMI supercomputer and how the system was used to train the generative artificial intelligence models Poro and Viking produced by the University of Turku and Silo AI.
14.00 LUMI – Europes fastest supercomputer
LUMI is the fastest super computer in Europe – Dan Still, CSC
How LLM models are trained in LUMI – Aleksi Kallio, CSC

At the end of the day, Etteplan provided an up-to-date overview of the EU legislative projects concerning each designer. The NIS2 cyber security regulation will come into force in the near future, but other regulations are also in the works. This was a very interesting presentation on lots of materials on the cyber regulations that will affect embedded systems market in next few years.
15.00 Etteplan – NIS2, RED, CRA, AI Act and Data Act
New regulations affecting embedded devices
Antti Tolvanen, Sales Director, Etteplan

The conference program was streamed live to YouTube when they were presented.
The presentation slides can be viewed through seminar program page. The videos can be found at Embedded Conference Finland YouTube Channel.

You can find articles on those presentations (written in Finnish) through this link https://etn.fi/index.php/embedded-conference-finland/

The CVG Convergens’ presentation that considered the differences between customized embedded iron and ready-made commercial solutions was presented by me. I got my picture to the news article on the live streaming of the event:

There is a news article on the presentation at https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/16678-ecf24-miksi-tehdae-kustomoitua-rautaa. The slides and video of the presentation are also available.

Raspberry Pi RP2350

Tomi Engdahl — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 16:29:09 +0000

Raspbertty Pi has release a new board: Pico 2. The Pico 2 has Raspberry Pi’s latest silicon, the RP2350. It is available now for $5.

Raspberry Pi Pico 2: a RISC-V bet!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXF_lVwA8A4

The RP2350 is Raspberry Pi’s second-generation in-house microcontroller design. The Raspberry Pi RP2350 is a major upgrade over the earlier Raspberry Pi RP2040, boasting newer Arm Cortex-M33 cores running at a faster 150MHz, almost twice the static RAM (SRAM) plus support for external pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM), an additional programmable input/output (PIO) block, and more — but it also brings with it an architectural complexity: the presence of two RISC-V cores, based on the free and open source Hazard3 design, which can be chosen in place of the Arm cores or even split with one Arm and one RISC-V core running simultaneously.

New microcontroller boasts a choice of 150MHz Arm Cortex-M33 or RISC-V Hazard3 cores, a dedicated display peripheral, 520kB SRAM, and more. RP2350 is built using quad-core dual-architecture with two ARM and two RISC-V cores, but only two of those four cores can run at the same time. There is 520 Kb of SRAM memory on the chip and the new features include Arm TrustZone, 8 Kb OTP memory and Secure Boot support. The previous PR2040 had two Arm Cortex-M0+ cores with a maximum clock frequency of 133 MHz and 264 KB of SRAM memory. It is possible to integrate extra two megabytes of Flash to the same chip package.

“Raspberry Pi Pico 2 is our new $5 microcontroller board, built on RP2350: our new high-performance, secure microcontroller,” the company says of its latest launch. “With a higher core clock speed, double the on-chip SRAM, double the on-board flash memory, more powerful Arm cores, optional RISC-V cores, new security features, and upgraded interfacing capabilities, Raspberry Pi Pico 2 delivers a significant performance and feature boost, while retaining hardware and software compatibility with earlier members of the Raspberry Pi Pico series.”

For programming Raspberry Pi RP2350′shave Day-One Rust Support. Pallant says, “this is the first ever microcontroller launch with Rust support out-of-the-box.” Raspberry Pi Pico 2 board serves as a quick-start development platform.

Sources:

Raspberry Pi RP2350
https://www.hackster.io/news/jonathan-pallant-details-the-deeply-impressive-raspberry-pi-rp2350-s-day-one-rust-support-057ea35ce84e

Raspberry Pi Unveils the Pico 2, Powered by the Dual-Architecture Quad-Core RP2350
https://www.hackster.io/news/raspberry-pi-unveils-the-pico-2-powered-by-the-dual-architecture-quad-core-rp2350-605253ab1235

Raspberry Pi Pico 2:n uudesta RP2350:stä löytyy sekä Arm- että RISC-V-ytimiä
https://www.io-tech.fi/uutinen/raspberry-pi-pico-2n-uudesta-rp2350sta-loytyy-seka-arm-etta-risc-v-ytimia/

Disco lights DIY with Arduino

Tomi Engdahl — Mon, 06 May 2024 22:23:59 +0000

Depends what you want. I’d go with a microcontroller for starts so you can change it programmatically. I’d bet someone has done it with an Arduino or Pi. Here are some links to interesting looking projects. Those circuits operate mostly at safe low voltages and control low power LEDs. The same ideas can be used to control higher power lights with help of FETs or SSRS (if you know how to do that safely).

Disco LED
It is a simple tutorial on how to create disco lights.
https://www.hackster.io/MightyProjects/disco-led-b261d5
The project is about the disco lights. Just upload the code to the arduino and enjoy the lights in a dark room.

Disco Lights With Arduino
https://www.instructables.com/Disco-Lights-With-Arduino/

Disco Lights
https://mehackit.org/en/courses/electronics_projects/05-projects/04-disco_lights/
Build disco lights that flash to the beat of the music. The sound sensor in the Maker Kit can track music, and at the same time, we’ll learn how to flash five leds independently with Arduino.

I need some help making a disco ball
https://forum.arduino.cc/t/i-need-some-help-making-a-disco-ball/874123
This project is triying to recreate the melody “Take on me” using two piezos and flash some LEDs. There is the code and discussion on that.

Arduino 101 with Blinking Disco LED
https://www.ashishvishwakarma.com/arduino-101-disco-led/
This is a beginner level Arduino DIY. Tweak the Arduino blinking LED example with a Tri-color LED, and made it as Disco LED.

RGB Disco Light
https://www.instructables.com/RGB-Disco-Light/
This project will show you how to create a rainbow disco light with just some wires, code, and an RGB LED module.

Arduino LED Chaser|| Sequential LED Blinker || Chaser LED
https://www.hackster.io/helloanimesh390/arduino-led-chaser-sequential-led-blinker-chaser-led-ca266f

PROJECT 4: DISCO STROBE LIGHT
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/arduino-project-handbook/9781457198861/xhtml/ch04.xhtml
Turning the potentiometer up or down changes the speed of the flashing lights, creating a strobe effect. You can use red and blue LEDs for a flashing police light effect.

WS2812 based circuits blog post
https://www.epanorama.net/newepa/2016/06/19/ws2812-addressable-leds-test/
WS2812 is a intelligent control LED light source that the control circuit and RGB chip are integrated in a package of 5050. WS2812b LED strips are very popular among the maker community because of their versatility and ease-of-use.

WS2812b LEDs
https://learn.illuminations.mit.edu/chapter/ws2812b
In order to make MIT Illuminations-style lights at home, we need to scale up from programmatically controlling one LED to a lot at once! WS2812b LED strips are very popular among the maker community because of their versatility and ease-of-use.

How To Control WS2812B Individually Addressable LEDs using Arduino
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhYu0k2woRM

ARDUINO DMX512 CONTROLLER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PjBBBQB2m4
Using the DMXSimple Arduino library, you can get to get two American DJ Micro Wash RGBW PAR can lights running, controlling them with manual commands from the serial monitor or automatic scenes from the sketch.

NEOPIXEL DMX Controller for a WS2812B LED Strip Using Arduino Uno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ_UWYBOj8M
How to use Arduino as a DMX controller and receiver to control commercial DMX fixtures as well as your own projects. This uses the Arduino to send and receive custom hard coded data with the DMX protocol, not meant to receive other standard controller data.

How to Make DMX512 Fixture Using Arduino to Control the Stepper Motor | How to Build DMX512 Fixture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtvbEccsefk
This is a project demonstrating how to make DMX512 Fixture Using Arduino to Control the Stepper Motor. We have controlled the Stepper motor position angle using the value on the DMX512 channel. In this fixture we can change the Channel number addressing using the simple DIP switches.

Disco lights DIY
https://www.epanorama.net/newepa/2024/04/21/disco-lights-diy/

More videos:
https://youtu.be/bNWzbIw8Mfs?si=yLPNU8CA0xi9ZH9A
https://youtu.be/nB3DT5NU-vA?si=FZ-lMXN-SFCLwcu7
https://youtu.be/G-zCNkNp4RY?si=UwvrA9n2QXHOl7UV
https://youtu.be/2uLxyBaii70?si=X_m9g1kVHIkDSq8B
https://youtu.be/82dXy_CqCeg?si=rd8J-Vt-ohI0xGtw

Arduino simulators in web

Tomi Engdahl — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 18:58:39 +0000

There are now Arduino simulators for what you will just need a web browser you’re good to go.

Leonardo Russo’s ArduinoSimulator is an open-source Arduino Simulator written in JavaScript that runs code directly in your web browser and shows the serial output and digital/analog pins status for various Arduino boards like Arduino UNO R3, MEGA1280, MEGA2560, and NANO V3.

This simulator has an area to write your code and save it locally. To test a program simply click on the run button at the top. To visualize the program operation the simulator shows icons for digital pins states (red = low, green = high) and analog pins (value from 0 to 255), and a serial monitor with a field that allows you to send commands as needed.

Arduino simulator demo
https://lrusso.github.io/ArduinoSimulator/demo1.html

Arduino Simulator in JavaScript – source code
https://github.com/lrusso/ArduinoSimulator

Wokwi is an online simulator for Arduino, Raspberry Pi Pico, and ESP32 boards designed to help to learn programming without the actual hardware. Wokwi simulator looks like it could be a great little tool for educators to emulate circuits and run code right in a web browser. Wokwi has support for several Arduino boards (Uno, Mega, Nano), the Raspberry Pi Pico, and a generic ESP32 board programmed either with Arduino or MicroPython. Wokwi is free to use with public projects and standard features, but there’s also a premium membership option with more features.

Wokwi
https://wokwi.com/

Links to sources:

https://www.cnx-software.com/2024/01/16/arduinosimulator-is-an-open-source-arduino-simulator-that-runs-on-your-web-browser/

https://www.cnx-software.com/2023/04/10/wokwi-arduino-raspberry-pi-pico-esp32-board-simulator/

Bitlocker hacked using TPM communications sniffing

Tomi Engdahl — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 17:43:48 +0000

Encrypting your hard drive is good security. If you’re running Windows, the most popular system is BitLocker. But how secure it it?
Bitlocker runs silently in the background, decrypting data on demand. In a simplified sense, encryption keys are stored in the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Longer description: The data is encrypted using the Full Volume Encryption Key (FVEK). The FVEK is in turn encrypted with the Volume Master Key (VMK). The VMK is encrypted by multiple protectors.

BitLocker’s reliance on a TPM for security seems to its own downfall. It looks like in some computers the TPM key storage is a real security problem. Even though most TPM chips might be secure by itself, not all the communications with it is secure. It looks like that it takes a short time to hack TPM in certain computers with very cheap DIY tools.

How long does it take to steal your Bitlocker keys? Security researcher Thomas “Stacksmashing” Roth has released a tool which turns the $4 Raspberry Pi Pico into a gadget capable of capturing the keys for Microsoft BitLocker-encrypted volumes from selected laptops in under a minute — by sniffing traffic on the Low Pin Count (LPC) bus.

The problem is that the key can be sniffed as it passes on the LPC bus. Some laptops even have connectors and test points directly on the LPC. This sniffing can be done quite easily looking way with older Lenovo Thinkpad (X1 Carbon 1st or 2nd Generation). “simply by poking it with a $4 Raspberry Pi Pico. This allows me to access all BitLocker protected data on this system, and even lets me backdoor it.”

This video shows how to use a cheap hardware attack to bypass TPM-based Bitlocker encryption as used on most Microsoft Windows devices.

Breaking Bitlocker – Bypassing the Windows Disk Encryption

Here are the plans to build the needed hardware and the software for it: The board (in /hardware/) is compatible with the “Debug Card” connector found on some Lenovo laptops. The firmware currently only supports LPC, not SPI TPMs.

Pico TPMSniffer
https://github.com/stacksmashing/pico-tpmsniffer

To be fair, stealing the keys doesn’t give one the data on the drive, the attacker would have to take the drive itself or spend extra time transferring the data over USB.

More modern computers include the TPM inside the CPU itself, which makes hacking them harder. It seems that in embedded systems also it pays to use a CPU that has built TPM rather than soldering a separate TPM chip to the circuit board.

Articles that are used as information sources:

BEATING BITLOCKER IN 43 SECONDS
https://hackaday.com/2024/02/06/beating-bitlocker-in-43-seconds/

BitLocker encryption broken in 43 seconds with sub-$10 Raspberry Pi Pico — key can be sniffed when using an external TPM
News
BitLocker’s reliance on a TPM for security is its own downfall in this specific exploit
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/youtuber-breaks-bitlocker-encryption-in-less-than-43-seconds-with-sub-dollar10-raspberry-pi-pico

Thomas Roth Breaks Microsoft’s BitLocker in Under a Minute — with a $4 Raspberry Pi Pico
Sniffing traffic on the Low Pin Count (LPC) bus, this open-hardware quick-connect dongle targets specific models of Lenovo laptops.
https://www.hackster.io/news/thomas-roth-breaks-microsoft-s-bitlocker-in-under-a-minute-with-a-4-raspberry-pi-pico-6ac738e6ec77

EXTRACTING BITLOCKER KEYS FROM A TPM
https://pulsesecurity.co.nz/articles/TPM-sniffing

MISRA C coding standard

Tomi Engdahl — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 18:43:23 +0000

MISRA C is a set of software development guidelines for the C programming language developed by The MISRA Consortium. The aims of MISRA C aare to facilitate code safety, security, portability and reliability in the context of embedded systems, especifically those systems programmed in ISO C / C90 / C99. There is also a set of guidelines for MISRA C++.

MISRA conducts research projects and publishes documents that provide accessible information for engineers and management for writing safe code for embedded systems. MISRA is a collaboration between manufacturers, component suppliers, engineering consultancies and academics which seeks to research and promote best practice in developing safety- and security-related electronic systems and other software-intensive applications.

MISRA C originated when two of the original members of the MISRA project, Ford and Land Rover, became aware they were working separately on coding guidelines for embedded C in automotive systems. Although originally specifically targeted at the automotive industry, MISRA C has evolved as a widely accepted model for best practices by leading developers in sectors including automotive, aerospace, telecom, medical devices, defense, railway, and others.

MISRA C / C ++ – What is it?

I took last week a course on MISRA C to learn about how to use this coding standard for embedded programming.

“In order for a piece of software to claim to be compliant to the MISRA C Guidelines, all mandatory rules shall be met and all required rules and directives shall either be met or subject to a formal deviation. Advisory rules may be disapplied without a formal deviation, but this should still be recorded in the project documentation.”

Many MISRA C rules can be characterized as guidelines because under certain condition software engineers may deviate from rules and still be considered compliant with the standard. Deviations must be documented either in the code or in a file.

Links to more information:

MISRA C
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MISRA_C

MISRA
https://misra.org.uk/

MISRA C – Development of safety critical software with ansi/iso c
https://nohau.eu/courses/misra-c-development-of-safety-critical-software/

A GUIDE TO MISRA C CODING STANDARDS
MISRA C and MISRA C++
https://www.perforce.com/resources/qac/misra-c-cpp#:~:text=The%20MISRA%20C%20coding%20standard,%2C%20medical%20devices%2C%20and%20rail.

MISRA C++; MISRA C++:2023 Guidelines for the use C++:17 in critical systems
Published in October 2023, this is the latest and current edition of MISRA C++. It is specifically targetting the 2017 language version (C++:17) as defined by ISO/IEC 14882:2017.
https://misra.org.uk/misra-cpp2023-released-including-hardcopy/

MISRA C / C ++ – What is it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaDfrHqWg5A

Sonar supports latest MISRA C++ 2023 guidelines
https://www.sonarsource.com/knowledge/languages/cpp/misra-cpp-2023/?gads_campaign=SC-Hroi-PMax&gads_ad_group=Global&gads_keyword=&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItvu5j6GFgwMVp2SRBR0XfggMEAAYASAAEgJf5_D_BwE

Learn about MISRA C++ 2023
In the world of embedded software, the significance of MISRA coding guidelines in ensuring compliance for safety-critical systems is paramount. Download MISRA C++ 2023 Guidelines explained for an insightful understanding of MISRA, its influential coding guidelines, and the role of static analysis in refining code for embedded systems.
https://assets-eu-01.kc-usercontent.com/14a55959-a51a-01d5-d7c0-1d06e516432a/f6ad390a-1b79-4d93-a1e0-64dc54605677/Misra%20Cpp_1023.pdf

A Rationale-Based Classification of MISRA C Guidelines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBwC9S0uuWM

An Introduction to MISRA C:2012 & Mandatory Guideline Violations in Linux
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGTMHf9r3qY

Understanding Implementation-Defined Behavior in C and C++
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqdDbB07RUo

MISRA Deviation Permits: Giant Time and Money Savers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsUt-PxmnG0

MISRA C in the ISO 26262 Context I #automotive #ESSS21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrf7rIJxgI8

SAS2018 – The Misra C Coding Standard and its Role in the Development (by Roberto Bagnara)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCZotsYizRI

A GUIDE TO MISRA C CODING STANDARDS
MISRA C and MISRA C++
https://www.perforce.com/resources/qac/misra-c-cpp