From Microcontroller to Mainframe
In the past 20 years I worked on systems as small as 8bit microcontrollers with no Operating System to systems as large as IBM Z-Series Mainframes. I wrote software for small FreeRTOS, Zephyr and RTEMS based controllers with only a few LED’s as “output” to GUI programs for Windows and Linux.
Since low level programming has some special demands on the programming language the main languages I use, and consider myself a professional in, are C, C++, and when it can’t be avoided assembly. Other languages like Python, bash-scripting, lua, cmake, are also part of my daily work.
Due to personal interest and experience there are some areas where I can offer additional knowledge that can speedup things compared to software developers that are new in those areas.
Linux Embedded Distribution Development
For systems that can’t use an average Linux distribution like Debian, Fedora, etc. because of for example storage size restrains I develop highly customizable distributions based on PtxDist or Yocto that can be as small as 8 MByte.
Low Level Driver Development
When there is a need for a small specialized Linux distribution it most of the times means there is some custom hardware in use. For that hardware I can develop low level device drivers for the Linux kernel and bootloaders like U-Boot and Barebox.
For systems where a 8 MByte OS is still to large I can offer baremetal or RTEMS, FreeRTOS and Zephyr based solutions on PowerPC, AVR32, and mostly ARM.
Lighting Control
Lighting Control for stage and theater is an rather specialized area with several unique technologies. Having knowledge of technologies like for example DMX, RDM, Art-Net and ACN, makes it a lot easier for me to get up to speed in software development projects that deal with those technologies.
Like with Lighting Control systems, Public Information Systems in the public transportation area deal with specialized protocols and demands. Working for clients in doing public transportation information systems and for clients doing public transportation power converters I collected extensive knowledge in that area.
Pacman
RGB LED Display test
Posted on April 19, 2019
First test of a new RGB LED display for a train in Canada. The display has 16 x 144 high power RGB LED’s to make sure it is readable in bright sunlight. The hardware uses a iMX6 CPU and runs a custom Linux OS. Content is send to to display via Ethernet using client specified rail/public transport network protocols.
Since it is a multiplex display it is rather difficult to film because the update rate is different from the camera framerate so it looks like it is flickering.
[Read More]Rohde&Schwarz HMP4040
New 4 channel Power Supply
Posted on September 26, 2018
To better handle the power supply needs (3.3V, 5V, 12V, 24V, etc.) of the diverse hardware I
work with I replaced my old 3 channel Hameg power supply with a new Rohde&Schwarz HMP4040.
Rohde&Schwarz RTM3004
New 4/16 channel Oscilloscope
Posted on September 26, 2018
Since almost every project I did the last decades all use something like I2C, SPI, CAN, RS458, etc.
I replaced my old Tek scope with a new Rohde&Schwarz RTM3004 that can do decoding of those protocols, so
I don’t have to manually count bits anymore.
X-Mas
Merry Christmas
Posted on December 22, 2017
BK Precision 9206
New 150VDC Power Supply
Posted on October 13, 2017
Since I have several projects for public transportation information systems, where the use of 110VDC is
common, I added a BK Precision 150VDC power supply to my lineup of equipment.
Rigol DM3068
New bench multimeter
Posted on November 1, 2016
To be able to better measure things like ADC inputs, DAC outputs, I extended my equipment lineup with a
Rigol DM3068 bench multimeter.
BLS Roll-Out
Posted on March 20, 2012
Roll-Out of a new train with a Passenger Information System partially (OS porting, GUI, and build management) written by me. That includes the LED displays on the outside and the TFT displays on the inside, although the inside TFT displays are not visible on this video.