Posts

Showing posts from 2019

Beginner's Guide to STM8

Image
Introduction The STM8 series of 8 bit microcontrollers are made by ST. The STM8 micorocontrollers have seen their price dramatically reduced by ST and can be easily found on sites like Ebay and Ali Express. They are quite poweful but unfortunately there are very few online resources to help anyone get started. I will share the information i have gathered while i worked with these devices. Development board  If you have been reading some of my earlier posts you will have noticed that in order to work with microcontrollers you will need a development board and a programmer. The development board is similar to what's commonly called an Arduino but in our case with an STM8 in it. The programmer can be purchaed and it required to write all your code into the microcontroller. Below are some example of each The picture below shows a development board that can be purchased easily online. the board is called STM8 Discovery. If you are getting started with STM8 and

Beginner's guide to Arduino

Image
Arduino Getting Started Tutorial Introduction Arduino is a very popular term you will find on the internet if you are an electronic hobbyist. Most people picture Arduino as that popular blue board (Arduino Uno) that is used in many projects. In fact Arduino goes way beyond that. Based on the Arduino website it is described as a platform. However I would describe it more as a very clever standard. With the evolution of microcontrollers in the industrial world, hobbyists wanted to use them for their projects. If you do not know what a microcontroller is you can have a look here: Link . However getting into microcontrollers can be daunting as programming skills are required, hardware cost and software costs need to be considered.   The Arduino comes to the rescue by providing the advantages and bonus features below: 1) A single free and open source software easy to download and install. 2) A single standardized programming language that is easy to learn. 3) Standar