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Circuit Cellar Magazine - January 2025

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In this issue

4: Performance Bottlenecks in Embedded Linux Solutions—Analysis, Identification, and Mitigation, By Pedro Bertoleti 12: Create Your Own PCBs with a CNC Milling Machine—Using KiCad, CopperCAM, and Candle Software, By Matthew Oppenheim 22: Building a Wi-Fi Router Watchdog—With Raspberry Pi Pico, MicroPython, and Thonny IDE, By Dev Gualtieri 26: Basic Pulse Circuits—Part 2: Flip-Flops, Timing Parameters and Synchronization, By Wolfgang Matthes 36: TECHNOLOGY FEATURE: Smart Home Lock Down—Matter Provides Security Blanket, By Tom Murphy 42: DATASHEET: Microamps Per Megahertz—Ultra-Low Power MCUs Minimize Current Consumption, By Tom Murphy 46: EMBEDDED SYSTEM ESSENTIALS: Holiday Hangover Hardware Hacking Using a Raspberry Pi Pico to Hack an IP Camera, By Colin O'Flynn 50: PICKING UP MIXED SIGNALS: Using Amazon Alexa to Control Custom IoT Gadgets—Part 2: Emulation and Spoken Alarms, By Brian Millier 62: TECH THE FUTURE: The Future of Future of IoT Sustainability, Atmosic Solving Key IoT Challenges—Cutting Battery Usage by Advancing Sustainability and Interoperability, By Paul Davis

Performance Bottlenecks in Embedded Linux Solutions Analysis, Identification, and Mitigation

Good performance is a requirement for every technology, and system designers rely on operating systems to ensure fast and smooth transitions in critical applications. Fortunately, Pedro writes, the embedded Linux OS offers ways for finding, analyzing and mitigating performance bottlenecks so embedded systems can deliver the speed and efficiency that end users expect.

10+ mins

Create Your Own PCBs with a CNC Milling Machine

Using KiCad, CopperCAM, and Candle Software

10+ mins

Building a Wi-Fi Router Watchdog

Dev created a watchdog for a Wi-Fi extender using a Raspberry Pi Pico. This monitors Wi-Fi connectivity for his smart home lighting system, which would require a reset twice a year due to rapid power interruptions.

8 mins

Basic Pulse Circuits

In part one of a three-part series, Wolfgang wrote how basic pulse circuits help digital circuits, such as embedded boards with ARM processors, deal with pulse trains or bursts of pulses from the outside. In Part 2, he dives into enabling flip-flops, timing parameters, and synchronization, design tasks needed to capture, detect, and filter pulses.

10+ mins

Smart Home Lock Down Matter Provides Security Blanket

As more devices in the smart home connect to the Internet, they become increasingly vulnerable to outside attacks. Developers can now add the latest security measures to their Smart Home devices through Matter.

10+ mins

Datasheet: Microamps Per Megahertz Ultra-Low Power MCUs Minimize Current Consumption

How do chip makers differentiate if many ultra-low power MCUs on the market feature the same processor core? The peripherals and different power states offer various ways to manage current consumption down to microamps per megahertz.

2 mins

Holiday Hangover Hardware Hacking

Having too much cheer during the holidays? In this month's article, Colin offers a diversion from the jolly season by urging developers to retreat to the basement to brush up on hardware hacking skills. He shows how a low-cost Raspberry Pi Pico and a TP-Link Tapo C200 smart IP camera could become the next automated bird deterrent or a home automation server.

8 mins

Using Amazon Alexa to Control Custom IoT Gadgets

In part two of his article, Brian describes integrating custom IoT gadgets with Amazon Echo using emulation to receive spoken alarms. In part one, he used emulation and Arduino Cloud services as a middleman.

10+ mins

New TI MCUs Enable Edge AI and Industry-Leading Real-Time Control to Advance Efficiency, Safety, and Sustainability

Texas Instruments (TI) introduced two new series of real-time microcontrollers that deliver advancements to help engineers achieve more intelligent and secure processing in automotive and industrial applications.

1 mins

Read all Stories from Circuit Cellar

Circuit Cellar Magazine Description:

Publisher: KCK-Media-Corp.

Category: Education

Language: English

Frequency: Monthly

Circuit Cellar magazine features engineering tutorials, detailed microcontroller-based projects, and embedded systems industry news for professional electrical engineers, EE/ECE academics, and highly skilled electronics enthusiasts. Since 1988, Circuit Cellar has featured projects and tutorials from the world's top engineers on subjects such as embedded development (e.g., prototyping and programming), signal processing (e.g., DSP chips and signal conditioning), programmable logic (e.g., FPGA projects), sensor systems (e.g., smart sensors and MEMS), 'Net-connected devices (e.g., IoT projects and protocol stacks), robotics (e.g., robotic systems and proximity sensing), and much more. Circuit Cellar is the ultimate resource for all of your electrical engineering-related needs.