As electronic miniaturization has been an all-time goal of chip manufacturers, motherboard-based computer/electronic systems have been eventually replaced by System-on-Chip (SoC) and Package-on-Package (PoP) ICs. Complex computer systems are now condensed to smartphones and other handheld devices. These sophisticated electronic devices and gadgets have an SoC at their heart which manages complete computing and control. […]
What is the Z-Wave protocol?
Smart homes need wireless connectivity, and Z-wave has emerged as the ultimate solution for home automation. The Z-wave protocol is a wireless, radio frequency protocol designed primarily for smart home networks. All the existing wireless communication protocols had one or the other problem. Bluetooth and Zigbee often shortfall of range while Wi-Fi poses its own […]
What is the HART protocol?
Data communication over analog signals is a common process. In automation, the data is communicated to and from controllers with several different process instruments. Quality is important as the controllers and smart instruments must communicate over long distances. Additionally, the data communication between a device and a controller must be dictated by a protocol (i.e. […]
How does the SPI protocol work?
In the previous tutorial, we discussed interfacing with the ADXL345 accelerometer sensor with Raspberry Pi using the I2C interface. UART, I2C, and SPI are the most common serial communication interfaces used in embedded systems. UART is used for point-to-point full-duplex asynchronous serial communication between two devices. I2C is used for synchronous serial communication among multiple […]
Basics of GPS receivers
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is the most widely used satellite navigation system around the world. It is one of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) that provides geolocation, time, and velocity information. GPS is operational since 1978 and globally available since 1994. The latest GPS receivers provide geolocation with an accuracy of 30 centimeters. […]
