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Embedded Systems Design
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One of the big problems you face in embedded systems design is that… well, once it’s out there, it’s out there. The world has access to it, and because of the nature of single board computers, you’re not going to have a lot of options for improvements and updates.
If you put out a laptop and it turns out to have a faulty graphics card, you can offer buyers a partial rebate in order to buy a new one, or you can recall what you have out there, replace the graphics card, and put the units back out there. If you put out a piece of software and the customers don’t like the user interface, you can release a free update to patch that right up.
But when you’ve got embedded systems software that your customers aren’t happy with, there’s not a whole lot you can do. The people who design for PC and laptop don’t know how easy they have it. They can afford to put something out knowing that they can patch up anything that’s wrong with it at some point in the future. When you’re working on a device that uses embedded microcontrollers, you really need to get it right the first time.
It’s always a good idea to keep constant communication going with the people you go to for your single board computers and systems. They’re not just there to manufacture the stuff, they can also help you nail down just the right design.
Another good idea is to get some input from every single person you can get to respond to you. Say you’re making the control panel for a programmable coffee maker, just to take a wild example. If you have a prototype or a mockup model, then what you want to do is have everyone and their grandmother try to see if they can make sense of it, and take every single comment into account. You never know. Your brother who never even drinks coffee might make a slight comment about the preset timer being hard to figure out, and that might just wind up being the issue that turns up time and time again in customer reviews all over the internet.
Everything from the implementation of an embedded arm board to a motor control microcontroller really should be planned out extensively, and you shouldn’t be afraid to totally scrap an initial design to make way for something better.
Coming up with the perfect design really is a careful process of trial and error. One thing to remember is to treat your own ideas with absolutely no mercy. Look at it from every possible angle to try and spot weaknesses. Is it hard to use? Is it inflexible to the user? Is it simply not built very sturdy? We can guarantee that every successful electronic on the market is only the final design that came after hundreds of sketches and prototypes that wound up right in the garbage.
So of course, working closely with your manufacturer should help to get you the perfect idea of what you need, but don’t stop there. Always keep testing your idea against potential criticisms and see how it performs conceptually before you put a bunch of money into mass producing it, because once you create an embedded system, well, it’s embedded for good.
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Vesta Technology offers both custom and standard 32 bit microcontrollers and embedded operating systems for industry and commercial applications. VestaTech.com embedded rtos, motor control icrocontroller, and advanced mezzanine card have been used in data acquisition and monitoring products in industries including agriculture, medical, food processing, semiconductor equipment, and robotics. For non standard products, VestaTech.com offers a custom carrier board and a custom single board computer
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