Embedded

Mistral Solutions' 820 Nano SOM

One of the smallest System on a Module (SOM) solutions currently available in the market—measuring a mere 51mm x 26mm—is Mistral Solutions' 820 Nano SOM. The company predicts that its new 820 Nano SOM solution is "destined to be a preferred SoM in the industry".

eCosCentric Limited's eCosPro

In contrast to general-purpose operating systems for the Raspberry Pi, the new eCosPro from eCosCentric Limited is a lightweight, multithreaded, industrial-strength RTOS delivering reduced latency with bounded response times. eCosPro's resource requirements are a fraction of those demanded by a general-purpose OS and maximize the RAM resources available to applications.

Crank Software's Storyboard Suite

Crank Software is working hard to change how embedded user interface (UI) solutions are developed. Traditional development methodologies, asserts the Crank group, leave designers on the sideline after the artwork has been handed off to the software developers.

Wibu-Systems CmASIC

Wibu-Systems describes the new generation of its CmASIC module as "the answer to the security-by-design needs of modern embedded computing technology leaders:. CmASIC is a module that Intelligent Device Manufacturers (IDMs) can directly embed into their boards to provide out-of-the box security and entitlement management.

Adding IoT Flare to a Hot Springs and Spa Business

As the folks at Bozeman Hot Springs usher their hot springs and spa into the 21st century with new technology and pools, they are thinking about new ways to delight their customers and stay top of mind. One recurring request, no doubt from the avid skiing community, is the ability to read current pool temperatures online, in the same way ski resorts publish current snow conditions.

openHAB

Partners Canonical, openHAB Foundation and Azul Systems have collaborated hard to drive development of the new openHAB 2.0 smart-home platform as a snap package. An alternative to Apple Homekit and Samsung SmartThings, openHAB from openHAB Foundation is completely free and open source, and acts as a control hub for home IoT setups.

Mender

The new production release of Mender 1.0, an open-source tool for updating embedded devices safely and reliably, is now available.

The Weather Outside Is Frightful (Or Is It?)

Blistery cold weather is sinking in, which ought to ignite an instinctual desire to get your house in order and monitor it so the water pipes don't freeze and burst. So, let's take a timely look at a project setting up some temperature probes in various areas, reading them and reporting in a custom dashboard.

Gordon H. Williams' Making Things Smart (Maker Media, Inc.)

Pretty much anything in the O'Reilly spin-off Make: series is like catnip to us Linux cats, and the new book Making Things Smart is no exception. The book is subtitled Easy Embedded ARM Programming For Transforming Everyday Objects Into Intelligent Machines and is authored by Gordon H. Williams.

Canonical Ltd.'s Ubuntu Core

Canonical Ltd.'s "Snappy" Ubuntu Core, a stripped-down version of Ubuntu designed for autonomous machines, devices and other internet-connected digital things, has gained significant traction in the chipset/semiconductor market recently.

Epiq Solutions' Sidekiq M.2

Following on its resounding success with its Sidekiq MiniPCIe card, wireless communications systems specialist Epiq Solutions recently added the Sidekiq M.2 state-of-the-art, small form-factor, software-defined radio (SDR) card.

Embed Linux in Monitoring and Control Systems

The target vehicle for this project is a vintage intercity transport bus (think Greyhound) whose instrument panel was sparse and mostly nonfunctional. The speedometer cable was twisted off some place back in 40 feet of cable, and the fuel sensor had sunk long ago. What I wanted was an instrument panel more in line with modern practice.

Attack of the Drones

With the price and size of computer hardware steadily decreasing, it's becoming more viable to use embedded Linux systems to control small robots and drones. There are plenty of projects for Raspberry Pi, but not everyone wants to build a drone from scratch. That's why enthusiasts will be pleased to hear about the new drones from Parrot.

Raspi-Sump

In June 2013, we had the unfortunate luck of a basement flood, caused by a tripped electrical breaker connected to our sump pump. There are so many things that can go wrong with a sump pump. You always are on guard for power outages, blown breakers, sump pump failures, clogged pipes and all manner of issues that can arise, which ultimately can end with a flooded basement.

Wanted: Your Embedded Linux Projects

Our "Embedded Linux" issue of Linux Journal is just around the corner, and we want YOUR project to be in it! Whether you're embedding a Beagle Bone Black into a dish so you can automatically feed your black Beagle a bone, or you're developing an Arduino-based butler to answer your front door -- we want to hear about it!

Create a Mini PC or Server with Olimex's Olinuxino A13/A13Micro

Olimex is a Bulgarian company known for its innovative hobbyist products. It has a wide array of microcontroller-based products, ranging from the small Arduino clones to the very able system that has the Allwinner A13 microcontroller as its brain. In this article, I describe how you can create a working Linux system for the Olinuxino A13 and Olinuxino A13Micro from scratch.

Be a Mechanic...with Android and Linux!

"Check Engine Soon"—that little orange light on your car's instrument panel is possibly one of the more annoying things about modern automobiles. Ever had it pop on during a trip and wonder whether it was just something mundane, like your gas cap being loose, or whether it's something deathly serious and a piston could come shooting out the side of your engine block at any time?

A Handy U-Boot Trick

Embedded developers working on kernels or bare-metal programs often go through several development cycles. Each time the developer modifies the code, the code has to be compiled, the ELF (Executable and Linkable Format)/kernel image has to be copied onto the SD card, and the card then has to be transferred from the PC to the development board and rebooted.