Jay Carlson

https://jaycarlson.net/ - His two in-depth articles on embedded linux and the $1 MCU are both excellent.

You might want to check out The Amazing $1 Microcontroller [1] which explores multiple microcontrollers that could be had for less than $1 (when buying a hundred of them) in 2020. I haven't checked how much the prices have dropped since (if at all) but it could still be a good starting point when looking for parts at the 8021's price range. [1] https://jaycarlson.net/microcontrollers/

This is a good article but it's a few years old, and out of date now. I can't see its date with my current adblock settings. It would be great if someone could find it and put it in the title. There are stupendously powerful $1 microcontrollers now, including the RP2040 (dual core cortex m0+ with 264KB ram on the chip), ESP32-S2 (Espressif core with 400k of ram and wifi), and ESP32-C3 with wifi and RISC-V core and again something like 400k of ram. Jay Carlson also has a series about microcontrollers as cheap as THREE CENTS, i.e. the famous Padauk 3 cent MCU: https://jaycarlson.net/2019/09/06/whats-up-with-these-3-cent-microcont…

This is actually pretty great. I was looking for a way to dip my toes into low level stuff. After skimming a bit it seems very focused on hardware though. Out of curiosity how does it compare to https://jaycarlson.net/embedded-linux/ ?

This might be a good time to mention Jay Carlson's excellent "So you want to build an embedded Linux system?" article: https://jaycarlson.net/embedded-linux/ It's been discussed here before, but it's an impressive reminder of what an individual can accomplish with modern small-batch PCB manufacturing. It also goes a long way to make large-pitch BGA devices and high-speed signal design seem less intimidating to newcomers. Definitely worth a read if you're interested in these kinds of devices. Also, the Lichee Nano is one of the only freely-available English-language reference designs for the Allwinner FIC100s processor, which is nice.

There was a great primer on embedded Linux boards by Jay Carlson a couple weeks ago that touched on the network limitations and various tradeoffs that devices in this class need to make: https://jaycarlson.net/embedded-linux/ In summary, if you can't have your IoT device plugged into the wall, or connected by a "crazy" 802.15.4 low-power serial wireless network to a hub device that is, and especially if you have BOM cost constraints, battery life requirements, or processing needs that mean you can't use Linux or lwIP, you're going to have a bad time.

Jay also did a great rundown of $1 microcontrollers a few years ago: https://jaycarlson.net/microcontrollers/ This embedded Linux article is a really worthy followup!

"The Amazing $1 Microcontroller" is a great place to start. It covers the main ARM micro families. Essentially you're looking for differences in peripherals, since the CPU is the same for any given Cortex M0, M3, etc. https://jaycarlson.net/microcontrollers/ Edit: I guess if you're looking to move to "more complex" things you may be beyond the $1 chips that this site reviews.

Also, "The Amazing $1 Microcontroller" https://jaycarlson.net/microcontrollers/

Have you read "The Amazing $1 Microcontroller" [0], which might have been posted here before? It's a survey of available microcontrollers, with the intent of helping you choose one. If you have read it, are you in agreement with the article, for example on how AVRs compare to others? [0] https://jaycarlson.net/microcontrollers/

I actually appreciate domain-specific programming languages. It's fine (for me) that JS is the native front-end language. It's fine that Rust targets systems and embedded. I love that Python is a middle ground, and really great backends are built on it. I'm great with C being a really low level language that forces me to think about the machine. Taking "I'm productive in it so it is great" to an extreme, we end up seeing precisely the kind of domain crossover TFA hints at. Somehow, since Rust is cool, it should be the future of web / in-browser[1]. Somehow, since JS is popular and easy to use, it should be on the james web space telescope[2]. Somehow, since browsers are well accepted, node.js is a reasonable benchmark for embedded systems performance [3] GTFO with that. That is how we get language bloat and the many overlapping frameworks that creep into the language and make it unrecognizable. I'm looking at you, Tokio and D3. 1. https://leerob.io/blog/rust 2. https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/bglvey/the_9bn_james_web… 3. https://jaycarlson.net/embedded-linux/

looks like Padauk PMS150C is back up to 0.08$, oh well :( it's fun reading all the reactions to it (like "it’s cheaper to program a Padauk PMS150C to be a logic-level converter than to just buy a logic level converter"), but the magic is gone more-or-less but some ideas inside it and padauk's ecosystem as a whole seem impressive https://jaycarlson.net/2019/09/06/whats-up-with-these-3-cent-microcont…

And reading the article mentioned there about "THE CHEAPEST FLASH MICROCONTROLLER YOU CAN BUY IS ACTUALLY AN ARM CORTEX-M0+" (2023) [1] [1] https://jaycarlson.net/2023/02/04/the-cheapest-flash-microcontroller-y…

What is wrong with an raspberry Pi pico? If you need more ram: https://jaycarlson.net/embedded-linux/ (just ignore the Linux part)

sure! i hope you enjoy it! there was a lot of discussion of them about five years ago: https://jaycarlson.net/2019/09/06/whats-up-with-these-3-cent-microcont… https://cpldcpu.wordpress.com/2019/08/12/the-terrible-3-cent-mcu/

Nuvoton have some ARM9 parts with integrated DRAM for example [0]. It’s a little outdated but this blog post is a pretty good overview of the options available [1]. [0] - https://www.nuvoton.com/products/microprocessors/arm9-mpus/ [1] - https://jaycarlson.net/embedded-linux/

I've been working at home for years before the pandemic. My current space is approximately the same dimensions as yours. I have a floating desk I built with dimensional lumber and plywood. It's floating so I don't have to jockey my chair around legs. I trimmed it with pine boards for aesthetics and topped it with some decent mdf so I could write on it. Its a single corner desk 24" deep that's along two walls. To one side is paperwork and typical office supplies. The other acts as my bench and lab. On the bench side i have an 18" floating shelf a few feet above the desk. My monitors and keyboard are mounted on arms in the corner so I can switch between the two quickly. I like Jay Carlson's approach. Think about your workflow, not just pros and cons. https://jaycarlson.net/2021/09/18/juggle-embedded-projects-home-office…

Depends how you define RPi clone, but if "RPi clone atleast in spirit" is acceptable, then Jay Carlson has a really cool article where he shows how surprisingly easy it is for anyone to make a linux-based SBC: https://jaycarlson.net/embedded-linux/

That reminds me of https://jaycarlson.net/microcontrollers/ "$1 microcontrollers" with all of the weird and wonderful variations. Probably not actually $1 after the chipaeddon tho. And while going by cheap theme this: https://jaycarlson.net/2019/09/06/whats-up-with-these-3-cent-microcont…

There is a lot of "over-demand" for RPis because many companies and universities mistakenly think it's the only way to do embedded Linux. The truth is that there are many cheaper alternatives out there that are more appropriate for embedded projects (ADC, PWM etc.) Edit: Forgot to add a link to this article that goes through some of the alternatives: https://jaycarlson.net/embedded-linux/

Not Bluetooth, but tempting to give this idea a try using a sub-$1 microcontroller [0] implementing a software-defined radio with a PCB trace antenna which is powered from the kinetic energy when you actually hit the key. [0] https://jaycarlson.net/microcontrollers/

Padauk microcontrollers were covered by the same author: https://jaycarlson.net/2019/09/06/whats-up-with-these-3-cent-microcont… Surprisingly, they have beaten ~25% of the $1 microcontrollers.

Padawhatnow? This should answer your question why it was overlooked. And here is a link to the same author covering Padauk MCUs for people like me who have never heard about those despite having a degree in an embedded-related field: https://jaycarlson.net/2019/09/06/whats-up-with-these-3-cent-microcont…

> You not only had to figure out the program logic, but you had to work within very tight hardware constraints. Try programming microcontrollers and you can enjoy that feeling today! Get comfy with the relatively powerful ARM Cortex-M variants, which typically sports 10s of kB of RAM. Then if you feel frisky, try your hand at some 8-bit uC's with less than 64 bytes of RAM (spend your bits wisely). https://jaycarlson.net/microcontrollers/

And from https://jaycarlson.net/about/: > Jay is available for engineering services on a contract basis I'm not saying that's the number one goal here, I think this very thorough and informative piece goes way beyond a personal advert. But it must help (and rightly so).