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How and why the size of tiny embedded boards matter.

It has been said that there is no such thing as an accident, and that most mishaps and disasters actually are predictable and preventable. Technology is only as good as its design—which should incorporate forethought about what could go wrong. In this article, Stuart looks at how lessons from past technology failures from faulty indicators and designs—including one he experienced firsthand—can prevent future problems and disasters.

This month, I discuss the origin of my use of the phrase “in thin slices,” and how it can help us design, debug, and test our embedded systems.

In last month’s column, I discussed a low-voltage solar energy system I built for lighting my Scout troop’s large storage shed. I described the battery I chose, and the Modbus protocol with RS-485 serial communication used for remote monitoring of the system’s performance (“sniffing” or listening to communication on the bus, and decoding each message). This month I expand on this node’s capacity to do much more than just listen and decode.

Digital signal processors (DSPs) and digital signal controllers (DSCs) are designed for time-critical execution of complex algorithms. These chips are crucial to many high-end, high-performance applications today.