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This is the third of a 4-part blog post series which provides a broad overview of the application of lithium-ion batteries in embedded systems. Read on for an overview and things to consider in USB charging. 

The second of a 4-part series on the application of lithium-ion batteries in embedded systems, this post provides an overview of Battery Management Systems.

The Internet of Things, IoT, is inviting devices to change our lives. When it comes to the industrial aspect of IoT, devices assist in managing processes during which alarm management adds value to predict faults and catastrophes. Things are getting embedded with and controlled by smart devices that come together to automate tasks, so we can maximize our time.

At the same time, developers and manufacturers of embedded systems and devices need to prepare and keep up with this new trend and build systems that answer the demands of markets and introduce new innovations, which at its core relies on one common thing: data management.

The first of a 4-part series, this post provides a broad overview of the application of lithium-ion batteries in embedded systems. The focus of this post will be on the battery charging and management system with safety in mind. Also provided are useful hints and links step-by-step explanations of some lithium-ion battery fundamentals; so you feel confident to soon start your own project using lithium-ion batteries.

Raspberry Pi and Arduino are probably the most significant symbols of the Maker Movement. They are, without a doubt, the electronics hardware which boosted and triggered the Maker Movement that is changing the world! Read on for an interesting take on improving industrial embedded system development by taking advantage of the maker ecosystem.

FreeRTOS is a real-time operating system kernel for embedded devices. In development since 2003, it is the market-leading real-time operating system, having been ported to more than 40 microcontroller architectures. On November 29, 2017, Amazon acquired FreeRTOS and announced Amazon FreeRTOS (or a:FreeRTOS), a real-time operating system kernel based on FreeRTOS and focused on low-power, connected devices

Today, Industry 4.0 and the IIoT have introduced a whole new set of challenges: There will be more connected devices, which will generate more data, that in turn will lead to even more complex software applications. The playing field will change at an exponentially accelerating pace, including the state of device infrastructure, application complexity, and development. Read on for more insight in this Guest blog post from our partner, The Qt Company. 

Einführung

Derzeit werden graphische Benutzeroberflächen (sogennante GUIs) bei einer grossen Anzahl von Embedded Projekten verwendet. GUIs ermöglichen dem Benutzer die Interaktion mit digitalen Geräten mittels graphischen Elementen wie Icons oder anderen Symbolen auf dem Bildschirm. Gute GUIs sind eine wichtige Komponente von Embedded-Geräten, da sie die Bedienung von Anwendungen stark vereinfachen und dem Benutzer so den schnellen Umgang ermöglichen.

Qt, GTK oder Electron sind nur einige von vielen Tools auf dem Markt, welche das Erstellen von GUIs ermöglichen. Electron ist zudem ein Framework für die Entwicklung von native Applications und verwendet aktuelle Technologien wie JavaScript, HTML und CSS.

In diesem Blogbeitrag installieren wir das Framework Electron auf einem Toradex Colibri iMX6, führen einige Beispielprogramme aus und evaluieren die Software. Zum Abschluss entwickeln wir eine grundlegende GUI mittels Node.js, JavaScript, HTML und CSS.

Cloud services have been a reality for some years already. Right now, one of the biggest concepts in the field is the Internet of Things, or IoT for short. When we electronics folk think of the cloud, the first thing that comes to our minds is connecting several devices to it and uploading data to be visualized, stored and analyzed - among other possibilities. Of course, other uses may come to mind, too.

One thing we don't always realize is that the cloud can be much more than simply an IoT tool, or something only large corporations have access to. We can make use of the cloud for everyday tasks, too. As a matter of fact, that's the motivation behind this article - taking a time-consuming task and using the cloud to simplify our lives a little!

In this guest blog post, Diamond Systems explains considerations to use Computer Modules for an application inside an emergency response vehicle. Diamond Systems is a valued member of the Toradex Partner Network providing off-the-shelf ready-to-use Carrier Boards for Toradex Modules.

You most likely have heard about the recent WannaCry cyber attack. With IoT, there are more and more connected embedded devices, so security is a big concern. After WannaCry, requests about security peaked, especially among Windows CE/Windows Embedded Compact users. Here's a short blog post reflecting our view.

In this post, our partner Antmicro provides details of its brand-new Android 7.1 demo image for Toradex Apalis TK1 and the accompanying TK1 baseboard, bringing a familiar, cutting-edge UI experience to a small form-factor, high-performance Tegra^™ K1 solution, easy to embed in your product.

This is a series of articles aiming to demystify the development of embedded systems using Heterogeneous Multicore Processing architecture powered SoCs. Through a practical approach and presentation of several demos, this will provide to you a quick start to your development.

The flash storage is often a topic on our support channels. Toradex invests a lot of resources into making the storage as reliable as possible. Nevertheless, it is important to understand some basics of the underlying storage device. One of the most important things you have to know: the storage wears out, you can destroy your storage device by writing a lot to the built-in storage device. With this post, we want to give you a basic overview of potential issues flash storage can have.

Traditionally, microcontrollers are used for systems with deterministic real-time response. With the increasing need for higher performance, exciting UI and high-speed connectivity in end-products, many system designers are inclined to use application processors or SoCs with a feature-rich OS, a combination that may compromise real-time response. In this blog post, we present three approaches to add real-time behaviour in SoC-based designs.

Despite OpenEmbedded/Yocto being nice tools to generate your image, using the build system to compile and test tiny alterations applied to independent packages, although possible, can become confusing and slow. Read this post for details on the author's suggestion on how to alter the kernel and add the changes to OpenEmbedded/Yocto.

Wondering whether to use Android or Linux for your next embedded product development? In this post, our partner Antmicro attempts to answer this question and also discusses the differences and commonalities between these two operating systems.

In this post, we experiment with OpenCL using Toradex's Apalis iMX6Q SoM to compare two applications - one of them running on the GPU and the other on the CPU. At the end we share the results found in this experiment.