“802.11 is moving beyond its role as a stand-alone technology, to that of an embedded feature in residential gateways, consumer electronics and mobile phones.”

The developer’s resource for computer interfacing, especially USB, mass storage, serial (COM) ports, Ethernet and Internet communications for embedded systems, and parallel port.

USB Complete: Everything You Need to Develop Custom USB Peripherals (Complete Guides series) by Jan Axelson

Serial Port Complete: COM Ports, USB Virtual COM Ports, and Ports for Embedded Systems (Complete Guides series) by Jan Axelson

USB Mass Storage: Designing and Programming Devices and Embedded Hosts by Jan Axelson

Embedded Ethernet and Internet Complete by Jan Axelson

Parallel Port Complete: Programming, Interfacing & Using the PC’S Parallel Printer Port by Jan Axelson

The Microcontroller Idea Book: Circuits, Programs & Applications Featuring the 8052-Basic Single-Chip Computer

Serial Port Complete: Programming and Circuits for Rs-232 and Rs-485 Links and

I just made my Personal Homepage, a Google Site with Google Apps. It is simple and flexible way for a homepage to help communication and collaboration of a team or group in an Office or Educational Institution.

Google Sites - One-stop sharing

“Invite co-workers, classmates, or your entire organization to edit your site with you to keep it fresh and up-to-date. And let as many or few people view your site as you want…”

• Upload files, announcements, file cabinet, dashboard.
• Work together and share, viewers and collaborators.
• Insert videos, docs, spreadsheets, presentations.

Consider the Toaster shown in the right, Build a Embedded Internet Interface into the toaster. Then make it Wireless Networking capable. The gadget can also get connected thru Mains Carrier Communication.

Now you build a Webware service, create API’s, Ready Gadgets and Wizards. So he can create-use the API from any Computer or PDA. He can Sub-Lease his custom API Service with Internet capable Gadgets.

Now look at the timer gadget i made below.

Project Page programmable-digital-timer Rev-12 - Add to Webpage

When the Javascript of this is linked to the API of the Control Webapp that you created, This gadget can monitor and control the Quality of the Toast from anywhere in the world ;-).

But Then, the service should be easy for just anyone to use, the coding is never done by the user of the service. He creates an account, hires the API, creates his own Gadgets and Apps with wizards. Then he gets to download the firmware for the Embedded Internet ASIC you Provide and the Product he manufactures goes with that circuit.

The end customer buys an Internet capable Toaster with a CD demo on how to access his free webservice. With this service, he can get all the web gadgets and tools to control his Home Appliance Arsenal.

Idea - 19:36 25-Feb-08, Nature - Open Source, Person - Anantha Narayan - dapj

Credit - A classically styled chrome two-slot automatic toaster - Wikimedia Commons.

Related Reference -

• Ethernut - Open Source Hardware-Software, Tiny Embedded Ethernet Devices.
• WiPort - Embedded Wireless Networking Device Server.
• Digital Powerline Communications - Consumer Powerline Communications Network.
• Remember The Milk - Online to do list and task management.
• Webware - Cool Web 2.0 apps for everyone.

• Moving beyond PID
• Tuning a Proportional Controller
• Tuning a PI Controller

Reading the excellent articles above, i was reminded of an incident….

Proportional Controllers not only save energy, they can give a controlled finish or treatment to a job. An on-off controller or thermostat limit protection has to be used in series, this is to to stop a Runaway Process.

There was a real life instance when a Temperature cycling oven maker (environment chamber), faced large liabilities as an 8086 based profile controller and chart recorder just locked up and all the electronic equipment were roasted. Here even a bimetallic thermostat would have saved the day. Nowadays we have a watchdog timer to prevent such uP mishaps, but still use an analog controller in series as an over temperature trip. - Ananth

• The Multivibrator Circuit
• Guitar Effect Circuit
• Paradoxical sound synthesizer
• Microphone Pre-Amp
• Active Antenna
• Everything you ever wanted to know about LCDs
• List of Capacitor type qualities
• Collection of Design Notes
  

“Ethernet communication solutions offer access to the most widely deployed networking system. The TCP/IP protocol, which is at the core of this technology, allows total location independence and interoperability to any embedded application.”.

• Ethernet
• TCP/IP
• ZigBee
• MiWi

“The emerging standard for flexible wireless networking specifically designed for embedded control. ZigBee supports stars, clusters and mesh networks of up to 64k nodes. Microchip supplies a free stack that supports a variety of transceivers.”

• HTTP Server using BSD Socket API for PIC32MX - pdf
• SNMP Agent using BSD Socket API for PIC32MX - pdf
• FTP Server using BSD Socket API for the PIC32MX - pdf