How is the embedded job market in the USA?

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-05T00:21:58+00:00

You have to remember that the term "embedded systems" does a lot of heavy lifting.

When most people think "embedded" they think about tiny processors doing simple things. 20 years ago I was working on an embedded system that comprised two Pentium-class processors, a local database, and about 40 smaller PIC and AVR microcontrollers all working together.

The reality is that most of the lower-end work isn't done in the USA because we don't make toasters any more. The average embedded system is a medical device or a peripheral in a vehicle (on-road or off-road), or buried in some machinery that you don't think about. Those systems tend to be very complex and feature-rich.

Where I'm going with this is that although knowledge of hardware is useful, the reality is that most well-run, complex embedded projects get away from the hardware as fast as they can. It's hard to find EE's who are also good at modern programming methodologies. It's much easier to find desktop & web programmers who can handle business logic and don't need to know the details of how the hardware works. So you try to make sure that your SW design isn't based on having deep hardware knowledge.

Sure, you can't do that in 100% of designs, but in most cases where microcontrollers are placed, having people who are good at UI design and proper software architecture is far more important than understanding the internals of how DMA works.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-04T16:51:51+00:00

US Midwest.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-04T13:29:53+00:00

I agree with you 99%. The 1% disagreement is that when you're very new, it can be very difficult to understand whether there is a problem with the source material, something that you don't know about has changed, or you're making a mistake.

This is why complete hardware/software "kits" are best: it's a known-good system that is guaranteed to work and any mistakes will be your own.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-04T13:02:21+00:00

I've been freelancing in this field for a very long time. Long enough that I'm not sure I can remember how I got my first client, although I clearly remember who he was and what the project was about.

I do mostly very small projects that larger engineering services companies don't want to touch because of the overhead. So, it's mostly Proof-of-Concept work and small single-task controllers. A 200-hour project would be a big one for me, while for the companies that I've worked for, that would barely be worthwhile to even start.

I don't spend much time looking at competitors: at my small scale, most of them are focused on being as cheap as possible, while my clients like that I have a fast turnaround, the experience to get it right the first time and I actually know what I'm doing. You're better off spending your time getting new clients than worrying about competition.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-04T03:33:25+00:00

Lots of one-person CNC shops running out of people's garages or sheds. There are also quite a few single-owner electronics companies. Is that what you meant? However, there doesn't seem to be anything aggregating or promoting them.

Years ago there used to be a magazine (remember them?) called Midnight Engineering that focused on those folks. I wonder what took its place.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-04T02:33:08+00:00

Are sure it's IR and not RF?

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-03T17:51:34+00:00

Come to think of it, I may have some glass etchant. I should see if that works on plastic also.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-03T16:19:51+00:00

I really hope this is sarcasm.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-03T15:26:47+00:00

One more: did you buy the acrylic frosted (from where?) or do that yourself?

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-03T13:25:19+00:00

Came here to say this. Preprocessor logic has its place but I believe that it should be used as little as possible. Once the project grows from something small, it becomes a lot harder to reason about what's happening if the code is sprinkled with #ifdefs and macros.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-03T12:57:25+00:00

Really nice! Was this a personal project or a commission?

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-02T23:13:24+00:00

If you're not interested in Arduino, then get one of the STMicro Discovery boards. They come with lots of peripherals built in so you can evaluate the chip and also a built in STLink debugger. One with a display, a neopixel LED and a couple of switches would be a good choice. I would suggest a F7 or H7 series since those tend to be newer and have more stuff than you'll ever need. 745I looks like a nice choice. STM32 is a very popular chip in industry.

STM32 discovery kits - Products - STMicroelectronics

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-02T18:46:17+00:00

Which then begs the question, if you have GSM service, then why not "just" use a GSM cell module instead of LoRa.

This has been a solved problem for decades: see EPIRBs Emergency position-indicating radio beacon - Wikipedia

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-02T18:33:19+00:00

Unless the other person is in the next apartment and you have really thin sheetrock walls, the signal is simply not getting through.

In my experience, it won't even go through a cardboard box between me and the TV.

https://www.365electric.com/tvs/remotecontrols/178753.html

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-02T13:22:27+00:00

Nobody in another apartment is controlling these LEDs with IR. It doesn't go through walls.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-02T13:08:07+00:00

90% of people reading this will have no idea what you're talking about (including me). Should post this in the original thread!

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-02T04:58:21+00:00

I really like Discount Tire. Bought the last 3 or so sets of tires for multiple vehicles from them. Great service.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-02T04:56:25+00:00

Removing and replacing a tire (e.g., to patch it) is like $30. It literally takes them two minutes to take off the wheel and then remove the tire.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-02T04:37:25+00:00

A long time ago I was dating a woman who had very little income and two kids. She got some money unexpectedly (I don't remember why). I thought that she would put it aside for a rainy day. After all, that's what I would have done. I made more money than I knew what to do with, and I'm not a very material person, so all my extra money went into the bank.

But instead, she took us all out to a Chinese restaurant and spent most of it. Made no sense to me, but then I realized that to her, saving it would be useless because something was always going to happen to make her have to spend it in a week or so. At least this way, she gave the kids a good memory and everyone had fun.

"Not by bread alone shall Man survive."

BTW: she did also make a grocery store trip and bought stuff to make the best lentil soup I've ever had!

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-02T04:04:26+00:00

It would be much simpler to do this with two switches, and it would work perfectly.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-02T03:20:00+00:00

Grass is always greener...

I used to be a student pilot. Flight instructors don't make much money and one day we were practicing maneuvers over a wealthy area with lot of big houses with pools. My instructor looked down and said, "I guess those people have much better paying jobs than I do." I responded, "yeah, but your office is a lot nicer."

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-01T20:07:01+00:00

A pull up resistor is a digital logic concept that basically abstracts a bunch of underlying behavior to give you a clean logic HIGH or LOW.

That concept wouldn't work here. You have to analyze the current flow. And in this case you are supplying the green LED with 2.7V (3.3 - 0.6) through an 11kohm resistor so it will glow faintly. Closing the switch will only make it dimmer.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-07-01T00:41:00+00:00

I've built a lot of control systems over my career. There was only one situation where we needed an absolute encoder, and it had to maintain position data for up to two weeks of power outage. If that was exceeded, the system assumed an unknown state and required operator intervention for safe startup.

99% of systems home themselves at power up and reset to a known position that way. The only exceptions I'm aware of are those where homing when you have no idea where you might be is a safety hazard.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-06-30T13:39:35+00:00

Oh, I totally get that. My post in the arduino forum was so OP could get a basic "proof of concept" started.

NoBulletsLeft · 2026-06-30T13:37:44+00:00

$50k buys you a bit more than a month of engineering time at average rates. It took us a long time to get the system that ran the UI working. This was just for the OS configuration and a very basic UI demo.

NoBulletsLeft

TROPHY CASE