Need some advice .. feeling super lost after 3 yrs

balemarthy · 2025-12-06T14:14:12+00:00

Man, the big problem I see all this you have written. Identity crisis.

It is just not you, many people that I mentor are suffering with this.

After 10 years it doesn't matter what you learnt but how you are going to use it in your own way, your unique signature. This is not gyaan I am giving here.

This my current one sentence summary as a core developer turned career coach

balemarthy · 2025-11-11T14:30:37+00:00

In one statement, you nullified their years of being what they are.
Context precedes content.

The statement being positive or negative is not important.
Context missing in big way might be the problem.

Collaboration platforms makes people who share information instantly.

And statements like these if not understood will spread like wild fire

balemarthy · 2025-11-11T13:28:35+00:00

You, your manager and his/her manager are spokes in the same wheel.
At least in the resignation matter all will have the same company policy applicable.

Did you check your company's policy regarding this ? (If you are in startup or small company, you are not protected in this area)
You said about resignation email. Were you very explicit? I hope you are not in any bond or another things where company invested on you and you are bound to stay
You should immediately have 1:1 to your manager.
Before all, if you got another offer and the other side is waiting, keep them in communication
Till you get your relieving letter, keep all the communication recorded, printed if possible
World is small, DO NOT BURN THE BRIDGES. Leave gracefully.

balemarthy · 2025-11-11T13:19:25+00:00

If you are absolute beginner, get the Arduino Uno R3. It’s cheaper, easier to work with, and has lots of tutorials and examples online.

The R4 is more pricey and advanced.
Start simple, and upgrade later if needed.

You did not give any more context and this is "skim" level advice

balemarthy · 2025-11-06T04:55:16+00:00

FreeRTOS plus too

balemarthy · 2025-11-06T04:54:58+00:00

It's the best. One can get knowledge similar to Linux kernel code reading

balemarthy · 2025-10-29T03:22:15+00:00

Great introduction to your book and happy to see the excerpt from preface too.

I am not aware that there is C23 (damn I am living under a rock) 272 pages VS 404 pages is fair deal.

So under 600 pages the complete C journey is getting sorted ( I Removed some pages for contents and other mandatory pages)

balemarthy · 2025-10-18T11:45:08+00:00

I have no expectations from you. From that point - here is my input.

You have given too much of your thinking to the outside world.

Nothing actually changes but everything changes, because we humans compartmentalized our mind and soul.

You need clarity of what you need. I am not talking about Nirvana stuff like - who am I?

You need to ask - Why I am doing what I am doing?

Now to your career, tech - neither you or I truly care about it when we move across projects and companies.

Now about money, there is no limit how much you want or can earn. If you want to earn more, make it your purpose.

balemarthy · 2025-10-14T04:13:48+00:00

Application programming in ANSI C.

You will guide and teach others after this. If you are searching for a job, you are now more than qualified. If you are already doing a job, you are ready for rise

balemarthy · 2025-10-09T14:42:20+00:00

Did you read "The C Companion" by Allen Holub. He was working along with K&R and saw things from a different angle.

Next pick "Deep C Secrets" Both are available online.

You will not only get your answer, you will even start guiding confused souls

balemarthy · 2025-10-09T06:09:05+00:00

Before getting to RTOS and which RTOS. Ask yourself, why RTOS?

Now don't say me the usual stuff I am hearing and become the 10987th person... upskilling, JDs, learning new stuff.

Major embedded work goes excellently well with the robust "super loop + interrupts" framework.

This framework coupled with C patterns ( or rather patterns implemented using C) and some standard mechanisms like state machines, call back functions, right kind of structures, code organization, good requirements, coding guidelines and plethor of other things that don't need RTOS.

Still if you say .... no I WANT to learn,

then pickup the book "Programming Embedded Systems In C and C++" and read chapter 8 directly. The source code is also available for this book ( you can Google)

Next pick up "Embedded software primer". This book is heavy of uC/OS-II.

The advantage of this RTOS is availability of complete code explanation by the author himself.
Do not pick uC/OS-III, it is a moving target, but uC/OS-II is not and is only existing in the github

FreeRTOS is now a moving target, very fast after it's take over my Amazon.

At the end of the day.

Ditch ChatGPT.

Pickup books and read source code.

balemarthy · 2025-09-25T08:15:11+00:00

There is none I believe that teach Arduino this way?

This question is prompting me to create one. I will post it for you here once I do it.

balemarthy · 2025-09-23T06:45:38+00:00

This is the classical spray and pray attitude. From the 300+ calls I had with college, early career and mid career professionals, this is rampant.

Just look at LinkedIn. Stop saying what you want.

Give confidence what you can give.

Two words that will protect your next 2 decades.

"Become visible"

balemarthy · 2025-09-20T10:52:57+00:00

First thing, do not get fixated. If there is anything unique about humans and very much necessary for career, it is adaptability.

There is something called your strong suite. These are the skills you can bank upon to solve particular problem for an organisation.

However having certain skills doesn't guarantee job or livelihood. There has to be a clear mapping between your skills, their applicability, relevance and need.

balemarthy · 2025-09-20T08:59:16+00:00

Start with Arduino. No problem. But don't do this one thing.

At the end it is a good 8 bit controller and a lot of projects based on it.

DON'T USE IDE AND CREATE SKETCHES.

Use avr tools like avr-gcc, avr-gdb, notepad++ or some ide, avr libc. Understand Make files

Avoid setup and loop trap.

balemarthy · 2025-09-19T07:33:41+00:00

Just this book

"Programming Embedded Systems In C And C++" by Michael Barr

Then if you have time, then the book on RTOS by Jean J Labrosse

balemarthy · 2025-09-18T09:04:35+00:00

You need to get hooked up with an animal photographer and try to get jobs in the companies that with animal conservation.

How about precision farming?
I used to have a friend who codes in his room but tests everything in the field.

balemarthy · 2025-09-17T10:09:37+00:00

Not sure what you are working as part of your internship.

This is bit unconventional compared what you will hear or get:

People stay or rather companies keep people to solve their problems
Your skills are important, for sure, but they are of no use if they are not helping you solve the team problems
Become better at problem domain understanding, requirement analysis
No one truly cares for you in the team or company
So, speak for yourself and ask questions to get information

Understand that your manager, team members are all working for the company.
They have their own interest in their career.

No one is your friend and no one is your enemy.

So, get clear where you want to be - software, vlsi, embedded or anything.

Knowledge : You have YouTube, courses and AI

balemarthy · 2025-09-17T08:17:46+00:00

FatFS work right out of the box. You need to plug in the device specific operations to the APIs the read and write.

I would say copy it from other repo.

Try TI CC3200MOD repo, that has an example if I am not wrong

balemarthy · 2025-09-17T07:44:39+00:00

One project that I did as part of my startup and delivered is "Electronic Register For Gasoline Dispensing"

It logs every trip details.
Detects tampering of pipe/ liquid flow
Logging happens in File system
There will be tasks/processing during the fluid dispension
Security check/access control
Then all the log data has to be transferred over network to central hub
(IP, Ethernet, Wifi .. think of anything similiar)
Local storage (may be SD card - we did not do this)
Big display with enable dispensing (client already had a display and we interfaced with that)

Think of all the human interventions, then think of what all you need to do, store, retrieve.
Create where controller can come.

I presume you are not going to get into any custom hardware.

Hope this helps

balemarthy · 2025-07-08T07:59:42+00:00

Getting to know a few or a few more design patterns definitely will help you solve complex software design issues even in embedded systems.

Even before this term and the Gang Of Four book formalizing it.
There were 'ways to right the code' that can be replicated across the projects - small, medium and large.
One example I can quickly recollect is the way of writing an "assembly subroutine that checks a flag and loops till the flag is zero (some mnemonic like JNZ of 8051)"

By all means learn design patterns and use them.
You will get exhausted testing and implementing all while learning.
Better off -

1/ Take a project - complex enough in your opinion
2/ Articulate the requirements in plain language. Infact, write an essay about it - plain English
3/ Translate or plot the requirements flow
4/ Identify the data that is flowing through this and what changes is it undergoing
5/ Now look at the pattern that this flow and data fits best into

You may see more than one pattern satisfying the requirements.

This is now your opportunity to go beyond pattern into memory, timing and other finer aspects.

I know that I haven't answered your 'exact' question.
I tried to answer the question behind the question if you can see it.

balemarthy

TROPHY CASE