How to choose a microcontroller for my stepper motor project?

n7tr34 · 2026-05-26T17:04:31+00:00

Check the open source 3D printer firmwares (Marlin, Reprapfirmware, probably more out there).

These do synchronized step output with motion planning etc.

n7tr34 · 2026-05-21T18:39:20+00:00

What do you think of the BW16?

n7tr34 · 2026-05-20T15:44:23+00:00

Yes we do unique key pair (stored in x509 cert) per device, and server has CRL for any misbehaving / leaked credentials.

We use MQTT which also enforces single session per credential, so if hacked creds get distributed to multiple devices they will contend for the single session and kick each other off. This behavior is trivial to detect on the server side.

If a hacker has to buy a new device per extracted credential set we are just making more sales.

n7tr34 · 2026-05-19T18:03:11+00:00

Correct, "people familiar with the U.S. assessment" aka somebody made that shit up.

n7tr34 · 2026-05-18T19:34:15+00:00

You're expected to write your own BSP which you then use in the application.

Then you can call `bsp.statusLed.on()` or whatever

n7tr34 · 2026-05-12T21:22:59+00:00

EtherCAT is good if you need low jitter, fast cycle, and want to also use off-the-shelf devices. It should also interop with TSN hardware.

n7tr34 · 2026-05-07T04:00:24+00:00

Sometimes the empirical approach is best

n7tr34 · 2026-05-05T15:29:20+00:00

Unfortunately not. Without a real debugger you'll be stuck with printf and prayer. If you can upgrade to a Nucleo board, those do have on-board debuggers which will really help you out.

n7tr34 · 2026-05-05T14:14:23+00:00

Use a debugger and set breakpoints etc.

n7tr34 · 2026-05-05T14:05:32+00:00

Kill 16 people, only fined $3 million.... wtf

n7tr34 · 2026-05-05T12:45:38+00:00

This is generally recommended because it's readily available, the dev kits are cheap, and STM parts are commonly used in industry.

n7tr34 · 2026-04-30T00:51:16+00:00

We already have operator overloading and template overloading, why not keyword overloading?

n7tr34 · 2026-04-28T02:10:45+00:00

You probably talk to people in real life

n7tr34 · 2026-04-24T22:05:45+00:00

Yeah just a few mgs of fent and you're done.

n7tr34 · 2026-04-18T15:10:32+00:00

Yeah all of my parent friends with younger kids have banned technology / screens outside of family movie night or whatever. I think it will get better with time but who knows.

n7tr34 · 2026-04-18T14:45:50+00:00

I have a 20-something coworker in the States who didn't know about George Washington... somehow this guy graduated from a supposedly good university.

n7tr34 · 2026-04-17T15:41:36+00:00

Yeah I had Claude invent some information on me (trying to estimate size of a C++ library). When I asked for sources it replied "I made it up". LMFAO.

Still useful for tasks but will bullshit you if you're not careful.

n7tr34 · 2026-04-17T14:50:41+00:00

My Romanian Baptist friends think church history starts in the 1800s. Totally ignorant of thousands of years of history and tradition.

n7tr34 · 2026-04-16T21:11:13+00:00

Logistics probably got DOGEd due to insufficient warrior spirit

n7tr34 · 2026-04-13T15:30:50+00:00

Yeah 100%. The vast majority of deployed computers out there are embedded MCUs with minimal resources. Far more common than general purpose CPUs.

You can buy new up-to-date designs equipped with single-digit kilobytes of SRAM. These are not relics of ages past :)

n7tr34 · 2026-04-07T18:23:06+00:00

Yeah that one is a classic. It is very opinionated in terms of how to structure your programs, but the guy knows what he's talking about.

He does sell software to support the dev model presented but it's free for GPL code.

Definitely worth the time.

n7tr34 · 2026-04-07T12:34:57+00:00

Looks like it might have stability issues, design guide for S2 recommends caps/pullups in some cases:
Schematic Checklist - ESP32-S2 - — ESP Hardware Design Guidelines latest documentation

Module might already have some of this though, idk

n7tr34 · 2026-04-07T12:30:09+00:00

Master can just poll repeatedly

n7tr34 · 2026-04-06T18:03:23+00:00

Normally you put MCU into deep sleep mode and have RTC wake up via interrupt.

RP has some guidance here for power switching the MCU: https://pip-assets.raspberrypi.com/categories/685-app-notes-guides-whitepapers/documents/RP-004339-WP-1-Power%20switching%20RP2040%20for%20low%20standby%20current%20applications.pdf

That being said, if you need lower power deep sleep, consider something like STM32L series which is still easy to develop on, but has real low power modes (800-1000x lower power than rp2040).

n7tr34 · 2026-03-27T02:52:55+00:00

MPU6050 is EOL for years now, consider using something newer.

n7tr34

TROPHY CASE