looking for vendor agnostic embedded systems forum

kent_dorfman766

kent_dorfman766

Hey Yinz. (Yeah, from Pittsburgh)

Anyways, I've been focusing on embedded systems lately and have built up a collection of rants regarding the particular ecosystems I'm working under (STM32)...but that caused me to pose a larger question.

Are there any "very active" embedded system discussion forums that are agnositc from being sponsored by, or tied to, a particular companies products. Obviously my web search has been less than helpful, since I'm asking here. I'm looking for something less lurked by hobbiists and more by professionals, and where the sophistication level allows for discussions about hardware/software integration at the layer1-layer2 levels: hardware and basic ASIC programming: ie MCUs, RTOS, DSP, bare-metal programming...
 
I can recommend something from Arduino and Raspeberry Pi... Yeah, I know those are from particular companies, but hey, they are popular and common stuff that do get used by large companies that have formal engineering processes in place.

Yeah, they will end up being primarily hobbyist lurking places. Professionals are usually bound by NDA's, so it may be difficult to tease out good sophisticated discussions and determine if someone is a pro or not. Sometimes, a hobbyist sounds like a wannabe pro, and sometimes there's someone who's paid, but sounds like a n00b. And there's gonna be someone who's got things going so smooth, you have to wonder if they're paid to promote the place.
 
re - pi forums...ugh...as mentioned, mostly hobbiists...Thus is the nature of RPI: a glorified toy that entices idiot managers into thinking they can get something for nothing. As long as they stay in the educational domain I have no problem with RPI, but they are NOT professional systems.

Not too worried about NDAs. They are usually restricted to specific intellectual property, not industry standards or platform/ecosystem discussions.
ie: I've been fighting with the STM32 development ecosystem for months and it's a case of good hardware being being encumbered by really really lousy documentation and support tools. manuals obviously written by folks who don't speak english as a primary language, demos and eclipse based IDE that cannot have undergone any sort of quality control before being published, and a marketing centric culture at STmicro where user metrics and advertising are more important than providing stable tools...and God forbid that you complain on a company owned forum becuase that's just an excuse to get blacklisted.
 
Well, you start with a toy and see what you can make out of it before deciding to get rigorous and professional so that you can have quality stuff and can make promises that have money attached to them. Pi and Arduino are meant to be raw materials for prototypes for electronics.

It's kind of like playing with sand, only to realize that when mixed with water and a few other types of materials, you get concrete, which can be used on a professional construction site.

If you don't like the development ecosystem for the microcontrollers, this is your chance to come out with a proposal and a proof of concept of what it would take to make it better. Yeah, it will take work, time, possibly money, and you'll be developing documentation, repos, and standards, rather than microcontrollers.
 
a little more on this since I've done more research.
As discussed, most of the forums are hosted by a commerical entity so they are slanted toward the goals of that entity. I also noted a vendor-neutral forum that seemed interesting, but they block anonymous email accounts for signups: no yahoo or gmail...so that leave me out.

and I found an open embedded standards group with forums but they wont accept individuals, and seem to be more of a paying member organization consortium.
 
As a multipurpose operating system FreeBSD also includes embedded, but it ain't the overall main topic.
Though I (and others) like to help.

I doubt you'll find exactly, what you're looking for.
Two reasons:
1.) Embedded is not FreeBSD's main branchline, even if it's successfully used for it. If you browse this forums you'll find a lot of stuff about the topic, such as experiences about FreeBSD on certain boards etc.

2.)
kent_dorfman766 said:
I'm looking for something less lurked by hobbiists and more by professionals,
Click to expand...
In my eyes there seems to be a crucial point.
Professional embedded systems are always part of commercial products. In contrast to 'hobbyists' companies seldom share their core competencies, especially not for free.

If I had to summarize the overall experiences I dare say:
If your primary target is to run FreeBSD as your embedded system, you need to find a suitable board. It's likely you need to compromise. Not on every board all features are supported. Or do the full professional way, and design your own board.
With Linux it's the opposite. You just pick a suitable board by its hardware features, price, and availability. Every board runs Linux.
Plus you get a larger community - including hobbyists.
Don't degrade this.
My experiences as a professional designing engineer teached me: Just because someone posts his results on his homepage neither means he or she's not a professonial, nor his or her stuff ain't.
You may exclude yourself from a goldmine if being too snooty.
Just because some one presents how he or she built some silly toy doesn't mean there is nothing within you cannot adapt to something else, even professional. Not seldom you find reliable, rock solid solutions by amateurs, 'cause they not only have the will but also take their time not to get into market as quickly and dirty as possible. 😁

Although RPis are marketed like toys, neither means they are. You'll find tons of professional, or at least professionally usable stuff, if you dig beside official sites.
And there are lots of other boards - even marketed more professionally.

I doubt there is some 'free and open, but professionals only embedded forum' - please, drop a line here if you found it.
Like everywhere else: It's either closed, or one has to deal with anybody: professionals, amateurs (both neither means to have more or less competence on a certain topic), noobs, and all other kinds.
 
re - FreeBSD in embedded vs larger picture....which is why I posted in off-topic
re - rPI .... fine learning tool but not something suitable for my venues: safety critical systems in aerospace, healthcare, govt/DOD, etc.
re - pro vs hobbiists ... absolutely nothing against the hobbiists and students. its more of a question of looking for folks who understand the "right way" vs the "expedient way"

anyway, not looking to start a debate. Just thought I'd report back on my findings...which seem to indicate that the field is a vendor sponsored arena.

FWIW, my embedded interests are AVR, STM32, and Xilinx Zynq/Ultrascale...I used to be quite enamored with PPC but it isn't used as much anymore.
 
astyle said:
^ THIS.

In some languages and cultures around this planet, it's even a well-known proverb.
Click to expand...
...i don't get it.

kent_dorfman766 said:
but not something suitable for my venues: safety critical systems in aerospace, healthcare, govt/DOD, etc.
Click to expand...
...you also could have named military, and nuclear power...

'I hate to give good people bad news.'
Sorry, Dude, not a chance.
By my experience on any kind of electronics/development in those fields (I did in nuclear, and medicine), you will not find anything open even remotely clearly linked to it.
You need to gather own experiences (and then you'll understand why they're not given away for free),
or (even better) join some com/org in such a field.
On such high sensitive topics (short for long elaboration about real, serious, actual QM, not paper tigers, fullfilling official regulatories, approvals, licensing... - taking responsibilities) companys are very sensitive.

But you're right in that point:
This by far is the opposite side of anything hobby-like. :cool:

The last pointer I can give you:
Don't focus on the technical side about how to do it right, too much (that's self-evident.)
Focus (way) more on (real hardcore) testing, and above all regulatory issues.

I wish you the best.
Peace out.
 
Maturin said:
...i don't get it.
Click to expand...
Well, if you are too picky, you may never find what you're looking for, and may miss out on everything else as a result.

One of the best-known examples is looking for a spouse/partner, and passing up on lots of imperfect opportunities and remaining single in the meantime as a result.

Another well-known example is going hungry because you're a picky eater. (Yeah, even with counter-examples of being allergic to stuff like peanuts, milk, wheat, etc). Or declaring that "At my house, we only eat white bread, and even then not every day", while thumbing their nose at other varieties of bread... Different cultures have fairy tales about how picky eaters end up missing out.
 
Maturin said:
Just because some one presents how he or she built some silly toy...
Click to expand...
Usually, if that silly toy is how to start calculator.exe on your machine, you should pay very close attention ;)

Sorry I can't upvote your text more than once. Especially that part about quick to market.
 
I think that OP's best bet is taking a few classes at a local college, preferably a big one. That's usually a good starting point for connecting with professionals.

As an example, joining ACM (acm.org, Association for Computing Machinery) is very easy in college, most professors would know how to join, and fees for students are fairly low compared to fees for those who want to join later. ACM is an example of such a club that is aimed at professionals rather than hobbyists.

Well, if OP wants ASIC programming, bitcoin mining is not a bad place to start looking - ASIC programming is THE underpinning tech for bitcoin. There are places to discuss algorithm efficiencies in such contexts, and conversations do include pretty academic references... ;)
 
kent_dorfman766 said:
Thus is the nature of RPI: a glorified toy that entices idiot managers into thinking they can get something for nothing.
Click to expand...
Here are 2 examples of products based on Raspberry Pi. Do you think they are toys? The prices are not for toys or "for nothing".
www.elastel.com

Industrial Raspberry Pi for IIoT

Explore Industrial Raspberry Pi solutions at Elastel.com. Revolutionize efficiency & performance in various sectors with our innovative solutions.
www.elastel.com www.elastel.com

Industrial Raspberry Pi: Reliable and flexible - Revolution Pi

Versatile industrial PC based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module ✓ Modular ✓ Flexible application development ✓ Industry-certified
revolutionpi.com revolutionpi.com
 
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