[Not Just Arduino] Free edX course on Embedded Systems

[Eugene Nadyrshin]

Hello hackers,

One of the other guys from the robotics group (Stephen) has pointed out that a great free (or pay what you want for a certificate) Embedded Systems course is starting on the 22nd.

It's an online course that lasts 15 weeks and is based on the ARM Cortex M4-based micro-controller board that can be bought from the TI store for about £8 equivalent. This is a good processor to graduate to from the Arduino as it's got much more oomph than the atmega328p while still being relatively cheap. The evaluation board does not need a programmer and is programmed using a micro usb cable so it's pretty simple to get started!

Course link: https://www.edx.org/course/utaustinx/utaustinx-ut-6-01x-embedded-systems-1172
Syllabus: http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/edX/syllabus.html
The evaluation board can be bought here:
https://estore.ti.com/Tiva-C-LaunchPad.aspx

Hope that's of interest
Mentar

[James Cadman]

Hey Mentar - thanks for posting this!

I might just have a go at it myself.... am i right in thinking i need to "audit" the course?

Thanks,

James.

[Men tar]

Yeah, audit basically means that you have to be your own teacher when it comes to marking a stuff. If you want a shiny certificate at the end of it and get your work marked by the team you can pay them a fee of $50+

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Not Just Arduino" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to not-just-ardui...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send an email to not-just...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/not-just-arduino.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Steve Todd]

I wonder if the STM Discovery F4 is near enough to be used in place?

[Steve Todd]

You can find the board at http://uk.mouser.com if anyone is interested (just shy of £10 + VAT)

[Colin Cooper]

This course kicks off today.  They describe it as "The first microcontroller hardware inclusive MOOC."  They appear to have built a plugin (TExaS) for the Keil v4.73 IDE which monitors the board thru its USB connection, and produces an encoded representation of the results of running a lab, which then gets uploaded to their servers.  Unfortunately this ties it specifically to that IDE and windows, and to two specific development boards.  It seems to be running ok under virtualbox on linux mint though.

Marking is 

• 45% labs (simulation)
  
• 45% labs (hardware)
• 10% quizzes

with a 70% passmark, so you can't pass without the full environment.

There appear to be ~30,000 attendees, and the utexas.edu links are creaking under the strain...

If anyone is still contemplating joining but worried about the hardware, I ordered a Stellaris board on Sunday, and it arrived on Tuesday. ( http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=2192061 )

Their G+ page says:

 If you cannot obtain your kit now, you will be able to complete the first few labs in simulation and go back to complete the labs on the real board when your kit arrives. In order to finish the course by mid-May, you should have your kit by mid-March.

  Regards,

  Colin

--

[Men tar]

Yeah it's unfortunate that you can only get "graded" if you run windows.

If you just want to get hacking, there is a Arudino IDE clone for the Stellaris called Energia (http://energia.nu/Guide_index.html) which is good for someone coming from the Arduino world.

I'm currently trying to make it work with CCS in linux but not having much luck in actually connecting to the device because it's looking for the wrong files (JavaToGtiAdapter.dvr) annoyingly.

I'll probably be able to make it today. Will play around with it a bit more then.

Cheers

Mentar

[Peter Borenstein]

Hi Eugene,

Did you ever figure out how to run ccs on linux? I'm also getting an error when ccs looks for javatogtiadapter.dvr

[Daniel "yOPERO" Garrido]

If you really want to get graded using a linux box...

Run a VM with Windows XP(free) and install Keil uVision 4.74.(x86), that will give you time to work on installing a working ARM toolchain on linux for future development.

[Andrea Campanella]

if you want to go cross platform you should try mbed

To post to this group, send email to not-just...@googlegroups.com.

Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/not-just-arduino.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Andrea "emuboy" Campanella