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Recent Updates

July 2025 Updates

Zephyr Installation Guide

Added more info to the Zephyr Installation Guide.

Event Driven State Machines

Added more info to the Event Driven State Machines page.

SD Card Holders

Added info about SD card holders to the SD Cards page.

ETL Strings

Added info about ETL strings to the C++ on Embedded Systems page.

Double Oven Controlled Oscillators

Added info about double oven controlled oscillators to the Crystals page.

Solid State Relays

Added info about zero crossing solid state relays.

C++ RAII in Embedded Systems

Added info about RAII to the C++ on Embedded Systems page.

EN 18031

Added info on EN 18031 to the Compliance and Standards page.

Rust robe-rs and defmt

Added info about probe-rs and defmt to the Running Rust on Microcontrollers page.

Updated astro.js from v4 to v5

This site uses astro.js to generate the static content. I updated the astro.js version from v4 to v5, which also involved updating the Starlight theme.

Video on Ultrasonic Sensors

Added a short video showing a ultrasonic sensor in use on a LEGO Mindstorms robot to the Ultrasonic Sensors page.

USB PD Controllers

Added info about USB PD controllers to the USB Charging and Power Delivery (PD) page.

Zephyr Peripherals

Moved info about Zephyr peripherals to a Zephyr Peripherals page. Added more info on the hardware and software watchdog APIs. Added info on using the shell over USB CDC ACM.

Soldering Defects

Added some info on open-circuit solder joints to the Soldering page.

Heat-shrink to Protect Wire Lose Ends

Added info on how to use heat-shrink to protect wire lose ends to the Cables page.

USB C Connector Alternate Modes

Added info about USB C connector alternate modes to the USB Protocol page.

OLED Screens

Added info about OLED screen firmware drivers to the OLED Screens page.

June 2025 Updates

Removed Umami Analytics

The Umami analytics server (this post explains how I set it up) was costing me about US$6 each month, and it was a pain to maintain (it was crash every few months). I figured I got enough value from the time it was running --- I now have an approximate ratio of the actual traffic that is reported via a platform that ad blockers ignore (Umami) vs. that via a platform that gets blocked (Google Analytics). So I decided to remove it. Now I’m back to using Google Analytics.

Added Info on Zephyr Bluetooth

Added info on Zephyr Bluetooth to the site.

Added Info on LDRs Used In Audio Compressors

Added info on LDRs used in older audio compressors (e.g. the Teletronix LA-2A) to the site.

Added Info on Isolated Voltage Measurement

Added info on using isolated amplifiers to measure voltages which you want to remain isolated from the ADC/MCU to the Analogue-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) page.

Added Info on MMCX Connectors

Added info on MMCX connectors to the RF Connectors page.

Added Info on CICD with Code Composer Studio

Added info on CICD with Code Composer Studio to the site.

Added Info on Debugging Zephyr in VSCode

Added info on debugging Zephyr in VSCode to the site.

Added Info on 10 position 2x5 1.27mm pitch IDC Connectors

Added info on 10 position 1.27mm pitch IDC connectors to the site.

Added Info on Creating Linkable Zephyr Libraries Using CMake

Added info on creating linkable Zephyr libraries using CMake to the site.

NinjaTerm v4.20.0 Released

v4.20.0 of NinjaTerm has been released! A bunch of new features have been added such as timestamps, background/text colors and autoscroll lock on TX data.

Here is the complete changelog:

Added

  • Added the ability to add timestamps to the start of each line of received data. Timestamps can be enabled from the Settings->RX Settings menu.
  • Added the ability to select the default background, TX text and RX text colors from the Settings->Display menu. ANSI escape code colors commands will override these defaults. This also means you can color TX and RX text differently.
  • Added a “Clear app data and reload app” button to the Settings->General Settings menu which clears all app data in local storage (e.g. profiles, settings changed from their defaults) and reloads the app.
  • Added a local echo status indicator to the bottom toolbar.
  • Added support for receiving tab characters and handling them correctly with tab stops.
  • Added a small “Copy all text” button to each terminal which copies all the text in that terminal (including the scrollback buffer) to the clipboard.
  • Added autoscroll lock on TX setting to the Settings->Display menu. When enabled (the default), the TX terminal and TX/RX terminals will automatically scroll to the bottom when the user presses a key inside the terminal.

Changed

  • Improved the way app data stored in the browser’s local storage is updated to the latest version.
  • Reordered the left-hand toolbar icons so that the “Show the terminal” button is now the first one.
  • Made the logo in the left-hand toolbar a button which opens the terminal.

Fixed

  • Run unit tests (vitest) in CI after discovering they were not running.
  • Fixed broken unit tests.
  • Tooltip entry delay issues fixed in the quick settings accordion.

May 2025 Updates

Added Info on Azure IoT Hub

Added info on Azure IoT Hub.

Added Info on C++ Callbacks

I finished polishing off the updates to the C++ Callbacks page.

Added Info on the C++ One Definition Rule (ODR)

Added info on the C++ One Definition Rule (ODR) to the site.

Added Info on C++ Namespaces

Added info on C++ Namespaces to the site.

Added Info on C++ std::span

Added info on C++ std::span to the site.

Added Info on The Time Constant of the EMA Filter

Added equations, info and graphs on the time constant of the EMA filter to the site.

New Page on Power Monitor ICs

Added a new page on Power Monitor ICs to the site.

Removing Mains Noise from ADC Measurements

Added a new page on Removing Mains Noise from ADC Measurements to the site.

Added a New Page on the Dart Language and Flutter

Added a new page on the Dart language and Flutter to the site.

Added a New Page on Creating Python Executables with PyInstaller

Added a new page on Creating Python Executables with PyInstaller to the site.

Added Info on Coin Cell Battery Holders

Added info on coin cell battery holders to the site.

Added Info on nrfutil

Added info on nrfutil to the site.

Added Info on Linear Feedback Shift Registers (LFSRs)

Added info on Linear Feedback Shift Registers (LFSRs) to the site.

Added Info on Contactless CAN Bus Sniffers

Added info on Contactless CAN Bus Sniffers to the site.

April 2025 Updates

Added Info on InfluxDB

Added info on InfluxDB.

Added Info on Azure Functions

Added info on Azure Functions.

Added Info on JST ACH Connectors

Added info on JST ACH connectors.

Added Info on the nRF52 Near Field Communication Tag (NFCT) Peripheral

Added info on the nRF52 Near Field Communication Tag (NFCT) Peripheral.

Moved Wire-to-Board Connector Info Onto It’s Own Page

Moved the wire-to-board connector info from the Connectors page onto it’s own page Wire-to-Board (WTB) Connectors.

Added Info on Near Field Communication (NFC)

Added info on Near Field Communication (NFC).

Added Info on Pandas Saving to Pickle, Feather, and Parquet File Formats

Added info on Pandas saving to Pickle, Feather, and Parquet file formats.

Added Info on Flow Sensor Calibration

Added info on flow sensor calibration.

Moved the Antenna Design Page

Moved the antenna design page from under Electronics->Circuit Design to Under Electronics->Components and renamed it to from “Antenna Design” to “Antennas”.

Added Info on the Zephyr Watchdog API

Added info on Zephyr Watchdog API.

Added Info on x86-64 Assembly

Added info on x86-64 Assembly.

Corrected Info on C++ Magic Statics

Arthur O’Dwyer kindly pointed out via email that some of the info on C++ magic statics was incorrect. I’ve updated the page to correct this.

Added Info on Google Benchmark

Added info on Google Benchmark.

Added Info on C++ Callbacks

I updated the C++ Callbacks page, going into more detail on the different types of callbacks and a section benchmarking the performance of the different types of callbacks.

Added Info on Creating a Zephyr Login Shell

Added info on creating a Zephyr login shell.

March 2025 Updates

Added Wurth SKEDD IDC REDFIT Connectors

Added info on Wurth SKEDD IDC REDFIT Connectors.

Added Info on nRF52 GPIOs

Added info on nRF52 GPIOs.

Added Info on the nRF52 Comparator

Added info on the nRF52 Comparator.

February 2025 Updates

Added Info on nRF54L Series SoCs

Added info on the Nordic Semiconductor nRF54L Series SoCs including internal architecture block diagram, memory specifications, package types and tamper detection peripherals.

Added Info on the nRF9151 SoCs

Added info on the Nordic Semiconductor nRF9151 SoCs including a “Getting Started” guide.

Added Info on Test Jigs

Added info on test jigs including a section on pogo pins.

Added Info on Microsoft SQL Server

Added info on Microsoft SQL Server.

Added Info on Flow Sensors

Added info on flow sensors including a section on the YF-Bx family of flow sensors.

Added Info on Atomic Variables in Zephyr

Added info on atomic variables in Zephyr.

Added Info on Logging in Python

Added info on logging in Python.

January 2025 Updates

Added Info on DIP Switches

Added info on DIP switches including uses, photos and rotary DIP switches.

Added Info on Contributing to Zephyr

Added info on how to contribute to the Zephyr Project.

Added Info on LED Chemistries and LED History

Added info on LED chemistries.

Added Info on Reducing the Size of a GitLab Repository

Added info on how to reduce the size of a GitLab repository.

Added Info on Using Different SSH Keys for Different Repos

Added info on how to use different SSH keys for different Git repositories.

Added Info on Silencing Spurious Duplicate Unit Address Warnings

Added info on how to silence spurious duplicate unit address warnings.

2025

Child Pages

Happy New Year 2025

2024 saw 505k (505,000) page views for blog.mbedded.ninja! This was up from 436k last year, an increase of 69k or 16%. This is a placeholder for the reference: fig-stats-graphs shows the page views and other key stats per year.

Graphs of page views and content up to the end of 2024.

NinjaTerm went through 11 releases from v4.12.1 to v4.19.0. Some significant features were added, after it got turned into a PWA just before the start of 2024. It has 75 stars on GitHub and had 3.1k page views (as reported by Google Analytics).

NinjaCalc went through 2 releases from v3.5.2 to v3.5.4. These were minor releases which just fixed a broken URL and added the Umami analytics functionality. It has 30 stars on GitHub and had 52k page views (as reported by Google Analytics).

CppLinuxSerial went through 1 release from v2.8.1 to v2.8.2. This added changes to the CMake build system to allow add_subdirectory() to work correctly. It has 387 stars on GitHub.

Blog page views were based on a combination of Umami and Google Analytics. Umami was used were data was available due to it not being blocked by ad blockers, otherwise Google Analytics was used. Google Analytics values were adjusted to “Umami” values based on the average difference between the two. The average difference was calculated over all months that both were available. This is a placeholder for the reference: tbl-2024-page-views shows the page views for each month from the different analytics services. These were used to create This is a placeholder for the reference: fig-stats-graphs.

MonthUmamiGoogle AnalyticsUmami (interpolated)
Jan n/a 41k 54k
Feb n/a 42k 55k
Mar n/a 33k 43k
Apr 40k 30k 40k
May 40k 30k 40k
Jun 36k 32k 36k
Jul 39k 33k 39k
Aug n/a 28k 37k
Sep n/a 26k 34k
Oct 47k 30k 47k
Nov 44k 37k 44k
Dec 36k 24k 36k
Total n/a 386k 505k
The blog page views for each month from the different analytics services.

For all months in which data was available for both, Umami reported 282k views, and Google Analytics reported 216k views. Umami is 31% higher than Google Analytics.

This is a placeholder for the reference: fig-engagement-pages-and-screens shows the top 10 most popular pages, ranked by number of page views.

The top 10 most visited pages of 2024.

Blog Acquisition

This is a placeholder for the reference: fig-traffic-acquisition shows the top 7 sources of acquisition traffic in 2024. As usual, most of the traffic was from organic search (e.g. Google search engine).

Top 5 sources of acquisition traffic in 2024.

Blog Word, Page and Image Counts

At the end of 2024 the site had 704k words, up from 639k words last year (an increase of 65k). These words were spread over 1313 pages (up from 1221 pages last year), and included 3,222 images (an decrease of 1,296 from 4,518 images images last year). Even though many new images were added last year, the total dropped because I purged all of the redundant images that were still hanging around in the public/ directory from when the site was migrated away from Wordpress.

Achievements in 2024

  • The blog was migrated from Hugo to Astro.js. I’m really happy with the change, as Astro.js component syntax is much clearer than Hugo’s, and Astro.js lets me use React components if needed (I use React on a number of other projects).
  • I fully embraced the .webp image format (which has great compression size), and almost all new raster images are now in this format. .svg is still used for vector images.
  • Site-wide search was added to the blog. This became easier to implement after the migration to Astro.js.
  • Added a “cover image” feature to each page. Each page can now have a cover image assigned to it (a piece of metadata in the frontmatter). This cover image is used in the parent page’s “child pages” section to display beside the page description. It is also used for the social media preview image.
  • Added figure, table and equation numbering support (I had this in Hugo, but lost it when migrating to Astro.js).
  • NinjaTerm got heaps of new features added, after it got turned into a PWA just before the start of 2024.

Plans For The 2025 Year

  • Add more content to the blog (as always!).
  • Keep adding features to NinjaTerm.
  • Make sure CppLinuxSerial can work with CMake’s FetchContent feature (it’s an easy way to include external dependencies).

December 2024 Updates

Add Relay Contact Forms Info

Added information about relay contact forms, e.g. Form A, Form B, Form C, Form D, and Form X.

Added a Page on Chip Carrier Packages

Added information about chip carrier packages, including PLCC, LCC, LCCC, and BCC.

Started a Page on Designing a HAL in C++

Added information about designing a HAL in C++.

Started a PCB Rework Guide

Started a page on PCB reworking.

Added Info on the MFF2 (DFN-8) Package Used For eSIMs

Added information about the MFF2 (DFN-8) package used for eSIMs.

November 2024 Updates

Added New Page On Creating Digital and Analogue Delays

Added a new page on creating digital and analogue delays. This includes delays using RC/Schmitt triggers, 555 timers, long pieces of wire, delay line ICs, bucket brigade delay ICs, and microcontrollers.

Added New Page on Bucket Brigade Devices

Added a new page on Bucket Brigade Devices.

Added Info on Zephyr’s nsi_exit()

Added more info on Zephyr’s native_sim board to the Zephyr page.

Added Info on Zephyr’s State Machine Framework

Added info on Zephyr’s State Machine Framework (SMF).

Added Info on Dry Relay Contacts

Added info on what is meant by “dry” contacts in the context of relays to the Mechanical Relays page.

Added New Pages on SOD-57 and SOD-64 Component Packages

Added new pages on the SOD-57 and SOD-64 component packages.

Updated the Object-Orientated C Page

Updated the Object-Orientated C page with info on polymorphism and testing.