[This was written specifically for the 2024 edition of the course. Some details may have changed. Please refer to current documentation provided in class. The following is an example of a main project for the EECS 1021 course. While I think that it's important to provide concrete examples it's also important not to provide examples […]
It's important to create test frameworks for your programs. In Java we use the jUnit system to do so. Here is an example of setting up a unit tester to make sure that that a method returns the values it's supposed to. First, let's look at the method. I'm using it to convert values that […]
A lot of people have been asking whether Microchip's MPLAB X runs on Apple Silicon machines. The answer is: Yes. I have just tested it out on my Apple M3 Pro MacBook Pro. It works fine so far. I have installed MPLAB X v6.20 and the XC8 compiler. I've hooked up a PIC16 board and […]
My colleague, Eric Prandovszky, has been discussing the M5Stack system with me for a while and acquired a few modules to us to try out. Today I tried out the M5Stack Core 2 AWS module. My objective is to see if we can program it using the legacy Arduino 1.x IDE on macOS with Apple […]
[updated for Windows ARM users] For students attempting to get the USB drivers working for the Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino please follow these instructions: First: make sure that you're not using the white USB cable. Use a different one. Second: install the USB driver for the board. a) Go to Seeed Studio's wiki: https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/Grove-Beginner-Kit-For-Arduino/ b) […]
The following is an example of the files needed to create a working Virtual Programming Lab exercise for Java: vpl_run.sh vpl_evaluate.sh MainClass.java StudentSolution.java TeacherReferenceSolutions.java TheTestClass.java With this you can evaluate one student submission against a single reference solution. Two methods are run: one is the student's method and one is the teacher's method. The output […]
As part of a research project I'm resurrecting some KL25Z boards and ChipKit basic I/O shield boards and seeing if they can be used together. The ChipKit has some pushbuttons and LEDs. The following code, with the help of single-stepping and the debugger can get the LED bank and BTN1 on the ChipKit I/O board […]
Summary The Ontario Workers Health & Safety Training Centre provides training on Indoor Air Quality. It’s valuable training for Joint Health and Safety Committee members to provide them on background to better understand how to go about gathering and analyzing information on indoor air in the workplace. The training covers common issues, limitations, and responsibilities. (preview here) Given the importance of […]
Before we started using Firmata and Firmata4j in the EECS 1021 class, Richard Robinson and I put together lab activities that used the Fazecast jSerialComm library paired with customized Arduino serial code. The approach is summarized in three videos: Video 1: The Plan for Sending Data to an Arduino We need to send information, in […]
One sentence summary The latest M3 Pro laptops from Apple have one main target audience: people holding on to their Intel-based MacBooks, like me. Background I have a 2018 MacBook Air. I used it to teach in France and Germany during my sabbatical. I used it to teach online and in-person here at York University. […]