Thank you so much for this! So, if I'm understanding correctly, I must first design my hardware, making sure I know exactly what I want it to be able to do, and then the software to drive it? When you say environment and hardware platform, are you referring to the hardware's operating system? The device I want to make is a very small device, so I'm pretty sure I'll have to spend the money to have a mechanical and electronic design firm literally manufacture it for me. I'm sure this is quite expensive, but necessary due to it's very small size.
With All Respect, Upshaw, Lamar T----- Original Message ----- From: "David Engebretson" <davide@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 10:15 AM Subject: RE: hardware and software design from the ground up
I've got a degree in Electronics Engineering with a focus in embedded systems design. A radio, as you've described is an embedded system.The thing I've found prohibitive in embedded system design is cost. Mainly manufacturing costs, but also the cost of research and development. If costis of no consequence to you then you might want to hire a mechanical andelectronic design firm to create your hardware for you. Otherwise, I've gota couple of ideas for you: 1. There are radios on the market that have USB connections. People have written software to control these radios with their computers. This is probably the lowest cost option. 2. You can buy development boards that have easy to connect (caveat: theyaren't that easy to connect if you are visually impaired and without sightedassistance) modules/circuits that fill the requirements of your project. You can then use a software development environment to write software forthe hardware platform. Often the nitty gritty hardware details are written in assembly. You can wrap those functions using C and C++, depending on theenvironment you get and the capability of the hardware platform.I did option number two for my senior project as an undergraduate. I used a Motorola HC12 development board, plugged in sound chips and wrote drivers tocontrol it, had a nice power system development board so I could run mydevice off of battery power, a large print vacuum fluorescent display (I had a little bit of working vision back then), and a nice keypad with somethingI called Blind Friendly Controls (BFC). I didn't know anything about accessibility products other than ZoomText back then, but found out (whenintroduced to JAWS) that their keyboard help functionality was exactly whatI did with my BFC creation.Anyhow, option 2 is pretty fun for development but not really practical formanufacturing - more for proto-typing. You might even be able to find a development board for a radio. Check out http://www.digikey.com for a cool professional electronics store with lots of development kits. Cheers, David __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
__________View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
