This page captures a set of course notes being developed to help academic and workshop tutors teach using mbed as the platform, as well as for self-teaching.

The notes are in the form of presentation slides, so can be used as standalone pre-developed content as well as taking things further with extended topics and projects.

Summary¶

The mbed platform is becoming widely used in academic circles for teaching embedded systems at undergraduate level, and within companies where often there is a need to self-teach or be trained in new microcontroller skills. The mbed allows quick engagement in advanced topics, and to facilitate this further we are putting together a set of course notes to help academic and workshop tutors teach, using mbed as the platform.

Course Outline¶

The provisional content of the course notes is outlined below. Obviously it is not possible to cover every mbed topic in this way, but we have chosen the topics that allow a quick introduction to the most commonly used technologies and interfaces while providing the background design and programming skills to allow students to learn effectively.

The mbed course notes content and structure is as follows:

• Digital input and output
• Analog input and output
• Pulse width modulation
• Modular design and programming
• Parallel data and communication
• Serial communication with I2C
• Serial communication with SPI
• Timers and interrupts
• Memory and data management

There are a number of topics which have been chosen to naturally support a 12 week undergraduate course, or a workshop run over a few days. In all cases examples and exercises are provided to support hands on learning. Of course, we also hope the slides stand as a useful self learning programme for anyone new to the mbed.

Draft Course Slides¶

We will post the draft slides here as they are ready. We'd really like to receive feedback and suggestions from potential tutors as we go through the process of development, so please feel free to offer feedback in the comments section of this page.

"We" are Rob Toulson (Anglia Ruskin University) and Tim Wilmshurst (University of Derby), working with the mbed team. We're also considering a supporting academic textbook.

Digital input and output¶

Analog input and output¶

Pulse width modulation¶

Modular design and programming¶

Parallel data and communication¶

Serial communication with I2C¶

Serial communication with SPI¶

Timers and interrupts¶

Memory and data management¶

Feedback¶

We'd really like to receive feedback and suggestions from potential tutors as we go through the process of development, so please feel free to offer feedback in the following comments: