How to make software for embedded system

Thread Starter

nikee

Joined Jan 17, 2014
15
I have been learning embedded system by course "UT.6.02x Embedded Systems - Shape the World".
We are using TI TM4C123G board for programming. The course is taught very well and I can program the board for some general application. Now what I want to learn is how to make micro-controller talk to user via a GUI. I want to make a software in which user can set some parameters, submit and micro-controller starts working according to that. For example say user sets that the LED will blink at a frequency of 2 seconds.
Now I have seen most embedded systems connects to PC using RS232 or USB cables. I want to know how to do it with USB connection.
There are two parts of it.
1. What need to be done in board so that it support USB?
I have made some 8 bit micro-controller board and may be able to make a 32 bit micro-controller board with JTAG programming header)
2. What software can be used to make the GUI?
(I have little experience of making GUI in C# for windows application, does that help?)

I don't want any direct solution but want to know what I should learn and what are the steps to achieve this.
 

Thread Starter

nikee

Joined Jan 17, 2014
15
I am not able to find much information on google because I think I am not using right keywords.
What should I look for? All I can find is about firmwares.
 

sirch2

Joined Jan 21, 2013
1,037
Don't know about the TM4C123G in particular but in general an easy approach is to use Serial over USB with an FTDI chip. This allows you to create a virtual serial port on the PC and talk to the micro-controller using serial commands. The program in you micro-controller can interpret the commands and send back data or whatever. C# can send and receive data over a serial (COM) port so you can develop a GUI using that.
 

John P

Joined Oct 14, 2008
2,025
I'm still not totally clear that you want software for a PC to control the action of a microcontroller. But if that's the issue, then as others have said, the easy way (and it's what you've suggested) is with USB, using the FTDI interface chip to connect to the processor via a UART. You can buy cheap adapter boards that do this, but I made my own circuit board for it. If your project only uses 5 Volts, and not much power, you can power it via the USB cable too, which keeps things simple.

At the PC end, the interface looks like a serial port, so any software you're able to write can control it. I just bang everything out in C, but if you know how to write Python or Visual Basic, that might give you elegant designs more quickly.
 
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