Hands-On RTOS with Microcontrollers

Traditional testing equipment

Before all of the attractive pieces of software for visualizing RTOS behavior on a computer screen existed, this task would fall to more traditional test equipment.

Logic analyzers have been around since MCUs first came into existence and are still among the most versatile tools an embedded system engineer can have in their kit. With a logic analyzer, the timing can be directly measured between when an input enters the system and when an output is provided by the system, as well as the timing between each of the tasks. Looking at the raw low-level signals going in and out of an MCU provides a level of visibility and gut feel for when something isn't right in a way that hexadecimal digits on a screen simply can't. ...