Week 2 Recipe: Embedded Programming

A crispy introduction to microcontrollers and mischievous geese

Serves: One new programmer + one freshly soldered QPad

Total Time: One week of debugging, bitmap-ing, and honking

Course 1: Mise en Place – Getting the QPad Ready

This week marked my introduction to embedded programming. The lab ran out of QPads for a bit, and since I wanted the *nice* board, I waited patiently. Once it arrived, I soldered everything and loaded the sample code provided on the class site. Below are the first results fresh out of the oven:

Sample code running on QPad — Sample code working — always a relief.

Photo of the QPad — The freshly prepared QPad, all soldered and ready.

Course 2: Cooking Up a Goose

With the basics running, it was time to craft a dish of my own. I used an online bitmap creator to design a simple goose (because why wouldn’t I?), and wrote code that let the goose honk on command using a hardware button.

Below is the source code — two screenshots showing the full recipe:

Goose code screenshot part 1 — Goose Code, Part 1 — preparing the bitmap.

Goose code screenshot part 2 — Goose Code, Part 2 — adding the honk button.

Course 3: The Final Taste Test

And finally… the finished dish: The QPad running my goose program! Press the button and the goose gives a delightful little HONK.

The goose in action — a true honking success.