CEP003 – A Hardware Design Review with Erik Larson

Today we’re talking with, Erik Larson, who is a firmware engineer with some interesting background! He joins Chris to review the Advanced BLE-Cell (ABC) board, which is also a new course on Contextual Electronics.

Erik has worked at places like Honeywell Aerospace, Apriva and Hologram (where he and Chris met). Erik is now a full time consultant for his own company, Statropy Software LLC.
Erik was the firmware engineer on the Hologram Dash, which was an embedded module that Hologram used to make for people to get started making cellular connected devices.
During his career, he had to learn how to code remotely on a VAX! This meant being very careful with code check-ins
Erik and Chris review some of the “Must check” sections of schematics, in order to get firmware and hardware talking properly:
- Pin selection on a microcontroller
- Programming elements, including the bootloader
- Understanding the peripherals of the specific chip you’re using
The board we’re reviewing is the Advanced BLE-CELL (ABC) board, which is designed as part of a Contextual Electronics course. You can follow along and watch the entire design of this board if you’re a member of Contextual Electronics.
Here is the schematic, as shown in the video (has since been updated for the course, as has the layout)
Check out the nRF52840 Product Specification (datasheet)
Erik recommends getting a development board and breakout boards before the hardware arrives.
You can hire Erik to help with your next firmware project on his website, Statropy Software, LLC