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Nordic Semiconductor Acquires Memfault

nordicsemi.com

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Re: Nordic Semiconductor Acquires Memfault

#21

Post by dragontamer »

readmodifywrite wrote: post #5
Neywiny wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like it switches different ranges. ST makes something similar that has similar dynamic range without switching. They use analog circuitry (op amps and junk) to compensate for the resistor drop, so the path is uninterrupted. I've had systems where the auto-ranging on a bench meter is enough to cause it to reset. I can't find a schematic for the PPKII (haven't looked too hard though) but if it's actually switchin…

It switches the detection range, but not the actual power supply. You can ramp from Schematics: https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-hardware/Pow...

With the onset of cheap 16-bit, 18-bit or even 24-bit sigma delta ADCs, it isn't a very hard circuit to shove a 1 Ohm sense resistor, 2.048V reference and have sensing down to 31uA (16-bit), 8uA (18-bit) or less for 24-bit ADC.

SigmaDelta gets pricy if you want higher speeds though. But it's possible.

Re: Nordic Semiconductor Acquires Memfault

#22

Post by machinehum »

joezydeco wrote: post #20
5ADBEEF wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think most have this experience. Zephyr is the future.

I've had bad experiences with Zephyr in the past. It's been half-baked and passed around from company to company for ages. Be Linux or don't be Linux, but don't be halfway between the two. I have a lot more hope for PX5.

I actually disagree.

We have lower power bare metal systems, think AVR/STM stuff (in the 1Mhz to 50Mhz range with 128K or less of RAM) here FreeRTOS, no freeRTOS, custom driver code and some basic application code makes sense. For simple to very complex systems.

Then there's 1Ghz+ stuff with an MMU and 2GB+ RAM. Linux makes sense here.

Companies are now making chips 200Mhz+, 4MB RAM, with no MMU. This is precisely where Zephyr excels, you want a full networking stack? Switch that on. A file system, easy. Driver for some more complex thing? Maybe an SDIO radio? boomboom

Re: Nordic Semiconductor Acquires Memfault

#24

Post by vbezhenar »

machinehum wrote: post #22
joezydeco wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had bad experiences with Zephyr in the past. It's been half-baked and passed around from company to company for ages. Be Linux or don't be Linux, but don't be halfway between the two. I have a lot more hope for PX5.

I actually disagree. We have lower power bare metal systems, think AVR/STM stuff (in the 1Mhz to 50Mhz range with 128K or less of RAM) here FreeRTOS, no freeRTOS, custom driver code and some basic application code makes sense. For simple to very complex systems. Then there's 1Ghz+ stuff with an MMU and 2GB+ RAM. Linux makes sense here. Companies are now making chips 200Mhz+, 4MB RAM, with no MMU. This is precisely wh…

nRF52820 is 256 KB Flash and 32 KB RAM chip. Actually it's around 150 KB flash, because you need space for 120KB softdevice blob (and some RAM too). And it's perfectly enough for many devices. They want developers to use Zephyr for this chip.

Re: Nordic Semiconductor Acquires Memfault

#25

Post by fra »

I'm the co-founder and CEO of Memfault. We were in the W19 YC batch. I never thought our news would make the front page of HN!

This is a very exciting day for us (after a very intense few months). We've known the Nordic team for years and could not think of a better partner to grow our platform.

Happy to answer questions, if you have them.

Re: Nordic Semiconductor Acquires Memfault

#26

Post by fra »

phoronixrly wrote: post #9
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #2

Nordic makes some good products. When I was doing hardware design for a product that uses a battery my options for power profiling were either not to do it or spend some eye watering amount of money. Then I discovered Nordic makes the PPKII, a cost effective, highly accurate profiler with quite good software. I detect good things in store for the company just based on the quality of stuff they have been putting out.

Do they have nice open-source SDKs for these nice products?

It's all on Github (https://github.com/nordicsemiconductor), but it is not technically open source as it is a modified BSD that does not let you use the SDKs with other chipsets.

Re: Nordic Semiconductor Acquires Memfault

#29

Post by vbezhenar »

mystified5016 wrote: post #18
monegator wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nordic makes some good products and godawful software. the SDK for their NRF52/3/4 is pure madness, i haven't even managed to set up the toolchain, documentation always out of date. They used to have another toolchain for the older parts, but good luck setting it up now.

I spent so much time trying to get the SDK working for NRF52 that I genuinely just gave up and redesigned our whole product to use an ESP32 instead of the NRF plus other uC. I think that is genuinely the reason espressif is eating everyone's lunch. All the old players in the IC business have such inexcusably bad SDKs that the acceptably designed and documented ESP-IDF framework just makes the most sense to use. Why w…

I've found old SDK actually not that bad. Documentation is not great, but sources are available and it's just mostly C code with some hairy macros, but it's manageable. After few weeks I became quite proficient. I don't like their suggested approach "copy&paste example you like and tinker it", I never do that, so I had to untangle their Makefiles, I had to research their defines (app_config.h, what's a monstrosity), I had to write my own linker scripts, but in the end I have my application under control and it's all standard gcc toolchain, no fancy stuff.

Re: Nordic Semiconductor Acquires Memfault

#30

Post by ranma42 »

Neywiny wrote: post #3
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #2

Nordic makes some good products. When I was doing hardware design for a product that uses a battery my options for power profiling were either not to do it or spend some eye watering amount of money. Then I discovered Nordic makes the PPKII, a cost effective, highly accurate profiler with quite good software. I detect good things in store for the company just based on the quality of stuff they have been putting out.

Looks like it switches different ranges. ST makes something similar that has similar dynamic range without switching. They use analog circuitry (op amps and junk) to compensate for the resistor drop, so the path is uninterrupted. I've had systems where the auto-ranging on a bench meter is enough to cause it to reset. I can't find a schematic for the PPKII (haven't looked too hard though) but if it's actually switchin…

I have the ST one (X-NUCLEO-LPM01A), but its range is actually not enough for something like an ESP32, it goes into "overload" as the max current is 50mA for dynamic (100kHz bandwith) and 200mA for "static" measurements.

Looks like the PPKII can do up to 1A.

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