Linux provides an amazing suite of functionality for embedded systems, and it is hard to overstate the benefits of using such a feature rich and well tested base. This functionality comes at a price however, as when compared to non-Linux systems it generally means increased complexity, binary size, and more often than not startup time.
As a development consultancy, we frequently find ourselves engaging with projects that are already well underway. This has led to a series of observations of some key indicators of whether good development practices are being used or not. These practices offer a form of resiliency - allowing for development to continue in spite of unexpected difficulties such as key staff leaving, late feature additions, rapid team size increases, and many others.
Embedded systems often require one-off development fixtures to help support the development process. Made ad-hoc by hand, these fixtures are often fragile and can take valuable engineering time away from other important tasks. Changes to the PCB manufacturing ecosystem means creating and handling these fixtures doesn't need to be as painful, costly or as time consuming as it has been in the past.
In this tutorial we'll create a soil moisture monitoring and notification system that utilises an AWS Lambda function for cloud side decision making. We'll use a Grove soil moisture sensor to collect data with one Degu unit, and send that moisture data to the AWS Lambda function to determine whether the soil is dry enough to warrant turning on a buzzer on another Degu unit.
