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Comment by makapuf | Hacker News Reader

Thats exactly what i did while working on dreaded big data. Got myself a microcontroller, implemented a small arm console and write fucking low level C code optimized the heck of cpu cycles for tiny games, no code reuse, no interfaced, no deadlines, no refacto, no security, no network, no politics. Barely version control (with appropriate "update" commit messages). Kept me sane while doing those things at work.

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+1 on the small 1-2 weekend tangible projects, that you may have wanted to build before, but never got to, they are great for morale.

This weekend I implemented RS232-powered RGB LED that is controlled attiny85, which reacts to strings sent to that very same RS232. A gross violation of standard, probably, but it works! It definitely added a lot of joy.

I typed “git init” only after I finished the first working version which had a regular One-color LED, and could not yet do blinking :-)

For even more fun with low level breaking of standards, bit-banging rs232 is fun and very doable. Don't use timers for timing either, just spin the cpu the right number of times. :)

This project actually does decode of Rs232 data, with the special prefix triggering the interpreter mode where you can control the color and delay between the cycles. Only ground and TX pins are used to connect. Oh, and no interrupts - poll for the start bit while running the currently programmed light animation cycle :-)

One thing that made the development of it all immensely easier was having a Saleae logic analyzer. Highly recommend it (no affiliation, just a happy customer).

I have a similar dream, but it involves starting from the ground up:

- Implement a CPU and peripherals in an FPGA

- Throw together an OS

- Make a handheld game console

Why? Because it would be fun to remind myself of the "first principals" (not talking physics here) and play around with it.

For now, I'm playing around with Raylib [0] and Allegro [1] which are C game libraries.

Do you have a link to your console hardware?

0: https://github.com/raysan5/raylib

1: https://liballeg.org/

sure : https://github.com/makapuf/bitbox (see also many small repos for games, most of those being unfinished, as expected)

I feel fortunate to have chosen embedded software as the career path. 10 years in industry now and never had a dull moment (though I've had some bad colleagues/clients). I work inside a terminal all day, no GUI (even use GDB TUI), and somehow never get bored of it. I think having a physical entity responding to your code immediately (blinking LED for example) keeps the programmer interested.

> Barely version control (with appropriate "update" commit messages). Kept me sane

Does not sound like it would keep me sane…

Interesting, I’m on the same boat. Embedded systems and low-level coding are my beacons of sanity.

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