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Arduino FreeRTOS Mutex Examples

In this section, we will explain using an example to demonstrate mutexes in Arduino using freeRTOS. There are two freeRTOS Mutex examples in this tutorial, the first example demands some hardware (LCD) While the second does not need any hardware, you can try out both if you have the resources.

In the last tutorial, we considered in detail: semaphores and mutexes and we also established the difference between binary semaphores and mutexes.
Just for a review:Recall that a mutex is a locking mechanism that implements the take and gives functionality in itself, unlike a binary semaphore. See this tutorial if you have not before continuing.
Example 1: Protecting the LCD Resource Using Mutex in freeRTOS
Program Description

In this program, we Demonstrated the use a 16x2 LCD display to implement a mutex.

The LiquidCrystal library works with all LCD displays that are compatible with the Hitachi HD44780 driver. you can usually tell them by their 16-pin interface.

THE CIRCUIT

* LCD RS pin to digital…
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My Experience at the Largest Thermal Power Plant (1.32GW) in Africa

In the course of my studies as an electrical and electronic engineering student, I was privileged to undertake a training program in Egbin Power Plc, it is arguably the largest single thermal power generating plant in black Africa with an installed capacity of 1320MW which is currently about to be extended.

It was a very insightful experience and I learned so much about the power industry.

However, for the sake of this post, I am drafting this to actually introduce the major concepts I learned first hand in the power plant and you will enjoy the series if you have a theoretical background. If you don't, it will spur up your studies when you are being introduced to the theories of how it works.

I will be breaking down this series into the following:

  • How power is generated in  a thermal power plant: In this post, we provided a walk through to how power is generated in a steam power plant, from the purification of water - citing the processes common bore-hole drilled water pass through to meet process specifications and also citing what happens when these specs are not met

  • Steam turbine generators and Excitation: In this post, we introduced the steam turbine generators, its working principles and how they generate power. The field flashing concept was explained and shown. And how the generator is able to sustain excitation indefinitely.

  • Black start: How to start up the power generation when there is an outage or system collapse. The black start system which is made up the gas turbine generator, the diesel engine will be explored.

  • Gas turbine generators: Here we explained the working principle and operation of the gas turbine generator. How it works literally using field experience and the difference or comparison between it and the steam turbine generators

  • Feed Water Heaters and their relevance in a thermal power plant: Feedwater heaters are pieces of equipment and part of the various units involved in power generation. Why can't the power stations do without the feedwater heater? Why are they placed along the lines of the feedwater? What role do they play? How economizers and deaerators are part of the feedwater heaters, are all considered within the post.

  • Instrumentation and Control in the plant

  • Major skill sets required from students

  • Understanding elementary Electrical drawings

  • Piping and Instrument Diagrams (P&ID)

Some of the articles are still under preparation, we will link to them as soon as we are done

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Arduino FreeRTOS Tutorial 05: Binary Semaphores and Mutexes

Semaphores and Mutexes are interesting operating system concept that is used for synchronization, resource management and protecting access to resources.

So far in our FreeRTOS Tutorial series, we have dealt with tasks and scheduling algorithms. In the process of the tutorial, we stumbled across an Operating system's concept called Semaphores and Mutexes, though you may not have noticed it.

The Idea

You might have observed while playing around with task priorities, that a high priority task could pre-empt a lower priority task at any time whether or not the low priority task has completed its execution. This is a common feature in a multi-tasking environment and it can cause data corruption, data integrity losses, etc. Thus, there is a need to protect resources, and control access using semaphores and mutexes.

Students usually find it difficult to understand this concept so I will be given an explanation using some illustrations, and also provide a code snippet for implementation o…
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Arduino FreeRTOS Mutex Examples

In this section, we will explain using an example to demonstrate mutexes in Arduino using freeRTOS. There are two freeRTOS Mutex examples in this tutorial, the first example demands some hardware (LCD) While the second does not need any hardware, you can try out both if you have the resources.

In the last tutorial, we considered in detail: semaphores and mutexes and we also established the difference between binary semaphores and mutexes.
Just for a review:Recall that a mutex is a locking mechanism that implements the take and gives functionality in itself, unlike a binary semaphore. See this tutorial if you have not before continuing.
Example 1: Protecting the LCD Resource Using Mutex in freeRTOS
Program Description

In this program, we Demonstrated the use a 16x2 LCD display to implement a mutex.

The LiquidCrystal library works with all LCD displays that are compatible with the Hitachi HD44780 driver. you can usually tell them by their 16-pin interface.

THE CIRCUIT

* LCD RS pin to digital…
Read more

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To properly understand this, we will be using an example to illustrate this.

In this example, we are creating two tasks with the same priority and in the second example, with two different priorities.
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