Have you ever written firmware?

No, how's it working out for you OP?

I'm opened my Epson printer's firmware and it was a fucking linux on it. I was impressed.

I've only hacked firmware before.

To unlock a VCD or something.

>>58772814
Not since the 90's

>>58772814
No. I don't hate myself that much.

I have. It was for a hobby usb device implemented around a shitty microcontroller, but still.

>>58772814
>Have you ever written firmware?
I've never even written a single line of code before

I am thinking about starting to learn to code or something but I am too lazy and when there's not an immediate need to do something... why do it...

>>58772814
The question could be phrased as: Have you ever been capable of writing firmware?

>>58772814
Out of scratch? No
But I messed some settings in the firmware of a dvd burner in order to burn some stuff it didn't recognised

>>58773399
And you could be outside right now talking to grills.

>>58772814
I hacked SD card firmware back in '12

>>58772814
Everyday. My employer pays me to do that.

>>58773206
>when there's not an immediate need to do something... why do it...

You're one of those people that will rush to store at the last minute before a huge storm hits, even though you were told 3 days in advance.

No but it's been my dream to be a firmware or embedded systems programmer. No motivation though. I started learning x86 assembler for a while and then got a job and my energy went through the sewer. Bring 16 was easier. Maybe after I leave my current position I'll find motivation again. Until then I'll just fight off the thoughts of killing myself.

>>58772814
closest thing that I ever did was some bare-metal programming when I was getting my bachelor's.

>>58775590
why not just start looking for an entry-level job in embedded systems? If your experience in it isn't anything other than learning a bit of assembly, just search for companies looking for recent graduates of computer science programs; they'll be willing to train you.

>>58775632
I'm not a graduate. I was diagnosed with gastroparesis at 14 in freshmen year of high school. Made it through sophomore year but missed around 100 or so out 175 days of school. Dropped out. Got my CSSD(Pennsylvania state high school diploma). Cycled through working as a life guard, then security for a jank ass company and now I work security at a hospital for 12 an hour with benefits, vacation and sick time. I hate the people I work with and because of a back injury(my lumbar vertebrae are rotated out of alignment) I can't continue to work there anymore. 3 physicians told me my pain and suffering will be life long and 2 told me a chiropractor might help.

Because of my history and lack of an official high school diploma. I doubt anybody would hire me. I started programming at 9 years old and override a network based internet monitoring system(barracuda) at the age of 14 and was almost charged in court by the school district for it. But nobody gives a fuck. I won't lie on my resume and say I have something I don't.

I kind of just want today die desu but it would come as a surprise to everybody I know. It would hurt a lot of people. At this point I suffer for my loved ones.

/Rant

>>58772814
No

How do i start?

>>58772814

Yes, loads.

Mostly low cost 8 or 16 MCUs. Some in C and others in assembly.

>>58772814
Post the full image, you know, "that" one.

>>58775771
The real deal: Get a breadboard, a microcontroller (ATmega or PIC) and a programmer and just start
Pretty OK: Arduino, but use the original Atmel In-System-Programmer (ISP) and use AVR Studio for coding/flashing
Scrub option: Arduino and its dumbass IDE that hides everything from you (Caution: if you can't do "real* bare metal but only Arduino then employers will think you're a hipster and can't do anything by yourself)

>>58775733
I wasn't implying that you were a recent graduate, just that businesses that are looking for recent graduates are also the same businesses who are explicitly looking for people to train, as opposed to people with years of experience in the field.

but if you've got nothing relevant to put on your resume then yeah you're fucked. maybe try getting into a college.

>>58772814
Do I look like I have a brain!?

>>58775733
Your loved ones don't matter when you're dead.

>>58775986
I have an orange pi, coloured jumper wires and a multimeter. Just waiting on my LEDs to drop by.

I think I just look at the H3 Allwinner manual and see what ports (outputs?) that are designated for GPIO. Right?

I wanted to learn to write firmware for an LCD Controller so I can use any LVDS screen I write for but I don't know where to start with that.

>>58772814
two

>>58776228
The question was about firmware, which is commonly considered to be some software that is running on some processor without underlying operating system (or a special real-time OS).
Figuring out how to toggle a GPIO on Linux has nothing to do with firmware.

>>58776255
Who cares?

It's all low level shit, nerd.

>>58776293
You asked how to write firmware. So I told you.
Now you realize that you don't actually want to write firmware and post stupid shit.
Good job.

>>58776255
>>58776293
The crucial distinction is whether you're going to do the GPIO throught the SoC registers or use linux's /proc/gpio abstraction like a baby

>>58775590
I know that feel anon
I know it too well

>>58772814
Umm... err... well.... technically..... nah.

I'm pretty sure my "hello world" written in C is compatible with most firmwares, even if forcibly injected.

>>58775493
>implying I want to talk to 3DPD

Yes, it is my day job.

Don't fall for the meme, guys.

>>58776758
what's so bad about it

>>58772814
Yes, here: https://github.com/Grix/helios_dac

>>58777031
It's a pain in the ass compared to other types of programming, since you have to do a lot from scratch, and sometimes the debugger isn't reliable, so if there's a problem you have to just fix it somehow.

Also it's a saturated field in America so it's harder to find a job than other areas of tech and they typically pay less than other programming jobs.

>>58777120
Ever think of getting out? I know I have, but I'm not sure how much of the skillset is transferrable (there has to be more to life than state machines, right?)

>>58777120
>Also it's a saturated field in America so it's harder to find a job than other areas of tech and they typically pay less than other programming jobs.
It's the same situation here in Norway as well. There's not enough jobs to go around on the gazilleon people going out of uni with degrees in EE and CE, so employers drive the salary way down.

>>58777213
Yes. I know a few of the major languages (Java, Python, C, C++) from university, so I don't think getting out wouldn't be too hard, but I don't want to go into web dev which seems to be the most prolific field right now. I'm currently going through the Andrew Ng machine learning course on Coursera, though I don't know what else to do from there to get into data science/machine learning/AI...

>>58775581
>Rushing to a store because of a storm warning
>In Florida

You must be a tourist.

>>58777474
I'm >>58777237 and I used to work as a backend web dev before I ventured into the field of embedded. I even worked with C++ because the web application was a DAM system that specialised in images and videos, so a typical task might include heavy file operations or image or video processing.

Machine learning is a good thing to pick up, especially in order to move into the data science area. My biggest regret is that I didn't do any machine learning courses back when I was in uni.

>>58777608
Why did you switch from web to embedded? Are you happy with your choice?

>>58772814

yeah it's pretty cool

especially when you realize that you are running a computer on 5v*10 micro amps

>>58777896
>Why did you switch from web to embedded?
While the company I worked for was nice and all and writing C++ for a living was fun, I wanted to do more low level networking stuff because it was more relevant to what I did during my master's.

>Are you happy with your choice?
No, I quit after 6 months and I'm currently doing a PhD because the field of embedded development was absolutely terrifying in terms of product quality.

Basically, the situation is this: Once you get a client to adopt your hardware, they become completely dependant on that specific hardware and as long as you're in a niche market (which 99% of embedded stuff is) there is no real competition, so no matter how shit your product is, you still have clients.

But I still do low level stuff as part of my PhD, so at least I'm happy I made the move into that direction.

>>58777474
>I don't want to go into web dev
this is literally the only reason I want to get into embedded systems programming

it's either that or webdev shit, I can't think of any other viable areas to work in

>>58778170
Games, applications development. Xamarin with C# is really popular for mobile now but there's lot of java / c++ desktop applications that might need maintaining. There's also some demand for python in scientific research.

>>58772814
I wrote programs for AVRs in assembly and C, guess that counts as firmware.

>>58772814
i programmed atmega, technically it's firmware

never did serious shit like researching and writing firmware for existing device

>>58778753
>Games
I don't know about that, it is something a high-school me would've loved to do, but I've given up on that path already(mostly since I'm only able to program and I don't know if I'd be comfortable in a startup)
>applications development
this was probably one of the main reasons I went into programming, but honestly I can't remember the last time I've saw someone who exclusively worked developing apps. It always seems like some webdev guy gets forced into making it when he has spare time. Either that or they get some outside contract workers to do it, who also do lots of other things from webdev, mobile apps to desktop apps
Or did you mean mobile apps by this as well?

>>58778170
what about smartphones? anyone can program smartphones now, and there is a lot of companies to join

>>58779163
I'm bad with user interfaces design, it's why I tend to avoid it
i only ever made one app on android and I kinda remember it being a clusterfuck
I'll have to give it another try though

>>58779204
designer and coder are two different things, proper companies have their graphics guys

>>58779216
>proper companies
well I doubt I currently have much to offer to a proper company so I'm forced to this hell