I’m not dead! + Update on my projects (and some video game talk)

Hello, all! It’s been a while since my last update way back in August on 2048 (nearly 2 months ago…). I’ve been spending mostly relaxing after stressing over jobs, including playing video games and watching YouTube. I recently began taking interest in starting back up my 2048 project, as well as ideas for new projects I have had.

So, I’ll start with my new projects. I recently reignited a previous interest in embedded systems, and got a Stellaris (TivaC) Launchpad with the REXQualis Complete Starter Kit to begin working with them again. I began initially working with the Arduino IDE to do simple projects using the REXQualis Uno R3 board, and further wanted to work with Rust using the avr-hal library as a starter point. So far, I was able to blink an LED connected to a breadboard, and interface with a 4×4 membrane keypad to print via serial to my laptop. Additionally, I am using the Stellaris Launchpad to work through the Modern Embedded Systems Programming Course by Quantum Leaps. My code for that course can be found here.

After doing some research, I found the notes for a course taught by Prof. Jonathan Valvano at UTAustin, Embedded Systems – Shape The World. After finding out he has written three volumes of books for this course, I think after working through the Quantum Leaps course, I will begin working through Prof. Valvano’s textbooks and lectures to get a deeper understanding of the material and the way embedded systems work.

I had the inspiration of a simple project to emulate a thermostat using an embedded system. To do so, I would use a temperature sensor to read in the temperature of the room, and a potentiometer to set the desired temperature. I then will connect them to a 16×2 LCD and display the sensor readings on each, and use some buttons to change display features of the LCD (i.e. change temperature units, cycle between system information, etc.). I think this would be a good project to learn how to interface between multiple jobs being performed by an embedded system, and I could potentially implement an RTOS to break up execution of each task.

As mentioned above, I used a Rust library to program an Arduino board. This is because I began reading through The Rust Programming Language book, as I grew in interest in learning Rust for use in future projects. Notably, I am planning to begin working on my 2048 project again- this time converting the code base to Rust instead of re implementing it in C++. This is not definitive, however as I work though the Rust book I will try documentation tools such as Rustdoc and judge whether I want to make 2048 my first big project in the language.

So, that’s about it for my projects and what I’ve been doing. On to gaming, I’ve been playing a lot of Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle during the previous Worldwide Download Celebration. I managed to pull 3/4 of the new units, and have been having a blast using them in the hard content of the game (though I am still in despair as the International version of the game does not have the two hardest fights available on the Japanese version- being Goku & Freeza and Bulma). Aside from Dokkan, I also began playing Zenless Zone Zero during the release of Jane Doe. This is the only Hoyoverse game I’ve played (as I never tried out Genshin Impact way back during it’s release in 2020), but I think it is very solid. I like the cast of characters, the gameplay is really fun, and I enjoy building up teams and trying to do the hard content in the game with them. The new character, Burnice, comes out in about a week, and I haven’t been logging in recently since I completed the story from the 1.2 update, however I will definitely begin playing again once she releases.

Besides that, I recently started playing The Binding of Isaac again, as it is OG Isaac October (as started by LazyMattman), and have been working through the courses and books I previously mentioned. I plan to make more frequent updates with anything big I find/wish to write about, as well as potentially creating more content on the games I play. I will make further updates here, so stay tuned for more frequent posts from here on out. Toodles!