Design
When users set up Everbowl for the first time, they are connecting a physical device to a digital experience. Unlike purely app-based onboarding, smart hardware onboarding introduces uncertainty. Users are often unsure whether the device is pairing correctly, connecting to WiFi, or functioning as expected. To address this, we designed
Firmware
Modern embedded systems demand efficient inter-task communication (ITC) mechanisms that balance performance with reliability. When building high-performance sensor systems, every microsecond counts—especially in real-time applications where hardware interrupts must trigger rapid processing pipelines. This exploration examines two fundamental FreeRTOS ITC approaches: traditional queues versus direct task notifications, revealing critical
Hardware
Most modern boards are not powered by a single supply. They are ecosystems of rails: high-current domains for motors or radios, quiet domains for sensors, always-on islands for state retention, and transient-heavy rails that only exist during specific modes. On paper, these rails look independent. In reality, they are tightly
Firmware
Introduction: The Paradox of Hardware-Dependent Firmware In the intricate world of embedded systems development, engineers face a persistent and often debilitating paradox: firmware is explicitly designed to control and react to physical hardware, yet the dependency on that very hardware often becomes the primary bottleneck in software velocity. This creates
AI
The Problem We Kept Chasing When we first rolled out alerts in production, the system technically worked - models were firing, dashboards were lighting up, notifications were flowing. And yet, something felt off. We were seeing too many alerts. Not because the world suddenly became chaotic, but because our inference
Hardware
Most boards are designed under a quiet assumption: everything that should be present will be present. All sensors are populated. All cables are connected. All rails come up cleanly. Firmware discovers what it expects, and the system progresses forward. That assumption holds in the lab. It collapses the moment a
Firmware
Introduction In the world of smart device ecosystems, where continuous sensor monitoring is paramount, communication reliability becomes the cornerstone of system integrity. When developing multi-sensor platforms that demand 24/7 operation, engineers frequently encounter a subtle yet critical challenge: I2C bus lockups caused by peripherals holding the SDA (Serial Data)
AI
Introduction Most edge AI pipelines are accidentally model-first. We optimize inference time, shave milliseconds off convolution layers, and debate INT8 versus INT4—while silently dropping sensor frames upstream. By the time the model runs, the data it sees is already compromised. On constrained hardware like STM32-class processors, this mistake is
Software
Stable BLE streaming can feel like magic when it works: sensors stay responsive, data arrives smoothly, and the app feels “live” without burning the battery or stuttering the UI. The good news is that this isn’t luck—it’s engineering. When you treat BLE as an end-to-end streaming pipeline
Technology, Insights and Ideas.
Software
A production RAG system feels “fast” when it’s consistent: answers arrive quickly, follow-ups don’t suddenly slow down, and costs don’t jump with traffic. The biggest lever to achieve that isn’t usually the model—it’s retrieval. When retrieval is engineered like a disciplined subsystem (with budgets,
Design
When users set up Everbowl for the first time, they are connecting a physical device to a digital experience. Unlike purely app-based onboarding, smart hardware onboarding introduces uncertainty. Users are often unsure whether the device is pairing correctly, connecting to WiFi, or functioning as expected. To address this, we designed
Firmware
Modern embedded systems demand efficient inter-task communication (ITC) mechanisms that balance performance with reliability. When building high-performance sensor systems, every microsecond counts—especially in real-time applications where hardware interrupts must trigger rapid processing pipelines. This exploration examines two fundamental FreeRTOS ITC approaches: traditional queues versus direct task notifications, revealing critical
Hardware
Most modern boards are not powered by a single supply. They are ecosystems of rails: high-current domains for motors or radios, quiet domains for sensors, always-on islands for state retention, and transient-heavy rails that only exist during specific modes. On paper, these rails look independent. In reality, they are tightly
Firmware
Introduction: The Paradox of Hardware-Dependent Firmware In the intricate world of embedded systems development, engineers face a persistent and often debilitating paradox: firmware is explicitly designed to control and react to physical hardware, yet the dependency on that very hardware often becomes the primary bottleneck in software velocity. This creates
AI
The Problem We Kept Chasing When we first rolled out alerts in production, the system technically worked - models were firing, dashboards were lighting up, notifications were flowing. And yet, something felt off. We were seeing too many alerts. Not because the world suddenly became chaotic, but because our inference
Hardware
Most boards are designed under a quiet assumption: everything that should be present will be present. All sensors are populated. All cables are connected. All rails come up cleanly. Firmware discovers what it expects, and the system progresses forward. That assumption holds in the lab. It collapses the moment a
Firmware
Introduction In the world of smart device ecosystems, where continuous sensor monitoring is paramount, communication reliability becomes the cornerstone of system integrity. When developing multi-sensor platforms that demand 24/7 operation, engineers frequently encounter a subtle yet critical challenge: I2C bus lockups caused by peripherals holding the SDA (Serial Data)
AI
Introduction Most edge AI pipelines are accidentally model-first. We optimize inference time, shave milliseconds off convolution layers, and debate INT8 versus INT4—while silently dropping sensor frames upstream. By the time the model runs, the data it sees is already compromised. On constrained hardware like STM32-class processors, this mistake is
Software
Stable BLE streaming can feel like magic when it works: sensors stay responsive, data arrives smoothly, and the app feels “live” without burning the battery or stuttering the UI. The good news is that this isn’t luck—it’s engineering. When you treat BLE as an end-to-end streaming pipeline