This library contains Arduino utilities which are too small or too experimental to be in separate libraries, but too high-level (with external dependencies) to be included in the AceCommon (https://github.com/bxparks/AceCommon) library. There will be several types of code in this library:

1. Shared utilities which are too small to be its own library, but too big to copy-and-paste across multiple applications.
2. Shared utilities which have external dependencies so cannot be included in AceCommon library which must remain self-contained.
3. Experimental code that seems useful across different Arduino applications, but not yet ready to be turned into an independent Arduino library.

Caution:

Unlike my other libraries, the API of the code in this library will often change and evolve over time. When a particular feature becomes more stable and polished, and if the feature becomes substantial enough, the functionality may be migrated to a separate independent Arduino library. In that case, the original code here may become deprecated and removed to avoid the overhead of maintaining duplicated code.

If you find something useful in this library, I suggest copying the piece of code instead of depending on this library. This will avoid breakages of your Arduino application if the API of this library is changed. To reflect the transient and experimental nature of this library, it is likely that the version will always remain in the v0.xx.yy form.

Version: 0.5.0 (2021-03-08)

Changelog: CHANGELOG.md

• CrcEeprom
  • See src/crc_eeprom/README.md.
  • #include <AceUtilsCrcEeprom.h>
  • using ace_utils::crc_eeprom::CrcEeprom
  • Summary:
    • Store data structures in EEPROM with a CRC check.
  • Depends on:
    • AceCRC (https://github.com/bxparks/AceCRC)
• Command Line Interface (CLI)
  • src/cli/README.md
  • #include <AceUtilsCli.h>
  • using namespace ace_utils::cli
  • Summary:
    • Implement a command line interface over the Serial port.
  • Depends on:
    • AceRoutine (https://github.com/bxparks/AceRoutine)
    • AceCommon (https://github.com/bxparks/AceCommon)
• ModeGroup
  • #include <AceUtilsModeGroup.h>
  • using ace_utils::mode_group::ModeGroup
  • using ace_utils::mode_group::ModeNavigator
  • Summary:
    • A data-driven mechanism to encode and navigate the hierarchy of view and change modes of the display of a clock controlled by 2 buttons.
  • Depends on:
    • (none)
• STM32 Buffered EEPROM
  • #include <AceUtilsStm32BufferedEeprom.h>
  • A version of EEPROM on STM32 that uses a buffer to avoid writing to the flash page on every byte update. Implements an API compatible with the EEPROM object on ESP8266 and ESP32.
    • BufferedEEPROM.begin()
    • BufferedEEPROM.write(), read(), put(), get(), length()
    • BufferedEEPROM.commit()
  • Can be used with CrcEeprom through the EspEepromAdapter.

The latest stable release will be available in the Arduino IDE Library Manager. Search for "AceUtils". Click Install.

The development version can be installed by cloning the GitHub repository, checking out the develop branch, then manually copying over the contents to the ./libraries directory used by the Arduino IDE. (The result is a directory named ./libraries/AceUtils.)

The master branch contains the stable release. (But see the cautionary note above about the instability of this library.)

• src/AceUtil.h: A bookkeeping header file that includes the version and Doxygen docs. Individual utilities have their own header files.
• src/*.h: Header file for each utility listed above.
• examples/*: Example code for various utilities.
• tests/*: Unit tests using AUnit.

The docs/ directory contains the Doxygen docs on GitHub Pages. This may be useful to navigate the various classes in this library and to lookup the signatures of the methods in those classes.

• examples/CrcEepromDemo
  • Demo of CrcEeprom class.
• examples/CommandLineShell
  • Demo of the <CommandLineInterface.h> classes to implement a command line interface that accepts a number of commands on the serial port. In other words, it is a primitive "shell". The shell is non-blocking and uses coroutines so that other coroutines continue to run.

The documentation is mostly in the code right now. I will add more as time allows.

Unlike most of my other libraries, the header files of various submodules are not consolidated into the main AceUtils.h header file. The reason is that many of the submodules are unrelated to each other, and have dependencies on different external libraries. If I included all the subheaders into AceUtils.h then the end user would be force to install the union of all external libraries which are needed by the entire collection. By splitting each module into separate headers (e.g. AceUtilsCrcEeprom.h, AceUtilsModeGroup.h), the external dependencies are minimized.

The header file of all submodules will begin with the prefix AceUtils{xxx}.h, for example, AceUtilsModeGroup.h.

All modules are placed in separate namespaces, under the ace_utils:: top-level namespace.

This library was developed and tested using:

• Arduino IDE 1.8.13
• Arduino AVR Boards 1.6.23
• Arduino SAMD Boards 1.8.3
• SparkFun AVR Boards 1.1.12
• SparkFun SAMD Boards 1.6.2
• ESP8266 Arduino 2.7.4
• ESP32 Arduino 1.0.4
• Teensydino 1.46

It should work with PlatformIO but I have not tested it.

Many utilities work on Linux or MacOS (using both g++ and clang++ compilers) using the EpoxyDuino emulation layer.

I use Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 for the vast majority of my development. I expect that the library will work fine under MacOS and Windows, but I have not tested them.

Most utilities will work on various Arduino boards. I test most utilities on on the following boards:

• Arduino Nano clone (16 MHz ATmega328P)
• SparkFun Pro Micro clone (16 MHz ATmega32U4)
• STM32 Blue Pill (STM32F103C8, 72 MHz ARM Cortex-M3)
• WeMos D1 Mini clone (ESP-12E module, 80 MHz ESP8266)
• ESP32 dev board (ESP-WROOM-32 module, 240 MHz dual core Tensilica LX6)

Some utlities work only on microcontrollers with built-in WiFi. The header files for those utilities will contain preprpocessor directives using #ifdef to print out a warning if the board is not one of the following:

• ESP8266
• ESP32

I will occasionally test on the following hardware as a sanity check:

• Mini Mega 2560 (Arduino Mega 2560 compatible, 16 MHz ATmega2560)
• SAMD21 M0 Mini (48 MHz ARM Cortex-M0+) (compatible with Arduino Zero)
• Teensy 3.2 (72 MHz ARM Cortex-M4)

The following boards are not supported (although sometimes, something may accidentally work on these boards):

• megaAVR (e.g. Nano Every)
• SAMD21 boards w/ arduino:samd version >= 1.8.10 (e.g. MKRZero)

MIT License

If you have any questions, comments, bug reports, or feature requests, please file a GitHub ticket instead of emailing me unless the content is sensitive. (The problem with email is that I cannot reference the email conversation when other people ask similar questions later.) I'd love to hear about how this software and its documentation can be improved. I can't promise that I will incorporate everything, but I will give your ideas serious consideration.

• Created by Brian T. Park ([email protected]).