Yocto Vendor BSPs - The good, the bad, the ugly

A Gentle Power Off for ZEReader: Replacing the Hard Switch with a Latching Power Circuit

• Anna-Lena Marx
• November 16, 2025
• Zereader , Electronics , Embedded

With the second revision, the way ZEReader is turned on and off got a massive redesign.
The hard on/off switch in the first revision was dead simple and worked great—with one big flaw from a user’s perspective. You could not recognize if the reader was on or off on the first sight. The old switch just closed or opened the loop with the power supply, and due to the E-Paper display just holding the state, you had no chance to tell.
Besides, there was no possibility at all to implement some kind of graceful shutdown mechanism, which would allow me to save all important state information and show a clear device off indicator.
This situation was totally fine for the very first prototype, but it started to get annoying very soon. A new approach was needed!

International Women's Day - Why I wear Yocto Shirts on the Embedded World Exhibition

• Anna-Lena Marx
• March 8, 2024
• Personal , Embedded

Today, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, I’d like to give you an insight on working in Embedded as a woman: Why I’m searching for my best Yocto shirt and the nerdiest hoodie when I’m visiting the Embedded World exhibition.

Let’s go back some years to one of my first Embedded World visits. I was still a student doing my master’s degree in Embedded Systems. EW traditionally invites embedded students from all over Germany and adjacent countries on the third day, the student’s day. Together with some of my fellow students, I joined the trip and was looking forward to seeing new trends, talking to people, but also getting an idea where to apply for a job after finishing. At the exhibition, I started exploring together with some peers. Of course, all male. When going through the exhibition and talking to the people at the booths, I quickly recognized a pattern. The staff talked rather to the boys than to me. Mostly not quite obvious and probably not even on purpose. I think it’s about internalized stereotypes. They probably do not think that much about it, but obviously I was not a technically competent conversational partner to them at first sight, even if I asked the questions. I was an addition, an accompanying person from university or marketing. Mostly it was rather subtle, and I did not recognize it that much as the problem it was in the actual moment. But at some point we reached the Intel booth. I asked a question on something I was really curious about, and the male staff member started explaining to me and the accompanying students. During his talk, he started turning more to the boys until he showed me his back. I got a bit angry and told him directly that I would really like to hear the answer to the question I asked. Ok, bad, but human. So why am I telling this, and why do I mention Intel? Because I believe particularly such large companies should sensitize their employees working on a booth.

Raspberry Pi für die professionelle Produktentwicklung - Eine gute Idee?

• Anna-Lena Marx
• May 10, 2022
• Embedded , Conferences

Maschinen und Geräte durch Vernetzung und Software aufzuwerten ist ein Kerngedanke des IoT. So werden die resultierenden Projekte häufig aus der Fachdomäne mit dem Wunsch nach schnellen und einfachen Erfolgen gestartet. Die Idee liegt dann nahe den beliebten Raspberry Pi als Basis zu nutzen. Das Gerät ist ja bekannt, fast alles wurde schon einmal von irgendwem gemacht und ins Netz gestellt. Klingt fast zu schön, um wahr zu sein - ist es auch aus professioneller Sicht. Die Gründe hierfür und welche Faktoren bei der Entscheidung für eine Hard- und Software-Plattform als Basis für ein IoT Produkt berücksichtigen werden sollten, sind Inhalt des Vortrags.