Notes from close to the metal

Small chips.
Deep rabbit holes.
One bit at a time.

An embedded programming blog about firmware, microcontrollers, and the satisfying moment when the hardware finally does what you meant.

hello_bits.c

// Start with one bit.
#include <stdint.h>

int main(void)
{
    uint32_t flags = 0;
    flags |= (1u << 3);

    return 0;
}

From the workbench

3 notes

Give a new board one small, observable job before adding the rest.

A small set of operations that makes a whole lot of firmware easier to read.

Sep 5, 2026 Debugging

Turn “it doesn't work” into something you can actually observe.