Communications and High-Speed Signals with Raspberry Pi

In this first module, we will discuss a variety of modern communications protocols and point out features that we will refer back to in later discussions. These are digital signals, but if you think digital communications is all 1's and 0's, I'd like you to change your thinking and start thinking of every signal as an analog waveform. We'll discuss what that means and why it's important when building projects with high-performance communications links. We'll introduce some well-known protocols and also the emergning I3C protocol, the successor to I2C. Lastly, we'll take an in-depth look at a type of circuit called an open-drain driver. This is how an IC communicates on an I2C (and I3C) bus and is a great example circuit for studying all sorts of real-world effects on high-speed signals. We'll use this open-drain configuration as an example throughout the entire course. You may have seen some of this information before but it's worth briefly seeing again as this is the foundation that we'll be referring back to throughout the whole course. And it's worth building a strong foundation now, because Module 4 wraps up everything we've learned into five very useful rules of thumb that you can you in all of your future projects.

One more thing. I know I speak slowly, so feel free to use the Coursera video player feature to play the videos at 1.5x or 2x speed.

In Module two, we look into the physics of how high-speed signals are effected by real-world circuits and how that distortion effects our projects. We'll use math at times, but only to help develop an intuitive understanding. This is a critical part of developing the five Rules of Thumb in module 4. These valuable rules will help you troubleshoot and design circuits with high-speed signals in all sorts of future projects.

Everything we've discussed has considered signals to be voltages that change in time. Picturing signals strictly in the time domain is only half the story, so get ready to shift your mind into the frequency domain. This module introduces frequency-domain concepts and how we can use the frequency domain to deeply understand how real-world circuit effects distort signals and can cause communications errors in our projects. At the end of this module is two extra videos on decibels and filter terminology. Feel free to skip them if you're very familiar with the topic, or feel free to watch them out of order if you need a little more background in those topics to understand the ideas here in module 3.