Nathan Jones

About Me

I am an educator, embedded systems engineer, 15-year US Army Veteran, and frequent contributor to Embedded Related and DigiKey. I love building neat electronic devices and then teaching folks how they work! I've taught at West Point and have spoken at numerous conferences.
Skills

Assembly C CircuitPython MicroPython Python
Interests

555 Timer Arduino Assembly C CircuitPython CNC Milling FPGA Microcontrollers MicroPython Oscilloscope Programmers RISC-V
LinkedIn
GitHub

Projects

Blogs See All

Image of How Hardware Gets Hacked (Part 7): Freshness and Randomness

BLOG

148

How Hardware Gets Hacked (Part 7): Freshness and Randomness

By Nathan Jones

Learn how challenge-response authentication, nonces, and cryptographic MACs help embedded systems defend against replay attacks.

Image of Comparing MicroPython, Zephyr, Lua, and Forth

BLOG

378

Comparing MicroPython, Zephyr, Lua, and Forth

By Nathan Jones

Explore the strengths and tradeoffs of MicroPython, Zephyr, Lua, and Forth for embedded development and rapid prototyping.

Image of How Hardware Gets Hacked (Part 6)

BLOG

136

How Hardware Gets Hacked (Part 6)

By Nathan Jones

Learn how rolling counters and cryptographic MACs prevent replay attacks, authenticate devices, and strengthen embedded security.

BLOG

Debug Better: Take a break

By Nathan Jones

Find out how the brain's default mode network supports debugging, learning, and creative problem solving during short breaks.

BLOG

How Hardware Gets Hacked (Part 5)

By Nathan Jones

Learn how replay attacks exploit repeated unlock messages, why authenticity matters, and how embedded systems can defend against them.

Image of How Hardware Gets Hacked (Part 4): Memory Protections

BLOG

208

How Hardware Gets Hacked (Part 4): Memory Protections

By Nathan Jones

Understand how memory read attacks work on MCUs and how to defend using debug disable, encryption, and hardware protection features.

Tutorials See All

TUTORIAL

Thread-safe printf Debugging - Part 2

By Nathan Jones

Learn how to make printf and snprintf safe for ISRs and RTOS threads by preventing race conditions using interrupts, mutexes, and atomics.

TUTORIAL

Thread-safe printf Debugging - Part 1

By Nathan Jones

Learn methods to strengthen embedded debug workflows with atomic checks, mutex tools, and race-free UART handling.

TUTORIAL

119

Smaller printf Debugging

By Nathan Jones

A technical analysis of printf performance, memory trade-offs, and the benefits of small-footprint alternatives for optimizing embedded C projects.

TUTORIAL

Faster printf Debugging (Part 3)

By Nathan Jones

Learn serialization and COBS framing to send debug logs at lightning speed from STM32 boards. Compare MessagePack, FlatBuffers, & bitproto for fast debug output.

Image of Faster printf Debugging (Part 2)

TUTORIAL

231

Faster printf Debugging (Part 2)

By Nathan Jones

Learn non-blocking UART and USB tricks to slash printf debug times on STM32 boards. Speed up embedded logging with interrupts, DMA, and smart buffering.