Desde CoOs hasta .NetFramework: comunicación hardware/software mediante VCP

In this article a practical laboratory session for teaching operating systems in real time (RTOS) with 32-bit microcontrollers is described. This session is thought to be imparted in the Computer Engineering degree, through a methodology of project-based learning (PBL) [1]. Specifically, this practice session encompasses Hardware/Software RTOS communication between a microcontroller with Cortex- M4 core vector and a software application written in C # using Visual Studio 2010 via virtual serial ports (VCP). This practice is focused as a project that students must be making from scratch, by achieving several milestones, to obtain a final system. The system to develop is divided into two parts. First, we have a STM32 microcontroller family running a completely free RTOS, CoOS, which receives commands to move motors, and simultaneously sends information about distance sensors and using the serial port. On the other hand we have a PC with a Windows system operating family, where a visual application, which shows the value of the sensors and allows to send commands to the microcontroller motion and position is constructed.