Project guides.
Practical notes to help you choose, plan and understand your project.
Secure Boot on ESP32 Explained
Anyone with physical access can dump an ESP32's flash. Secure boot fixes that with a hardware-anchored signature chain — but the eFuse step is irreversible. Learn the threat model, how verification works, why flash encryption pairs with it, the safe provisioning workflow, and when your project needs it.
Read guideRedis Caching Strategies for Web Apps
Adding Redis is easy; using it well is not. This guide explains the four caching patterns — cache-aside, read-through, write-through, write-behind — how to invalidate without pain, how to pick TTLs, and the mistakes that turn a cache into decoration.
Read guideROS2 Basics for Students
ROS2 is how the robotics industry builds complex robots — as networks of small programs passing typed messages. This guide explains nodes, topics, services, and actions, walks through your first Python node, and lays out the simulation-first path from zero to autonomous navigation.
Read guideRate Limiting APIs: Strategies Explained
One misbehaving client can take down an unprotected API. This guide explains the four rate-limiting algorithms — token bucket, leaky bucket, fixed and sliding windows — where to enforce limits, how to respond with 429 properly, and the endpoints students forget to protect.
Read guideReading Datasheets Effectively: A Student Guide
Stop guessing, start specifying: learn to read datasheets like an engineer. Covers absolute maximum vs recommended ratings, honest reading of min/typ/max specs and test conditions, pinout traps, timing diagrams, application circuits worth copying, package suffixes, and a 15-minute routine for any new component.
Read guideRAG Evaluation: How to Know If Your RAG Actually Works
Demos show a RAG system at its peak; evaluation shows it at its average. This guide covers building test sets, measuring retrieval (recall@k, MRR) and generation (faithfulness, correctness) separately, LLM-as-judge calibration, RAGAS/DeepEval, and the failure patterns evaluation reveals.
Read guidePull-Up vs Pull-Down Resistors Explained
Button registering phantom presses? Input flipping when you wave your hand nearby? Learn pull-up vs pull-down resistors: why CMOS inputs float, how to choose values (10k default, when to go stronger or weaker), internal pull-ups, open-drain outputs, and debouncing.
Read guidePWM Explained: Frequency vs Duty Cycle
Confused why your motor whines or your servo jitters? Learn PWM properly: duty cycle as your control knob, frequency as a per-application setting, MOSFET driving with flyback protection, the servo 50Hz protocol, PWM-as-DAC filtering, and the mistakes that break PWM projects.
Read guidePrompt Engineering Techniques That Actually Work
Prompting is the cheapest lever for controlling LLM behavior. This guide covers the techniques with real evidence: prompt anatomy (role/task/constraints/format), few-shot examples, chain-of-thought reasoning, machine-parseable outputs, temperature discipline, and a disciplined iteration loop — plus when to stop prompting and build instead.
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