After 2020, companies had to go fully remote. One thing I was wondering: how embedded systems engineers managed to do this transition?<p>I did internship in this field and worked for a year with embedded software, before I moved into backend engineering. From what I recall, in some occasions, I was okay with just a development kit. But there were many other ones that I needed more than that (probes and testing infrastructure are the ones on the top of my mind).<p>How did tech companies, especially hardware ones, dealt with this? I really can't see how a company like Apple or Sony managed to keep releasing new devices with a complete remote workforce.<p>Please, enlighten me : )
I've been working on an embedded project for a well-known company almost two years now. It kicked off before COVID and suddenly we all started working from home a month or two later.<p>The frontline answer is: a rudimentary set of tools and <i>lots</i> of UPS and FedEx shipments. I've been getting prototype PCBs and can do some basic fly-wiring and scoping of signals as I go. My company has been good about buying supplies and parts but honestly my Analog Discovery 2 and soldering iron have solved 90% of my problems.<p>The backline answer is that I put a shit-ton of connectivity into the project early. I can watch any device owned by our project team over an MQTT reflector on a remote server, and I can shell in when I need to fix something. Midway through the project I could start to reflash live units and update firmware remotely.<p>I was fortunate that this project runs Linux and had lots of networking ability. If this was a smaller microcontroller system it would be a bit more complicated, but everyone is smart enough to learn how to operate some basic tools like Flash Magic and update their systems.<p>But like others have said, sometimes you need to physically get into the office and work with the tools you have there. It's never 100% virtual.