I build industrial software, embedded firmware tools, and small deterministic engines for systems that have to keep working when conditions are not ideal.

LOX means Liquid Oxygen — the technical brand I use for my embedded and systems projects.

For me, LOX stands for concentrated engineering: compact code, high pressure, clear contracts, predictable behavior, and systems that can be tested instead of guessed.

My work is focused on practical C99, C#, and C++ tooling for:

• embedded firmware
• industrial software
• diagnostics
• firmware reliability
• storage and recovery
• industrial communication
• data acquisition
• constrained edge systems

The common thread is simple:

Build tools that are small enough to understand, strict enough to trust, and useful outside of demos.

My usual design bias:

• deterministic behavior
• small integration surface
• clear failure modes
• zero or minimal dependencies
• caller-owned state where possible
• bounded memory and execution where practical
• tests before claims
• real-world tooling over showcase code

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LOX is my family of embedded and systems-software projects.

The LOX projects are focused C99 libraries and tools for constrained firmware, diagnostics, reliability, recovery, storage, boot flows, permissions, sequencing, and resource control.

They are not meant to be large frameworks. They are small technical building blocks that can be inspected, tested, ported, and integrated into real firmware.

Core LOX principles:

• C99-first design
• deterministic behavior
• explicit failure modes
• predictable memory use
• small API surfaces
• caller-owned state where possible
• no hidden runtime magic
• no claims without test evidence
• practical integration over theoretical elegance

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I am looking for people who can test, break, review, and validate embedded C projects on real hardware.

Useful feedback areas:

• embedded C testing
• MCU and board-level validation
• storage and power-loss testing
• reliability and diagnostics
• RTOS and bare-metal integration
• industrial and edge use cases
• examples and integration feedback
• documentation review
• failure reports with real evidence

If you work with firmware, MCU platforms, RTOS/bare-metal systems, industrial devices, or constrained edge systems, I am interested in practical feedback — especially reports that include hardware, configuration, failure cases, logs, and test evidence.

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loxdb is a compact C99 embedded database for firmware, dataloggers, controllers, and small edge runtimes.

It is built for cases where a full SQL database is too heavy, but raw files, ad-hoc structs, or fragile flash layouts are not enough.

loxdb combines three storage models behind one API surface:

• KV storage for configuration, cache entries, and TTL-backed state
• Time-series storage for sensor samples, counters, and rolling telemetry
• Fixed-schema relational tables for small indexed structured records

Core design:

• one allocation at lox_init()
• fixed RAM budgeting
• zero external dependencies
• RAM-only or storage-backed operation
• optional WAL-backed persistence and recovery
• embedded-first storage HAL
• predictable behavior under constrained memory

loxdb is not a tiny SQLite clone.

SQLite is excellent, but it targets a different operating point. loxdb is intentionally narrower: deterministic storage for constrained firmware where predictable memory, small API surface, and recoverable writes matter more than SQL flexibility.

License: MIT open-source core
Commercial extension: loxdb_pro_docs contains public API-level documentation for the planned/commercial PRO module set.

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loxdb_pro_docs documents the public integration-facing API for the commercial loxdb_pro layer.

The PRO layer is intended for embedded products that need more than local storage. It adds production-facing modules around the core database: validation, integrity checks, policy gates, observability, migration, transport, recovery planning, and host tooling.

Planned/module areas include:

• security and integrity
• runtime safety validation
• metrics, logging, monitoring, and alerting
• policy gates, quotas, retention, and scheduling
• backup and schema migration
• replication and transport framing
• OTA planning and rollback hooks
• CLI tooling
• optional SD card and NAND/FTL adapters

The public repository intentionally contains documentation only. The implementation and proprietary validation procedures are not published there.

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loxdust is a portable C99 library for verified persistent object storage.

It is designed for firmware that must preserve small structured objects across resets, corruption, and interrupted writes while keeping storage layout and recovery behavior explicit.

Core design:

• caller-owned context and work memory
• fixed-width canonical on-disk encoding
• deterministic object registration and layout
• explicit format, mount, propose, verified read, check, repair, and confirm operations
• FAST, SAFE, and CRITICAL operating profiles
• RAM and file backends for host-side validation
• deterministic unit, recovery, power-cut, and property tests

loxdust is not a general-purpose database or file system.

Its value is narrower: provide a small, auditable persistence layer that can verify stored objects, expose damage, and perform controlled recovery.

License: MIT.

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loxbudget is a small, heap-free C99 library that decides whether an embedded operation should run — and at what level — based on configurable resource budgets, rate windows, and optional calibration.

It works as a deterministic pre-flight gate in front of risky firmware work:

• MQTT publish
• OTA update
• flash write
• log burst
• debug dump
• parser invocation
• queue allocation
• expensive optional work under pressure

Core design:

• deterministic check / enter / leave decisions per operation profile
• no heap
• no floats
• no global mutable state
• caller-owned storage
• optional audit ring buffer for recent decisions
• optional rate windows and lifetime limits
• optional calibration and diagnostic strings
• single-header amalgamated distribution option
• stable public API starting at v1.0.0 using semver

Typical use cases:

• prevent MQTT storms from exhausting queue slots
• block OTA when voltage or flash budget is unsafe
• degrade logging under memory pressure
• reject non-critical work during survival mode
• enforce flash-write lifetime budgets

loxbudget is not a scheduler, allocator, watchdog, logger, profiler, or RTOS replacement.

Its value is narrower: an admission-control layer that gives firmware a deterministic answer to:

May this operation run right now, and how?

License: MIT.

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loxboot is a compact C99 bootloader core for bare-metal MCUs and embedded firmware that need predictable boot, update, and recovery behavior.

It is built around a portable core with target-specific behavior isolated behind adapter boundaries.

Core scope:

• A/B slot boot model
• boot state validation
• CRC32-backed state records
• UART update transport
• rollback-oriented boot flow
• explicit platform handoff boundary
• caller-provided flash, clock, and platform integration
• zero heap and no external runtime dependencies

loxboot is intentionally not presented as a production-ready universal bootloader.

Its value is narrower: provide a small, auditable bootloader core that can be adapted, tested, and hardened for specific MCU targets.

Current practical direction includes STM32-style Cortex-M targets and ESP32-S3, while the core is kept MCU-agnostic.

Known open areas include:

• target-specific flash layout validation
• erase behavior
• hardware handoff/reboot validation
• power-loss testing
• production-grade signing
• deployment evidence before real production use

License: MIT.

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loxguard is a lightweight C99 guard-runtime for embedded C.

It introduces Guard Blocks and Checked Guard Blocks: explicit execution boundaries around risky firmware paths such as parsers, protocol handlers, optional modules, recovery-sensitive routines, and code that should never fail silently.

Instead of only failing with an assert or watchdog reset, loxguard turns unsafe execution states into structured runtime evidence:

• lifecycle events
• policy decisions
• blackbox records
• reports
• CSV/KV import-export paths
• optional persistence and ecosystem adapters

Current scope includes:

• checked span primitives
• checked arena primitives
• Guard Block lifecycle tracking
• failure reporting
• policy decisions
• local blackbox evidence
• host-tested integration paths

loxguard does not claim full memory safety for arbitrary C code and is not a safety-certified framework.

Its value is narrower and practical: make risky execution paths easier to detect, record, inspect, and react to in small embedded C systems.

License: MIT.

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loxalarm is a small, heap-free C99 alarm state-machine core for embedded firmware.

It models the lifecycle of one process alarm condition with behavior that is often scattered across application code, HMI logic, PLC glue, or vendor-specific runtime layers.

It includes:

• on-delay handling
• off-delay handling
• latching
• acknowledge flow
• shelving for maintenance or temporary suppression
• reason flags
• transition visibility
• snapshot/restore support for caller-owned persistence

loxalarm is designed for firmware that needs PLC-style alarm semantics without depending on:

• a PLC vendor stack
• an HMI runtime
• an operating system
• a network protocol
• dynamic memory

loxalarm is not a safety-certified alarm system, historian, HMI, or OPC UA/MQTT/Modbus binding.

Its value is narrower: a deterministic runtime alarm object that higher-level firmware, diagnostics, logging, persistence, or UI layers can consume.

License: MIT.

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loxseq is a small, heap-free C99 step sequencer for firmware workflows that must survive reset, brownout, watchdog recovery, or power loss.

It checkpoints step progress to caller-provided storage and computes a recovery verdict on reboot, so firmware does not have to blindly restart a physical process from the beginning.

Core ideas:

• CRC-protected persistent checkpoint record
• per-step resume policy
• conservative recovery downgrades
• tick-driven execution using caller-provided now_ms
• caller-owned state
• no heap
• no globals
• no floating point
• optional branching via loxseq_set_next_step and LOXSEQ_STEP_BRANCH

Typical use cases include:

• fill/heat/drain sequences
• calibration flows
• provisioning
• controlled startup/shutdown
• multi-step maintenance procedures
• recovery-sensitive firmware workflows

loxseq is not an RTOS scheduler, workflow language, database, or general task engine.

Its value is narrower: deterministic step execution with explicit reboot recovery semantics.

License: MIT.

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loxperm is a small, heap-free C99 single-header library for evaluating permissives and interlocks.

It gives firmware a deterministic answer to a simple but important question:

Is this action allowed to start, and is it still allowed to continue?

Core features:

• explainable deny mask
• first-out detection
• qualifier times for conditions that must remain true for a duration
• optional latching
• maintenance bypass support
• caller-owned state
• no heap
• no floating point
• no hidden mutable runtime state

Typical use cases include:

• pump starts
• valve movement
• actuator enable gates
• machine interlocks
• maintenance overrides
• process-control diagnostics
• firmware logic that must explain why an operation is blocked

loxperm is not a safety-certified interlock system or PLC replacement.

Its value is narrower: deterministic, explainable permission logic for embedded C firmware.

License: MIT.

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loxsort is an experimental C99 sorting library for embedded and resource-constrained systems.

It selects an algorithm using explicit constraints instead of relying on one fixed strategy:

• input size
• stability requirements
• available scratch memory
• recursion constraints
• offline benchmark profile

Current algorithm set:

• insertion sort
• Shell sort
• introsort
• bottom-up merge sort
• optional cycle sort for specialized builds

Core design:

• deterministic policy-driven dispatcher
• stateless public API
• explicit result and dispatch information
• offline benchmark and profile-generation pipeline
• test coverage for algorithms, stability, dispatch, and profile logic

loxsort is not presented as a universal performance winner.

Its value is predictable, auditable algorithm selection that respects the actual constraints of the target system.

Status: Experimental.
License: MIT.

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loxc is an experimental trainable text codec written in C99.

It is designed for cases where the developer already knows the shape of the transmitted or stored text:

• MQTT payloads
• telemetry messages
• logs
• JSON-like records
• protocol text
• repetitive domain-specific data

Instead of trying to be a universal compressor, loxc lets you train a codec table from representative sample data, export that table, transfer it, and load it later in an application, tool, or embedded runtime.

Core ideas:

• frequency-based symbol selection
• matrix-based symbol layout
• nested submatrices for less frequent data
• binary encoded output
• trained lookup tables
• predictable table-driven decoding
• small C99 integration surface

loxc is not intended to compete with gzip, zstd, brotli, or lz4.

Those are mature general-purpose compression systems.

The value of loxc is narrower: provide a small trainable codec option for developers who know their data and want a compact table-driven encoding path for specific text payloads.

It is not encryption and not a universal archive format.

Status: Experimental.

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Project	Description	Tech
loxdb	Deterministic embedded database for constrained systems and microcontrollers. KV, time-series, and fixed-schema relational tables behind one C99 API.	C99
loxdb_pro_docs	Public API-level documentation for the commercial loxdb_pro module set.	Docs / C API contracts
loxdust	Verified persistent object storage with canonical encoding, deterministic layout, recovery operations, and power-cut-oriented validation.	C99
loxbudget	Deterministic, heap-free admission-control library for embedded firmware. Pre-flight gate for risky operations based on resource budgets, rate windows, and calibration.	C99
loxboot	C99 zero-heap bootloader core for embedded firmware. A/B slot model, boot state validation, UART update transport, rollback-oriented boot flow, and platform handoff boundary.	C99
loxguard	Embedded C guard-runtime for supervised execution boundaries, failure events, policy decisions, and blackbox evidence.	C99
loxalarm	Deterministic alarm-state core for embedded firmware. Handles on/off delays, latching, acknowledge flow, shelving, reason flags, and snapshot/restore support.	C99
loxseq	Power-loss-aware step sequencer for embedded firmware. Provides checkpointed step progress and reboot recovery/resume policy per step.	C99
loxperm	Heap-free permissive/interlock evaluator with explainable deny mask, first-out detection, qualifier times, latching, and maintenance bypass.	C99
loxsort	Experimental deterministic sorting library with constraint-aware algorithm dispatch and offline benchmark profiles.	C99
loxc	Experimental trainable C99 text codec for domain-specific payloads using trained lookup tables, matrix-based symbol layout, nested submatrices, and binary encoded output.	C99
micro-toolkit	Collection of small composable embedded C99 libraries.	C99
micronet	LAN-first messaging library for embedded nodes and desktop diagnostics, with peers, groups, data operations, custom traffic, and portable HAL adapters.	C99
IOBusMonitor	Multi-protocol desktop tool for Modbus TCP/RTU and Siemens S7 PLCs.	C#
RTULogSuite	Modbus RTU logging toolchain: ESP32 firmware + Windows visualization app.	C++ / C#
iotspool	Persistent store-and-forward MQTT queue for embedded systems.	C99
IronFamily.FileEngine	Binary IoT file engines for config, structured logs, and firmware update package formats.	C# / C / tooling

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micronet is a C99 LAN messaging library for embedded nodes and desktop diagnostic tools.

LAN operation is the default and does not require:

• DNS
• cloud infrastructure
• a public IP address
• port forwarding
• STUN

Core capabilities:

• explicit peer management
• groups and group membership
• publish, update, request, subscribe, and query operations
• custom peer, group, and broadcast traffic
• registered custom handlers
• runtime metrics
• portable HAL boundaries
• ESP32, Arduino, and desktop examples

STUN support, when enabled, is explicit and experimental.

micronet is intended for direct local-network communication where nodes and diagnostic tools need a small, inspectable messaging layer without mandatory cloud services.

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micro-toolkit is a collection of composable embedded C99 libraries sharing the same philosophy:

no heap, no dependencies, no code generation — just #include and go.

Toolkit modules:

• microsh — debug shell with history and tab completion.
• microlog — multi-backend structured logging.
• microfsm — table-driven finite state machine engine.
• microres — retry with backoff, circuit breaker, and rate limiter.
• microconf — schema-driven config with CRC and flash storage.
• microcbor — minimal CBOR encoder/decoder.
• micoring — generic lock-free SPSC ring buffer.
• microtimer — software timer manager for one-shot and periodic timers.
• microbus — topic-based event/pub-sub bus.
• iotspool — persistent MQTT store-and-forward queue.

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Embedded-guard libraries bridge diagnostics, monitoring, recovery, and firmware lifecycle behavior.

• microhealth — runtime health monitor with metrics and threshold-based alerts.
• microwdt — per-task software watchdog with escalation states.
• microboot — boot and recovery manager with crash-loop detection.
• microassert — unified panic system with hook chain and severity levels.
• microota — OTA update flow with chunking, CRC, version checks, commit/rollback.
• microflash — unified flash abstraction for NOR/EEPROM/FRAM/RAM-like storage.

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Small utilities for writing safer and more debuggable embedded C.

• panicdump — crash dump library for Cortex-M3/M4: capture on fault, survive reboot, decode offline.
• MCU-Malloc-Tracker — deterministic heap diagnostics for bare-metal MCUs.
• nvlog — power-loss-safe append log for FRAM, EEPROM, or NOR flash.
• defer — automatic resource cleanup for C via DEFER() macro.
• cguard — scope guards and result types for C.
• safemath — overflow-checked arithmetic and buffer sizing helpers.
• microcrypt — SHA-256, HMAC-SHA256, AES-128 ECB/CBC/GCM.
• microdh — minimal X25519 key exchange for embedded systems.
• microtest — single-header C test framework.

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• num8 — O(1) membership engine for 8-digit numbers using a fixed bitset.
• num8-lup — low-bandwidth update propagation protocol for constrained links.
• IronFamily.FileEngine — binary IoT file engines for config, structured logs, and firmware update package formats.

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Desktop tools and firmware for real-world industrial communication.

• IOBusMonitor — multi-protocol desktop tool for Modbus TCP/RTU and Siemens S7 PLCs.
• RTULogSuite — complete Modbus RTU logging toolchain: ESP32 firmware and Windows visualization.
• iotspool — persistent store-and-forward MQTT queue.
• micronet — LAN-first C99 messaging library for embedded nodes and desktop diagnostics.
• uMesh — lightweight mesh networking stack for ESP32 over raw 802.11.
• num8-lup — low-bandwidth update propagation protocol for constrained links.

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• MultiGpuHelper — C# library for scheduling compute workloads across multiple GPUs.
• CrudFramework — lightweight CRUD framework for .NET, EF Core, SQLite/SQL Server, and WPF-ready bindings.

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• securebox-hw — secure hardware password manager concept on ESP32-S3 with external encrypted storage.
• Pragotron-Controller — minute-impulse controller for a Pragotron stepper clock.