Lembit Soobik
lembit.dbamail at t-online.de
Mon Sep 25 03:04:53 CDT 2006
YES, yes, here! I have been working since a few weeks on this and finished a program which reads from my EIB bus and displays the results on a 2 x 16 LCD. Things like Window in basement is open or such. It was pretty easy to get started. I am using assembly language and am surprised how easy it was. I have still a lot of plans with this and things that I have not found a good answer for, like communication with a PC,... I am using Microchip. I have got the ICD2 (debugger) and PICDEM 2 PLUS demo board, which I am using for programming. I have buildt the circuit hardware with one of these universal boards. have not yet made a pc-board. Right now I am building an Access db, which reads the .asm file and modifies it to insert customized message-texts. Microchip has forums and also a 7/24 support group (free). I am interested in participating in your forum. Lembit ----- Original Message ----- From: "JWColby" <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com> To: "Tech - Database Advisors Inc." <Dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com>; "'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'" <accessd at databaseadvisors.com> Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 7:08 AM Subject: [dba-Tech] OT: Is anyone into controllers? > Well, I did it; I ordered most of the stuff required to build a controller > project. > > Back in 1997 or so, while I was living in Puebla Mexico, I was tasked with > building a controller based phone debit card vending machine. I designed > it > from the ground up, specing the micro-controller (a zworld z8xxx based > SBC), > using a bill acceptor and a custom built vending hopper to vend the debit > cards. The micro was a ready built board with a ton of i/o pins, rs488, > rs232 etc. It cost $180 qty 1. The language was a custom 'C' dialect > written for ZWorld for use on their boards. In the end, 250 of the > machines > were produced, about 100 actually went into use around Puebla and in the > subway in Mexico DF. Eventually the company went under, I found AccessD > (1997) and I have been in this world ever since. > > It was the most fun I have ever had on a job, and I have been itching to > get > back in to controllers ever since. > > This time around I did the research and selected the Atmel family, > specifically the AVR line > > http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/devices.asp?family_id=607 > > These are extremely cheap, extremely powerful u-controllers. I purchased > a > handful of them as well as a programmer / debugger board and a demo board > > http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?family_id=607 > <http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?family_id=607&family_name= > AVR+8%2DBit+RISC+&tool_id=3146> > &family_name=AVR+8%2DBit+RISC+&tool_id=3146 > > which can be (re) programmed. > > I briefly considered the PIC family of controllers but they are pretty > archaic and once I discovered the AVR I was sold. > > Life is cool again. Of course it is a learning curve reminiscent of .Net. > I have been out of the controller world for many years and have to learn > everything from scratch, the chips, the IDE, the 'C' compiler, the > programmer / debugger. The tools so far are sooooo cool. There is a free > IDE, assembler, 'C' language etc. The emulator actually allows you to > watch > the program run (I have written my first assembler program, though I don't > have hardware yet), watch the registers, I/O pins etc, do all of the > things > you need to do to program - breakpoints, watchpoints etc. Of course I > haven't written 'C' code since 1997... > > Controllers are a gas though, and once mastered allow you to do so many > cool > things with very simple circuits and some code. In this case I am looking > to build a PWM motor controller for my son's ride-on Gator. From there, > the > moon. As my son gets older perhaps we can do some robotics stuff > together. > > So is anyone out there doing anything with controllers, want to chat about > it? Anyone want to get into it? It is really neat stuff and these chips > are cheap and immensely powerful. How about 40 pins, 16 MIPS, 32K > program, > eerom, ram etc for $13 for the controller? Or 8 pins, 2K program, eerom, > ram, etc for $2. A breadboard, some resistors / LEDs (or even LCDs) and > you are off and running. > > Want to build a sun tracker for your solar array? A robot that will > follow > a line on the floor? An alarm system for your house? A battle bot? > > Should be fun. I have a forum on my web site we can use if anyone wants > to > join the fun. > > John W. Colby > Colby Consulting > www.ColbyConsulting.com > > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.8/455 - Release Date: 22.09.2006 > >