[dba-Tech] OT: Is anyone into controllers?

JWColby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Mon Sep 25 00:08:33 CDT 2006


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
 



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