JWColby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Tue Sep 26 07:35:52 CDT 2006
Lembit,
>and then the PC board needs to be designed. have to find out which SW to
use.
A few cad packages discussed briefly
http://www.ladyada.net/resources/pcbdesign.html
I am looking at EagleCad since it seems to be widely used and lots of people
know about it.
http://www.cadsoft.de/
They have a FREE package that is fully functional but will only allow two
trace layers and a smallish PCB size, still plenty big for small projects -
100x80 mm. And if you decide to pay, the next step up is fairly reasonable
though a bit steep at $600 for the entire schematic / router. And... There
is a "non-profit" license (fits you I think) for $125 which upgrades the
free to the standard version (4 signal layers and 160x100mm size). I think
I am going to do that if I like the free version.
And to top it all off, they do everything in English and GERMAN! What more
can you ask? ;-)
As for the upload/download via USB, I think the Atmel stuff has cheap boards
already designed (for sale) and software in place to allow this, another
reason to do the next version with those processors.
John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com
-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Lembit Soobik
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 7:47 AM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] OT: Is anyone into controllers?
Thanks for the info, JC,
for now I have completed the program ( I will add some features later).
I will look into the ATMEL controllers also, and maybe switch for the next
project.
I really wanted to add a feature to connect the PIC to the PC for some
up/download of data, but I found that it will be pretty complicated to write
the software on the PC which can talk to the USB port, and there are
software packages which allow to develop USB drivers, but they want 3500 to
4500 bucks for it, so that is no good.
maybe RS232. will have to evaluate that way.
and then the PC board needs to be designed. have to find out which SW to
use.
Lembit
----- Original Message -----
From: "JWColby" <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>
To: "'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues'"
<dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 2:51 PM
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] OT: Is anyone into controllers?
> Lembit,
>
> I thought of you when I posted this, knowing that you had been working on
> controlling your new home.
>
> If you are just getting started using the PIC I would highly suggest that
> you at least consider switching to the Atmel. The prices are about the
> same
> but the ATMEL AVR is a completely modern architecture and doesn't have the
> 2kByte program space issue that the PIC has. Plus it is supposed to be
> much
> faster as all instructions execute in one clock cycle, so an 8 MHz device
> is
> 8 MIPS. As I mentioned, I started by looking at the PIC but when I found
> the Atmel AVR I was hooked.
>
> You can get devices (though certainly not the hundreds of choices you can
> find in the PIC) ranging from low end up to 128KBytes program space.
>
>
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/param_table.asp?family_id=607&OrderBy=part
> _no&Direction=ASC
>
> Depending on the uC selected, the controllers I am using can have built in
> UARTs, as well as 1 wire (a misnomer) comms which are often more useful
> that
> UART in uCs. These are cool little widgets. The one thing they seem to
> be
> missing that you can get in the PIC are D to A converters, though with
> built-in PWM stuff you can use a PWM output and a filter to build a D to
> A.
>
> Given the prices,
>
>
http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=1000
> 1&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&categoryId=106010
>
http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&sto
> reId=10001&catalogId=10001&productId=204089&pa=204089PS
>
> (and you can get them even cheaper over on Digikey) I am looking at
> building
> functional blocks where little uCs each do one thing and they talk to each
> other over 1 wire. For my project I need a couple of PWM motor
> controllers
> talking to a central machine controller. The motor controller software
> could be run on the machine controller, or a little 20 pin uC could be
> placed out on a motor controller PCB with everything required to
> completely
> run a motor (Hbridge power MOSFETs circuits and the PWM micro), then it
> could just receive commands from the central controller - direction, speed
> and softstart ramp time - as instructions sent over the 1 wire interface.
>
> Assembly language is indeed easy, in fact way easier than 'C' to get
> started
> in. The biggest problem is that you have to really get into the
> instruction
> set and pneumonic for assembler whereas C shields you from that.
>
> There is a freeware C compiler that is available for my uC family.
>
> http://gcc.gnu.org/
>
> If you stick with the PIC you might see if it is available for that as
> well.
> In the Atmel toolset it was a breeze to get set up and integrated into the
> IDE.
>
> I have my first C program running:
>
> #include <avr/io.h>
> #include <util/delay.h>
> void wait(void);
> int main (void)
> {
> // set PORTD for output
> DDRD = 0xFF;
> while(1)
> {
> for(int i = 1; i <= 128; i = i*2)
> {
> PORTD = i;
> _delay_loop_2(30000);
> }
> for(int i = 128; i > 1; i -= i/2)
> {
> PORTD = i;
> _delay_loop_2(30000);
> }
> }
> }
>
> Anyway, I am glad to hear you are into this and let's talk. This is going
> to be a lot of fun. Makes me wich I was retired so I didn't have to do
> real
> work. ;-)
>
> John W. Colby
> Colby Consulting
> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Lembit Soobik
> Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 4:05 AM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] OT: Is anyone into controllers?
>
> 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
>
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