JWColby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Tue Sep 26 08:27:57 CDT 2006
That may be a case of "better to buy it". It is probably quite easy to control the motors, but the professional controllers for telescopes automatically sense the position of the telescope using GPS, do tracking to account for the movement of the earth while viewing etc, plus they have a database of all the objects. Of course if your manufacturer doesn't offer one then it might be up to you. 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 Bobby Heid Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 8:51 AM To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues' Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] [SPAM SUSPECT] Re: OT: Is anyone into controllers? I have been wanting for quite some time to build a controller for my telescope so that I can hook up some encoders and have goto capability. But that will have to wait for a time when I have more time. Bobby -----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: [SPAM SUSPECT] Re: [dba-Tech] OT: Is anyone into controllers? Importance: Low 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