[time-nuts] FE-5680A Mechanical Question

[Chris Albertson]

On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 1:56 AM, Don Latham <djl at montana.com> wrote:
> And again, if a picaxe is used, the programming connection can be
> built-in. It takes two resistors and can use a 3-pin .1 in connector.
> The program can be easily read in and modified at will, no special
> programmers are required, just a serial port. Users can buy the picaxes
> from several vendors, so no preprogrammed chips have to be sent around.
> The latest programs could be stored by the usual suspects :-). SanDisk
> pinout boards are cheap from Sparkfun, so big data set storage is a
> snap.
>
>  OTH, Chris Albertson has just tipped us off to a very rich cost
> effective environment, an Arduino and Labview. Got one on order, can't
> resist. The picaxes may have to stay in the drawer for this app. . .
> Don

A PICAXE is a PIC with a boot loader preprogrammed into it.   Arduino
is an AVR with a boot loader preprogrammed into it.   I like the AVR
because it uses the very same GCC C/C++ compiler I use for everything
else.   I can test _some_ things on the desktop computer then
recompile on the AVR.    The Arduino is simply an AVR, on a
standardized PCB.  The decision to standardize means that you can buy
standard daughter cards.  You can build exotic stuff like web
controlled stepper motor drivers with no soldering.

I was very surprised to find the Labview bundle.  It is normally a
$5,000 package.   But then I looked and found the Student version of
Labview is always $20.  And they don't ask if you are a student.
(Actually however I am, at age 50+ I enrolled in the local community
collage, music department.)

I'm never afraid of "overkill" on a one up project.   The last big
embedded hobby system I worked on has an astronomical camera.  One
thing you have to do with a CCD image sensor is clock the charge off
the chip then route it to an ADC.  I used a full size desktop PC
running Real Time Linux to generate the clocks or the CCD.  Gross
overkill but I could telnet into the camera controller and look around
inside even with the camera on the other coast 2,000 miles away.


Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California