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[SkarvenParticipant @skarven]

I have programmed both PIC, Atmel and several other microcontrollers, and I agree with Neil. Atmel is much easier to program than the PICs. You also get a good free C-compiler for the Atmels, an for most people learning to program in C is a lot quicker.

[Hugh GilhespieParticipant @hughgilhespie56163]

I used a PIC simply because I happened to have one – that and a complete ignorance of what was involved. Having got a bit further down the road I think Neil & Skarven are right, to get where I want to I should have started from a different place. Still, it is proving a very interesting journey and I am getting close to an exciting bit – hooking up the stepper motor and optimistically seeing it rotate, realistically trying to work out why it isn’t rotating.

 

The Amtel chips do look nice though!

 

Regards, Hugh

[adyParticipant @ady]

I got here backwards

It was my interest with hobby programming which led me to CNC…and then on to lathe work.

 

This is a program which will show you

BASIC counting to 9,999,999

ASM counting to 999,999,999

 

The difference in raw power is mind boggling

BBC Basic for windows is the only “easy” programming language I know of which allows you to put machine code instructions into a higher level language

 

this is the code:

 

———————————–

REM count to a billion

DIM P% 70
A%=1

[

mov eax,1

.addup
inc eax
cmp eax,999999999
jb addup
ret
]

PRINT “ASM is counting to 999,999,999”
PRINT ~ USR(addup)
PRINT “Finished”

A%=1
B%=0
PRINT “Basic is counting to 9,999,999”
10
B%=B%+A%
IF B% < 9999999 THEN GOTO 10
PRINT “Finished”

———————————

 

You can download the compiled program here.

I’m just an enthusiastic amateur btw, groping in the dark, so don’t get too technical if there are any questions

 

http://www.addogodfrey.clara.net/ASMaddupADY.exex

 

The choice is quite stark

If you need raw number crunching power and pure speed then you really have no choice because ASM can count to a billion up to 100 times faster than BASIC can count to 10 million.

 

In this example program BASIC is only doing 1% of the work that ASM has achieved

Edited By ady on 09/12/2011 05:57:33

[adyParticipant @ady]

The other problem is memory space in small chips

 

The ASM program is only around 200 bytes

 

The Windows executable is 82000 bytes

 

Edited By ady on 09/12/2011 06:37:45

[Anonymous]

Personally I don’t like PIC micros. When they first came out they were pretty innovative in terms of size and simplicity. But the company seems to have lost its way a bit. I’ve found that the software and programming tools are a bit flaky – no use in the professional environment. There also seem to be a few quirks within the processors, which require workarounds. On the plus side the company does an interesting range of competively priced analogue and interface components; and it’s easy to buy direct from them.

 

I’ve never used the Atmel processors, but they do look good. Unfortunately most of my work these days requires processors with rather more grunt. Mind you that has a downside; the user guide for the processor on my latest project is 3600 pages long. It’ll take nearly a week to read it, let alone understand it and extract the important hardware points. Plus of course the datasheet and all the application notes on how to actually use the #*& thing and have a fighting chance of it working.

 

Regards,

 

Andrew

[MICHAEL WILLIAMSParticipant @michaelwilliams41215]

http://www.arduino.cc/

http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Stepper

 

Excellent Arduino and third party support including stepper driver shield boards and software .

 

Higher power versions available as well but not needed for present enquiry .

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

BBC Basic for Windows is available as a free trial version that will do 101 useful things for the model engineer. I bought the full version, which brings free upgrades for ever. It’sbrilliant.

 

Just to show off a bit- I’ve nearly comleted an AVR-based 8-bit microcomputer with 128K of RAM. It runs my own flavour of BBC BASIC with full floating point, procedures and functions, graphics etc. in 28-bit colour on a QVGA LCD screen. the keyboard is from an Amstrad emailer. I still have to add the file system, probably using an SD card based system.

 

The pictures are of the second prototype, vesrion 1 was 64×128 mono display, the new one is all SMT and has much more memory and features..

 

Neil

 

[Billy MillsParticipant @billymills]

Neil, Thanks for the BBC Basic for Windows link, downloaded the free demo version and carried on writing BBC Basic as if it was 25 years ago! Always liked BBC Basic but running on a PC is quite a revalation! That’s a very nice tip off, thanks again! Will definitely get the full version.

Would agree with the PIC v AVR comments, the AVR is far more polished and quick. The upper level devices are very capable and nibble at the micro controller definition, they are far more than that.

 

Welcome back Michael!

 

Billy.

 

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