[sdiy] A uC question and a circuit for those who need it.

[phillip m gallo]

Batz,

I would argue that the first decision is whether your micro is the start of
a "product" or a "project".  If a product a variety of cost and
manufacturing issues will help you select the target device pretty quickly.
If a project i would suggest  that the micro that you can most easily put
together a development environment for, would be the compelling choice.

More commonly micro's have integrated serial boot-loaders which makes
development a lot easier.  The DS89C420 or the MSC1211 are both '51
derivative, that i personally use, which are examples of this.  Not
uncommonly, processor's provide download capability using a JTAG probe which
also allows rapid development.  These probes are usually approx $1x0.00US.

Often acquiring a Eval board can get you running on you processor of choice
with a minimum set of dev tools, downloader, the ability to connect to the
outside world.

regards,
p

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl]On Behalf Of Batz Goodfortune
Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 7:31 PM
To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
Subject: [sdiy] A uC question and a circuit for those who need it.


Y-ellow All.
         It's coming into winter time. I get erratic in the winter time. So
expect delays.

But before I disappear up my own bunghole, I seek the opinion of some uber
programmers out there.

I need to make a decision on a suitable embedded controller for a synth
application. To control and produce some wave forms. It seems to me that
I've got 3 choices for candidates.
1) an AVR
2) a strongARM or freescale or whatever they're calling them these days.
3) a 400 meg MCS51 derivative.

An AVR would probably do the job but I'd undoubtedly need 2 of them. And
quite a bit of glue. Suggestions of a suitable version would be handy.
An ARM derivative would have more peripherals on board than I'd ever need
but would be plenty powerful enough. I've never worked with them so I'd be
interested to hear of anyone who hates them or otherwise. I'm not sure what
resources I'd need to gather to work with one either.
One of those MAXIM MCS51 derivatives I should be able to work with but
they're a bit out of the relm these days. Even the fast 400meg ones. And I
don't know what the 16 bit ones are like.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
---------------------------------

SECONDLY: And the person or persons who were talking about this will
probably miss this being way down here. BUT!

By going to the following URL and clicking on the ETI circuits icon and
following your nose, you'll find a circuit for transferring a signal,
linearly through an opto isolator.

http://all-electric.com/b&c.html

It uses a pair of 567 tone decoders as PLLs to generate and translate an FM
signal. It's pretty cute. And it would probably have a couple of zillion
other applications as well. I know it's been a while since who ever it was,
was talking about this, but it's taken me this long to find this stuff and
get it up there.

There are also a half dozen other circuits from the old ETI trove up there
that may be of interest. And I'll add more as time permits.

Hope this helps. And thanks in advance.

Be absolutely Icebox.

  _ __        _       ____ International Nihilist ____
| "_ \      | |
| |_)/  __ _| |_ ____       ALL ELECTRIC KITCHEN
|  _ \ / _` | __|___ |Your source of Armageddon in a musically crass world
| |_) | (_| | |_  / /
|_,__/ \__,_|\__|/ /   Disgusting-> http://all-electric.com
                 / ,__  Music-> http://all-electric.com/music_downloads.html
Goodfortune    |_____| Cult  -----> http://www.subgenius.com



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