[sdiy] Presenting yet another Sequencer design (mine)

[John Speth]

> Are there 5 PICs in there? Wow - you must really
> love them little
> controllers! Must be a non-trivial task to get them
> to cooperate?

Actually, it turns out 5 PICs simplified the design. 
Each PIC performs a well defined function. 
Integration was simple.

> How come they are so many? Did you run out of
> interrupts? Or is it just to
> make the software simpler/higher quality? 

The nice thing about these PICs is the nice complement
of peripherals and interrupts.  Many interrupts are
used among the 5.  A single PIC would have been
resource stretched in all ways.

Basically it went like this: When I set out to define
the system, I kept running into various overwhelming
problems when all considered together.  I realized I'd
never be able to finish it if I didn't do it more
modular like.

> I once built a chess clock using 80 MSI IC's on
> three PCBs; counters,
> latches and flip-flops. I was very proud when it
> worked, but after a while I
> realized I could have done it with a single
> PIC16F84...

Same lesson I learned: If anything, a PIC can be a
useful sub for simple logic and infinitely
configurable using software.

Thanks for the comments... John

> -----Original Message-----
> Hi everyone!
> 
> I'd like to present my sequencer that I finally
> designed and built.  It's a PIC based sequencer with
> a
> low parts count and sensible design with features
> optimized for use with keyboard gates and MIDI
> realtime.
> 
> Please visit:
>
http://www.hevanet.com/jspeth/Sequencer/Sequencer.htm
> 
> Please let me know if any comments or suggestions.
> 
> Thanks, John Speth



		
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