[sdiy] WHICH PIC/UCONTROLLER should I buy today

[Ben Stuyts]

Hi Dan,

On 9 aug 2010, at 12:23, dan snazelle wrote:

> Can people please tell me their Favorite PIC/Ucontroller platform and why?
> 
> I know nothing about this so I am going to blindly take someones advice and just order the chip, the dev board, and a book on the chip.
> 
> ANY HELP would be greatly appreciated!!
> 
> 
> Id like chips that could work for things like VCLFO'/VCO's or lfo's, osc's, adsr's, filters, arpreggiators, gate sequencers, preset system brains, noise gens, etc)

That is a coincidence, I am currently also looking for something like that... Some sort of architecture that allows both LFO and VCO type of signals, with lots of voltage control on the input. Midi, USB, LCD, Ethernet optional... Fast core for reasonably complex math.

I never liked PIC programming. Lately I do a lot of programming on Arm-7 cores, so I was looking for an Arm-7 chip with at least 12-bit A/D and D/A. The STM32F series from STMicroelectronics looks promising. Between 10..21 A/D channels and (only) 2 D/A channels. The cpu runs at 24..72 MHz.

They even have a digital noise generator built-in for the DACs and full DMA support for outputting waveforms without any cpu intervention. Nice app note about the D/A here: <http://www.st.com/stonline/products/literature/an/16895.pdf>

Some of them have an I2S output, so you can easily connect a 16 or 24 bit audio dac if you want. Some of these chips have HUGE on-chip flash: 512 KB. Great for storing wave forms for example. Prices are between 2-10 euros. The problem really is that there are so many to choose from:
<http://www.st.com/stonline/stappl/st/com/selector/index.html#querycriteria=RNP139=1169.0>

ST has some eval kits, also Olimex (but not with the DAC I think), Keil, etc. In any case, good luck, and please keep the list informed how you fare.

Kind regards,
Ben