1. 1 Microcontrollers you should know about Thomas Edwards http://www.t11s.com

2. 2 What is a Microcontroller (uC)? A “computer-on-a-chip” Simple but reliable way to control electromechanical systems No boot-up / no hard drives Smaller than a PC Less power/heat than a PC Cheaper than a PC

3. 3 What can you do with a uC? Flash LEDs in a particular way Move a motor in a pre-programmed fashion Have LEDs, motors, servos respond to switch or sensor inputs Connect devices to the Internet Much more!

4. 4 What does a uC need? Power Supply – the right voltage Support circuitry – different needs for different uCs –Voltage regulators –Crystals or resonators –Serial, USB, or Ethernet interfaces Programmer (usually PC based) Proto-board to assemble circuitry on

5. 5 Basic Stamps Very popular! Runs PBASIC interpreter No Analog inputs… BS2 ($49) –4,000 instructions per sec. –16 Digital I/O pins –32 bytes RAM –~500 instructions http://www.parallax.com

6. 6 Other Types of Stamp BS Rev. Dx ($34) –BS1 w. proto area –16 bytes ram –80 instructions –~2,000 instructions./s BS1 USB ($39) –$39.95 BS2px ($79) –38 bytes RAM –~4,000 instructions –~19,000 instructions/s

7. 7 Programming BS in PBASIC For b2= 0 to 5 high 1 pause 100 low 1 pause 100 next b2 N VAR BYTE TOP: FOR N = 0 TO 100 SEROUT 16, 84, 10, ["N = ", DEC N, CR] PAUSE 500 NEXT GOTO TOP

8. 8 Parallax Sensors Sensors made with the BS in mind But you could use them with other uCs

9. 9 Basic Stamp Pros/Cons Cons: Expensive Small memories No A/D inputs Pros: Popular Easy to use Tons of online documentation Many sensors available

10. 10 “Fish Pain” Maquette Basic Stamp reads button, drives fish animation Winbond Chipcoder voice board

11. 11 Microchip PIC Array of cheap but powerful microcontrollers $1-$10 Natively programmed in assembly language Lots of functionality (A/D, PWM, timers, counters)

12. 12 Some (of the hundreds) of PICs PIC12C508/509 (Small 8-pin package, internal oscillator, popular in small designs such as the iPod remote)iPod remote PIC12F629/675/683 PIC16F84 (generally considered obsolete, but still popular) PIC16F84A (upgrade to above, some versions do 20 MHz, 1:1 compatible with PIC16F84) PIC16F628 (replaces the PIC16F84. The 16F628A has more program memory and fully compatible) PIC16F88 (an excellent all-round 18-pin PICmicro) The PIC16F87X family (The PIC16F84's "big brothers", with lots of built in hardware similar to the 16F88. Quite common in hobby projects.) PIC16F877 (RS232, Parallel Port Interface, PWM and much more) PIC18F452 PIC18F4550 and relatives (Full-speed USB support, all sorts of inbuilt hardware. Very powerful and versatile)

13. 13 PIC Assembly Language Harvard Architecture –Separate instructions and data Memory “Banks” Many, many special registers for config

14. 14 PIC C void serTxIsr(void) { if (idxTxbufPut != idxTxbufGet) { TXREG = txBuf[idxTxbufGet]; idxTxbufGet = (++idxTxbufGet) & SER_TXBUF_MASK; } else { PIE1_TXIE = 0; //Disable USART Transmit interrupt when nothing more to TX }

15. 15 PICs – Pin “Overloading” Pins can serve four or more different functions Flexibility to meet project needs with minimal pins Often difficult to properly configure

16. 16 “Sycophant” Head mounted on R/C car chassis Follows viewers as they move down hall Sharp active IR sensors PIC 16F648A controller L293 Motor controller Windbond Chipcorder audio chip

17. 17 Atmel AVR Family of microcontrollers –ATmega –ATtiny $1-$15 Similar to PIC, but slightly easier to program in assembly language “Religious discussions” about PIC versus AVR

18. 18 Training Boards PIC18F458 training board ($44.90 http://www.futurlec.co m/PIC18F458Training. shtml) http://www.futurlec.co m/PIC18F458Training. shtml ATMega163 training board ($44.90 http://www.futurlec.co m/ATMegaTraining.sh tml ) http://www.futurlec.co m/ATMegaTraining.sh tml

19. 19 PIC/AVR Pros/Cons Cons: Tough to program in assembler/C Programmer board required (sometimes ~$50) Many different types of PIC, programs don’t port between them Pros: Very cheap Many interfaces and functions (A/D, PWM, timers, counters, I2C) Lots of online documentation & support

20. 20 CUBLOC CB220 Basic Stamp “pin compatible” But much more powerful… –80 KB flash instruction memory –4 KB EEPROM –2 KB Data RAM –36,000 instructions per second –A/D (up to 5V) Built-in 5V regulator Based on AVR CB220 $34, Proto board $5 http://www.comfiletech.com

21. 21 CUBLOC BASIC Dim f_pos_1 As Byte Dim f_pres_1 As Byte Input 5 'P0 / Pin 5 as Input Opencom 0,9600,3,32,32 'open RS-232 channel to Xport Opencom 1,9600,3,32,32 'open serial channel to Servo Controller Bclr 1,1 'clear channel 1 tx buffer On timer(10) Gosub a2d 'every 100 ms On Recv0 Gosub servo_move 'on UDP in from Xport Do Loop a2d: f_pres_1=Adin(0)>>2 'scale 0-1023 to 0-255 Put 0,f_pres_1,1 'send finger pressure to Xport Return

22. 22 Lantronix Xport Ethernet-to-serial converter Can operate in TCP or UDP modes Web-based configuration Comfile “dongle” allows easy DB9 attachement Xport ($54), dongle ($8) http://www.comfiletech.com

23. 23 CUBLOC Pros/Cons Cons: More expensive than PIC/AVR, but less than BS Not very popular yet Pros: Easy to program/use Many interfaces (A/D, PWM, I2C) Great vendor documentaton

24. 24 “Touch” Maquette To “touch someone” over the Internet R/C servo driving plastic finger Force-sensitive resistor on tip CUBLOC 220, Xport, Pololu Serial Servo controller

25. 25 MAKE Magazine Controller Just came out ($149 for board) 30 I/O lines 8 A/D (up to 3.3V) 8 “high current” motor driver outs Ethernet/USB/I2C Atmel AT91SAM7X256 based / 48 MIPS C programmed Connect to Max/MSP via Open Sound Control (OSC) http://www.makingthings.com/makecontrollerkit/

26. 26 The Alternative: PC Parallel Ports 12 digital outputs 5 digital inputs 8 grounds Data pins (Dx) may also be inputs in bi-directional ports, giving 13 inputs data = _inp(atoi(888)); /* read port 0x378 data pins */ _outp(atoi(888),atoi(data)); /* write port 0x378 data pins */ http://www.logix4u.net/parallelport1.htm

27. 27 PC w. Serial/USB Interfaces The Serializer ($139.95) 16 Digital I/Os 5 Analog inputs 2 x 4A DC motor drivers 2 RC Servo controllers I2C Interface.NET/C# programmable http://www.roboticsconnection.com/catalog/item/17 67486/2337356.htmhttp://www.roboticsconnection.com/catalog/item/17 67486/2337356.htm

28. 28 Microcontrollers you should know about Thomas Edwards http://www.t11s.com