Re: LF: Pic or Atmel?

[Andy Talbot <andy.g4jnt@gmail.com>]

Well, I know nothing about the Atmel aprat from teh fact that is exists :-)

There are plenty that love the range and won't touch PICs, but as you say its like Linux / Windows - never the twain...

Everything you want to do is quite straightforward and can all be done by the low end 16F series of PICs.  The 16F628 is a good workhorse to start with, the 16F819 is much the same, but has an on-board 4 channel 10 bit A/D.  The 16F870 is again much the same but has more I/O lines.  

 

Another of my favourites is the 12F629 and the similar 12F675 with 10 bit A/D converter.- both very cheap, especially in bulk.   Same code as the 16F family, but only 8 pins,and internal oscillator (with oscilator calibration facility) making them ideal for simple standalone tiny modules and a for jobs like fire-and-go-to-sleep-doing-nothing-more synthesizer programming.  

 

There's a lot of 16F and 12f family source code on my website (people have said I've given away too much code over the years)
http://www.g4jnt.com/pics.htm

 

For programming its difficult to beat the Microchip PicKit programmer - if you shop around its usually possible to get it bundled with a development board for one of the more upmarket device- sometimes at a bargai nprice.   The PicKit is upwards compatible and will programm all tke higher range and DSPPic as well.

 

I have ONLY EVER programmed in native assembler - everyone says its old hat, complicated etc, but it isn't.  And gives you far more versaility that using C or Basic PIC dialects.   And in 15 years of PIC programming have built up a good set of libraries that do everything a high level language can offer.  

 

Andy

www.g4jnt.com

 

 

 

 

 

2011/1/19 Stefan Schäfer <Stefan.Schaefer@iup.uni-heidelberg.de>

Dear group, especially Andy/G4JNT,

Maybe a little out of topic but very useful for LF/VLF devices: Programming microcontrollers.

Before some years i worked with some PIC controllers, assembler. But in the German ham radio newspaper you rather find circuit examples programmed on an Atmel device. Now i want to buy some software and programming devices for microcontrollers and asking myselfe what i should choose, Pic or Atmel. Maybe its a question like Windows or Linux? ;-)

My question would be what is the difference and the advantages/disadvantages. Is there a preferred device for practical purposes?

Examples for what i want to do with a Pic or At,mel

-Programming a DDS VFO
-A/D / D/A conversion of LF/VLF signals
- Programming a beacon TX for 8970 Hz, directly driving a psuh-pull FET stage
- Maybe a DCF-77 RX for generating a reference signal?
-Regulators for battery charging
-combinations of the above

and and and

I would be thankful for useful comments and hints.

73, Stefan/DK7FC