Tabloid electronics!!

[Poxy]

The lack of documentation of the code for most of these projects is
the gripe I have with SC micro projects.

Circuit Cellar have provided code and full descriptions quite openly
for as long as I can remember and it hasn't hurt them (that I am aware
of)

I guess SC think it'd chew up pages with unattractive gunk and scare off the
vintage radio people or something.

I know very little of PIC code, and have been told by many to not use
PIC if you can help it. (My past experience has been with Zilog Z-80
and 180 assembly)

Meh, as far as I know PICs seem perfectly fine and make their way into
plenty of commercial applications. Micro nerds seem to yap on about the
superiority of Atmel chips, but the same people tend to bleat endlessly
about Linux as well, which bores me to tears. The only serious assembler I
ever did was for 8051s, and I feel no great urge to go there again.. Given
micros are so damn cheap, I code with MikroC and only plonk in bits of
assembler when there's no other way to get the required timing.

 

[David L. Jones]

I guess SC think it'd chew up pages with unattractive gunk and scare off the
vintage radio people or something.


Meh, as far as I know PICs seem perfectly fine and make their way into
plenty of commercial applications.

PICs did not make their way to being the #1 (in sales) 8-bit
microcontroller in the world without being useful for commercial
applications.

PIC's have their pros and cons just like every other micro.

Micro nerds seem to yap on about the
superiority of Atmel chips, but the same people tend to bleat endlessly
about Linux as well, which bores me to tears.

and the AVR-GCC C compiler as well. While it's great to have a fully
fledged C compiler available for free, you have to be a computer
science geek to use the thing.
The AVR "freaks" tend to be a bit more passionate their micros than
the PIC devotees.

The only serious assembler I
ever did was for 8051s, and I feel no great urge to go there again.. Given
micros are so damn cheap, I code with MikroC and only plonk in bits of
assembler when there's no other way to get the required timing.

C is the way to go, with assembly only used as needed. Those who dick
around with full-blown assembler projects on micros have more free
time that they know what to do with.
Badly written C "spaghetti" code is bad enough to understand, but
assembler may as well be Klingon or Stargate Ancient. I can understand
why SC don't publish it. Circuit Cellar go to more trouble with flow
charts and block diagrams and things. SC generally only do that if the
author happens to go to the trouble to do it themselves.

Dave.

 

[[email protected]]

Geez Google, If this message doesn't make it, I'm giving up posting -
again...

Well, I have to say I agree with yourself & Poxy - Dave.

If you've invested some time learning to use a specific (and popular)
micro brand and programming interface why waste more time on a
different platform - especially if it's more complicated and doesn't
do anything much that differently.

I blame Don McKenzie for getting me started on AVRs by his creation of
the DT006 board. Just kidding Don, I think your board design - and
your involvement is great.

So, I've pretty much stuck with AVRs and AVR-GCC. I also confess to
knowing way too much about Linux, and to top it off I've been trying
to use Eagle for board design - now, where's that site that sells 'I'm
a Geek' t-shirts?

And yes, I'm all 'emo' about AVRs and GCC Poxy, although not so much
in a positive way. 'They hate me' and 'life is so unfair when you try
to program them'. Again, just kidding, because the net has some fine
people like http://www.scienceprog.com to help out.

BTW, Dave. Just a question if I may. Have you tried to use Eagle at
all?
It's free - for small boards - and although the interface is somewhat
Zen-like (maybe more Star-Wars like where 'the force' is required), it
does some things OK. Just thought I'd ask - although you're probably
busy with something up your sleeve (any hints as to what that might
be?).

To explain a little. I work as a computer programmer. You fine
electronic people work to get things happening with a minimum of fuss,
I've yet to learn enough about electronics to bridge the gap and I'm
hoping that a mag like SC may be able to help with this in the future.

Cheers, Phil.

 

[tuppy]

I rekon the best ever electronic mag was the low budget magazine
TALKING ELECTRONICS.
It looked like it was printed on butcher paper but I loved it. Learnt
much more about electronics through that mag than any other
publication. wish Jaycar or DSE would give Colin Mitchel some more
support. I remember DSE stocked Colins bug books but never stocked the
kits.

 

[Poxy]

So, I've pretty much stuck with AVRs and AVR-GCC. I also confess to
knowing way too much about Linux, and to top it off I've been trying
to use Eagle for board design - now, where's that site that sells 'I'm
a Geek' t-shirts?

And yes, I'm all 'emo' about AVRs and GCC Poxy, although not so much
in a positive way. 'They hate me' and 'life is so unfair when you try
to program them'. Again, just kidding, because the net has some fine
people like http://www.scienceprog.com to help out.

The PIC thing for me is partly just getting the job done, and an element of
lazyness - there's a pile of projects and info on the net to leech ideas off
and MikroC is free for small code sizes, which up 'till now has covered what
I need to do, although I think I may need to buy it soon as my code is
starting to bloat. The bottom line is that without applying excessive
amounts of brain cells or time, I can get something working correctly and
put it to use.

To explain a little. I work as a computer programmer. You fine
electronic people work to get things happening with a minimum of fuss,
I've yet to learn enough about electronics to bridge the gap and I'm
hoping that a mag like SC may be able to help with this in the future.

Part of my work is system admin, and I run Linux servers where I can
(although I actually earn more from the sites that have Windows servers due
to the volume of care and feeding the demand) , and I have one on my home
network to do all sorts of neato things, but I still run Windows as my
desktop OS, partially because there's a pile of vital apps that aren't on
Linux, and partly because I think Windows is a pretty damn good workstation
OS, and Linux just isn't.

As you mention, there's huge scope for SC to start covering things such as
micro interfacing, but also to do articles on the range of free tools that
are available such as Eagle and high-level coders such as MikroC and the
like.

 

[David L. Jones]

I rekon the best ever electronic mag was the low budget magazine
TALKING ELECTRONICS.
It looked like it was printed on butcher paper but I loved it. Learnt
much more about electronics through that mag than any other
publication.

Yes, Talking Electronics was excellent, and how tempting was the blank
PCB taped to the front cover of the early issues.
But because it wasn't a monthly mag like the others, it didn't have
the same profile or get the recognition.

wish Jaycar or DSE would give Colin Mitchel some more
support. I remember DSE stocked Colins bug books but never stocked the
kits.

No way DSE or Jaycar could have matched the prices TE was selling the
kits for direct. Colin sure did know how to keep the prices low. I
remember being able to pay using postage stamps!

Dave.

 

[David L. Jones]

Geez Google, If this message doesn't make it, I'm giving up posting -
again...

Well, I have to say I agree with yourself & Poxy - Dave.

If you've invested some time learning to use a specific (and popular)
micro brand and programming interface why waste more time on a
different platform - especially if it's more complicated and doesn't
do anything much that differently.

Indeed. No need to switch for most people. Most ranges and flavours of
micros will do more than you'll ever need.

I blame Don McKenzie for getting me started on AVRs by his creation of
the DT006 board. Just kidding Don, I think your board design - and
your involvement is great.

So, I've pretty much stuck with AVRs and AVR-GCC. I also confess to
knowing way too much about Linux, and to top it off I've been trying
to use Eagle for board design - now, where's that site that sells 'I'm
a Geek' t-shirts?

Try the open source gEDA suite, then you can graduate to the propeller
hat!
http://www.geda.seul.org/

And yes, I'm all 'emo' about AVRs and GCC Poxy, although not so much
in a positive way. 'They hate me' and 'life is so unfair when you try
to program them'. Again, just kidding, because the net has some fine
people likehttp://www.scienceprog.comto help out.

BTW, Dave. Just a question if I may. Have you tried to use Eagle at
all?
It's free - for small boards - and although the interface is somewhat
Zen-like (maybe more Star-Wars like where 'the force' is required), it
does some things OK.

Haven't tried myself, as I've got Altium Designer.
I've heard it's getting very popular though.

Just thought I'd ask - although you're probably
busy with something up your sleeve (any hints as to what that might
be?).

You have mail.

Dave.