Re: Electronics Projects and PC Interfacing

[Danny Sauer <danny@dannysauer.com>]

Matthew Kotys wrote:
> I have done a few "Hello World" projects on PIC uCs, but I'm sort of
> bored with blinking lights in succession and triggering a piezo buzzer.

Is there any particular reason not to investigate the cooler features on
the 8-bit PIC microcontrollers?  There are flash memory PICs that can
directly speak at RS232 levels, included buffered UARTs, have USB
interfaces available, etc.  You can get them for single-digit prices
from places like Digikey, and there's zillions of tutorials out there
with different examples.

Not that the other suggestions are bad, but if you already have some
knowledge of the PIC assembler and the equipment, there's a *lot* more
you can do aside from turning things on and off.  The Dallas one-wire
protocol is pretty easy, and iButtons + the other one wire devices are
neat, for example.

--Danny

OpenPGP digital signature