Hi !
I'm about to design a simple controller for autmotive area - measuring
4 temperatures, controlling 4 solenoids, nothing significant beside that actually. Computing power is not an issue here, application is simple. Device is going to be powered from car 12V installation, obviously. It's not going into high volume, it's to support my friend's car experiments. It's a bit similar to devices used together with car gas systems.
- I'd like to use Atmel AVR's for that, as this architecture I'm most familiar with. Unfrotunately I've heard some rumours about AVRs being more sensitive to interferences (is this the right word?), power quality etc. Some people recommend PICs as being more immune. Is there really a difference between these 2 families?
And yes, I understand the importance of proper design :)
- Regardles of the uC chosen, I'd like to use some good external supervisory (reset + watchdog) circuit. Can someone recommend some good one for this application (whatever you've used and found reliable)?
- I need 4 high-side switches to control my solenoids. For higher reliability I'd probably use one of integrated switches with overvoltage/temp protection. There are some with SPI control and status readback, which sounds attractive. I've seen such devices from ST,Atmel,Freescale, yet this kind of devices seem to be not so easy to get in small quantities. Could someone point me to other companies doing this kind of chips?
Best Regards, Przemyslaw