1. Home
  2. Electronics Design
  3. Looking for Ideas/Opinions

Looking for Ideas/Opinions

I'm new to microcontrollers, coming from the PC world of embedded applications. I have an automotive project that could use some slimming down both in terms of power usage and econcomics. Microcontrollers seem to offer the best of everything. Is it possible for a microcontroller to achieve all of the following in one application:

Read incoming GPS information, read incoming RFID serial data, read an analog transducer, emit sounds (beeps), utilize an LCD/Keypad combination for interacting with a user and lastly storing the GPS, RFID and transducer info onto an SD card (removable storage) or better yet on two SD cards (redundant backup system).

Could anyone suggest what type of microcontroller would best be suited. I've been reading up on PIC's, AVR, 8501's, etc.

I appreciate any help.

Thanks,

William

Reply to
Swax
Loading thread data ...

You should be able to do that with a microcontroller -- but there's a wide range of microcontrollers available. I get the impression that you really mean _8-bit_ microcontrollers.

It really boils down to the speed that you want to do all this, and how much effort you want to put into streamlining the software. You need to pay attention how fast the RFID and analog transducer are being sampled.

If it were me I'd choose some likely candidates, write some nice portable C, see if I could get free compilers, and do some benchmarking.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com
Reply to
Tim Wescott

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll take a leap of faith here and begin experimenting with the AVR. It seems to have a lot of potential.

In terms of redundant storage to two SD cards (or CF cards) - this is no problem?

Cheers

William

Reply to
William Lane

I've done much of this with an MSP430F148, with plenty of capacity to spare. The mspgcc tools are free and good, it's easy to design in, and very low power (not that you'll be worried about that if your GPS is on a lot). If 12 bit (with the usual on-chip problems) is good enough for your transducer, you won't need an external ADC either.

Paul Burke

Reply to
Paul Burke

SNIP

I would avoid PIC's, the compilers are not free,some of them can not link, C code is not portable and the tools are a bit awkward. (I am forced to use PICs at the moment as they happen to be on some evaluation boards) Personally I would prefer AVR which has a good free GCC comiler.

Wim

Reply to
Wim Ton

Almost any microcotroller can do your job with power left to spare, so it would be hard to make the wrong choice !

I suggest you choose a microprocessor family which you want to add to your toolkit for general use. Does the family have high end and low end parts ? Are you comfortable with the part cost ?

Unless you are making 100s of thousands of units and must save every cent, I suggest picking a family which is modern and has a lot of grunt, so as to make the programming task easier. If I suggest a family, I will get shouted down by other people, which just proves choice of family is not critical !

The AVR and MSP430 families are modern and high throughput and popular. I will duck for cover and say that the 8051 architecture is getting dated and produces larger code size and slower throughput, even for the souped up versions. Of course, the 8051 derivatives are enormously popular and keenly priced !

Roger

Reply to
Roger Lascelles

I made a project very similar to your one, also with graphic lcd and battery monitor, with an st upsd3233 8051 derivative

--
piero
Reply to
pietro canevarolo

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.