microcontroller programming -- how to begin

Where can one get a PL/M compiler these days? For what CPUs? I really don't like C...

Exactly. That means that I have a lot of "leeway".

It's best to obtain a good sample program. There is a lot more to that than just to write the stuff your want it to do. Register setups, watchdog timer initializing or disabling, etc. etc.

Then you have to decide whether it is better to embed your tasks in interrupt service routines or not. Some advice: Think long and hard about what the uC should do if your code hangs up.

I don't know this uC but any uC worth its salt contains at least one times, plus a watchdog timer.

Yesterday I picked up an EZ430 package at a TI seminar. These things are really cool. $20 and you can program the thing on a USB port, then remove the target "system" which is the size of a finger nail and move it to your circuit board. Now that's high-tech. For those $20 you get the little programmer, the software (up to 4K C code size) and the little processor board. No cables to mess with, unless you want to.

It's probably worth studying - I once had a job where one of the tasks was to debug a small sequencer where the original designer, who was aobut 80 years old, had used relay logic, and not knowing about ladder logic at the time, it was a nightmare. Thinking back, if I'd redrawn the circuit in ladder logic format, it would have been a snap.

Good Luck! Rich

Thanks Joerg. At this point I have made my choice of the controller. I think that I will be able to make it work. Use of interrupts and avoiding undesired infinite loops is a good idea.

Yep, I will try to make some simple designs side by side with ladderl ogic and basic,and will try to see what is easier for me.

No longer sold I'm afraid. I was actually just about to ask around what its status actually is. Intel no longer support it. It was at one time part of their development tools. I first met it in 1985.

Intel ones ? I know that the 8051 and 8086 were supported. Not sure of anything else. Possibly 8048 back then too.

Me neither !

Graham

ISTR that TI had one with a tiny LCD display too. May have been the same uC.

Graham

Same series probably. This is a very new product (the target micro that is). The lowest end micro in that series is 55 cents, has a modern 16 bit-ish architecture and runs at 16 MIPS. The actual part in the dev system is more like $1.65 in moderate volume. No LCD drivers- only 14 pins.

The fun thing is that, at a cost of two pins, you practically have an ICE available. Single step, breakpoints (two, I think), and all sorts of cool stuff.

BTW, AFAIUI, they don't allow you to code protect with the nano dev system, so you're likely to want to buy some more hardware for anything that goes out the door.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

If it works like other devices from the MSP430 series, protecting the code is a matter of blowing a fuse. A circuit to do this is not hard to make; apply some pulses and 6V for a certain amount of time on a pin and thats it.

Hello Graham,

That was two years ago, the "retro watch". It had one of the higher end MSP430 on there.

Hello Nico,

No, have to go the HD44780 route there.

I asked them about that yesterday. They said you can blow the JTAG fuse via SBW although it didn't sound too convincing to me. When I do some serious development I'd want that in writing or in an official document. Else you'd have a nice two-wire design and then someone goes in and hacks it via some JTAG jerry-rigging.

Anyway, I just tried that EZ430. Turned the LED into a double-strobe :-) It is really easy to program but I am not so fond of the file management of that IAR package (yet). Maybe I am doing something wrong but it feels a bit unorthodox.

That's the one I had in mind. Should have gone to the seminar really ( if it was a freebie ).

Graham

"xray" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Ladder logic is (or was) used to program PLCs. It was also used to program the predessors of the PLCs. An example of the latter in consumer equipment is the mechanical "clock" sometimes even called "computer" in older washing machines. The slowly turning clock controlled a bunch of switches which makes the machine follow its program step by step. The Cubloc 280 building block apparently is meant to be used for controlling machines like a PLC does but as it also can be programmed is Basic it reaches out to the world of micrcontrollers as well.

petrus bitbyter

Can you get more of the little processor boards? Is someone making a clone of it?

1. You can buy more "systems".

1. No one will ever make a clone because there would be no profit at the give-away price TI is selling it for ( maximum, to those with a 'coupon' and $free to free seminar attendees).

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

In article , Nico Coesel wrote: [....]

I think the 8051 would be a better place to start. Real men code in assembly so the fact that C doesn't port very well should never become an issue.

With the 8051 like machines that is a truely huge amount of free stuff on the web.

The AVR is nothing whatsoever to do with the 8051! It's got a completely different, modern, architecture.

Leon

Hmmm, at first sight AVR didn't particularly look like 8051 to me. Can Nico elaborate?

More to the point... What are the DISadvantages of AVR compared to other architectures?