Howdy all, I recently took a class from Microchip learning to use their PIC24F 16- bit micros. I got the Explorer 16 development board and the ICD2 LE and got everything up and running with their MPLAB IDE v8.02 yadda, yadda. Everything is going very well, but I dont have any prior experience using more lowly 8-bit micros.
A friend of mine wants me to design and build a little controller unit to put inside of his remote control boat that will receive some of the servo signals from a couple of different receiver channels and be able to fire some rockets and trigger various aquatic peripherals. This seems to me like I should look to an 8 or 14 pin 8-bit solution and that a 100-pin 16-bit processor would be significant overkill (understatement).
I looked at the receiver servo signals on a scope and they are strange PWM type signals that vary in pulse width depending on what the transmitter/controller is doing (not sure if I should average them to DC and look at the DC level using an ADC or not). Anyway, it is my job to receive the various servo signals from the receiver and write a little program to have the micro control a couple of outputs to:
a) light a fuse on a bottlerocket b) send out pulses to trigger a paintball firing mechanism (fully- automatic or semi-automatic or one-shot). c) perhaps a few other tricks.
My question is this....
1) Will my new ICD2 LE work with lowly 8-pin and 14-pin PIC 8-bit micros in addition to the PIC24F 16-bit micros? 2) Although I have designed and build hundreds of my own PCBs in the past, this project doesnt really warrant a custom designed and built PCB...instead I would like to buy an "off the shelf" development board that will allow an 8-pin or 14-pin micro to be used to accept a couple of receiver servo pulse width inputs and actuate a couple of output transistor/driver circuits for US$20-40ish.Sure I could design my own PCB, but I would like to keep my actual design time limited to a couple of hours tinkering with the code instead of spinning a PCB, specing and ordering parts, etc.
Any suggestions on quick deployment general purpose PIC development kits for such an application? I found this...
I also saw this, but would require more tinkering for the output stages...
Thx for any input. respectfully, frenchy