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simulation of microcontrollers

I was wondering how I can simulate microcontrollers. I am trying to make a simple "switching" circuit that basically lets users push buttons to call up presets that will switch between different "devices" and I figured that I would use a pic to do it. Unfortunately I have virtually no experience with any electronic stuff and I've just been playing around with EW Design Suite with flip flops and stuff to get an idea about what I need to do. From a little research I figure that I can do all the controlling with a pic with enough I/O lines and just do the switching and selecting in the software... the problem is I can't figure out how to put code in Design Stuite when I put down a MCU. I'm not sure if DS supports this or not but I have found several other pieces of software that either just simulate the chip itself and has a IDE for the code(but doesn't seem to simulate the electrical circuit aspect) or they just do the electrical circuits but not the code. I looked on EW's site and they had something called MultiMCU that interfaces with DS and does seem to do what I want but I'm not completely sure... and I'm definately looking for something that is free so I can play around with it and use it to learn.

Any ideas? Or am I just going to have to purchase some hardware and a programmer and do it that way? I'd rather use software simulation as I'm much more comfortable because I can't really screw anything up.

Anyways, I'll give my idea since its pretty simple and might shed some light on what I actually need(I know I probably don't need to simulate anything to do it since its pretty simple but I'd like to be able to play around without any fear of screwing up the chip by accident).

I'll have N buttons that will select "presets". I'll need the ability to store the presents in memory.

B1 -- |-----| --- DEVICE line 1 ... | MCU | ... BN -- |-----| --- DEVICE line M

So basicaly I have a Device which has M lines and I want to just select combinations of those lines (so I have M! possible combinations to choose from but only N buttons(4 probably) will be selectable(or maybe I'll use some bank method to get a few more)).

So, say for example, B3 might have been configured by the user to select some preset that turns "on" lines 3, 6, and 8 and B4 might turn on lines 1,

2, and 3. I figure its pretty easy to do in the software but since its actually a little more complex than that I'd like to simulate the other parts of the circuit along with the MCU. In actuality I need to debounce the switches(They are just momentary switches) and the Device lines are actually analog lines so the MCU will control switches that switch on certain analog line combinations.

Also, I was wondering how much does it cost to fabricate this stuff "professionally"? Right now basicaly what I have done is to use dip switches to select different combinations of the DEVICE lines above... my goal is to make it much easier by just using a few switches(maybe I can just get away with one or two too and just use a button to cycle through the presets instead... maybe not)). For my application I am limited in size(the smaller the better) and the analog signals that it will control cannot be in any significant way be degraded. I'd like to put this in a small package and potentially sale it if I can find someone to buy it(not sure if theres a market for it but I'm sure a few people will buy it if its done right)... although its mainly just a stepping stone into learning more about electronics as I've always been wanting to get into it(and I've taken a few courses in EE).

Thanks for any help, AD

Reply to
Abstract Dissonance
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I'm wondering how one uses the MCU in EW Design Studio? You can place the components on the board but surely you have to code them to be useful in the simulation? I can't find any way to put code into them to do anything ;/ Even if I can only load up a binary file into its memory space it would be better than nothing(cause I think I could probably find an assembler somewhere for the chip and assemble some code for it... but thats useless if I can't actually load any code onto the MCU in EW Design Studio ;/).

Another thing, about the "Cost" thing I mention before... I was just looking for some reference so I have some idea how much it costs to "mass" produce PCB's(for something small ofcourse)... 10k$ for 100 units or what? I figure they have machines to do most of the work so it should be fairly cheap... depending on how hard it is to configure the machines though.

Thanks, AD

Reply to
Abstract Dissonance

MPLAB has "simulate" mode if you *really* want to simulate your PIC, but its usually easier to just build the thing and test it.

You can "professionally" fabricate small projects like this yourself. PCBs can be ordered, and solder them yourself. Packaging is the only hard part, but there are plenty of nice cases out there, PCB mount push buttons etc. Cases can be punched and screen printed if needed.

Dave :)

Reply to
David L. Jones

You want it free? Then what you're looking for is MicroDev:

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Want a more expensive version? Then check out Proteus VSM:

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Reply to
slebetman

Why bother simulating ?

Just *do* it !

Graham

Reply to
Pooh Bear

Do it directly on the real hardware. Add probes (just a couple of spare outputs, that you can wiggle the point you are examining) to the code where necessary to allow you to see what's going on. For a program as simple as this (and a good deal more complex), it's often as good and as quick as having expensive development tools.

Paul Burke

Reply to
Paul Burke

I think MPSIM is pretty useful, especially for testing software chunks. You can set unlimited breakpoints, see any register or memory location and 'time' things *exactly*. It would be difficult to create a 100% error free program of any substantial complexity without liberally using simulation or ICD/ICE to wring out every instruction of the code, including rarely taken branches and oddball conditions. Particularly early on when you're not that familiar with things.

It would be nice if they had automatic code coverage analysis like Keil, but for free it's pretty good.

For complex internals, I think it's better to spend time at higher levels of abstraction (designing on quadrille paper, testing an algorithm in C or whatever on a PC platform) before you even get to the that point.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

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