Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Laser mouse based DRO - Stand Alone ?

David A. Frantz wrote:

>[snip]
>Granted this may not be the case for volume manufacturing, but for home
>built / limited production hardware there can be huge benefit in easier
>software development.
>

The good thing about simple 8-bit or 16-bit chips is that you con't need
to set up virtual memory, you con't need to initialize a lot of crap
just to get the thing running.

> What everyone here needs though is a chip of
>any sort with the hardware uilt in to do the job in question. That is
>a chip with 3 or 4 quadrature input ports would be ideal.
>Unfortunately most of what I've found so far are chips with just one
>input port.
>
>

Well - if you don't mind a DSP/microcontroller hybrid (meant for motor
control, actually), then look into the Motorola DSP56F80x series. The
DSP56F805 has dual 6-channel PWM controllers geared for motor control
(can be used for 3-phase BLDC drive, and they have a development board
with drivers for that purpose). 8 channel (or 16-channel, depending)
A/D, with each block of 8 able to do two simultaneous captures (e.g. you
can get current and voltage at once). It also has either two quadrature
inputs (with home, limit, etc), or two sets of inputs - I can't
remember. The development kits are between $300 and $350, and come with
the CodeWarrior C development kit, a full embedded SDK, and lots of
example projects.

Oh - and it's got internal flash, 16 or so digital I/Os, and a lot of
other microcontroller-like options.

- Steve