Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] PIC for Thickies

Hi John,

As I'm probably on about the same wavelength as you but have investigated
PIC a bit it may be useful if I say that you can regard them pretty much as
a mini computer on a chip. They have a processor, ROM, RAM and I/O
capabilities - all very restricted of course, but some of the bigger ones
exceed the specs of the original Sinclair computers! They are intended for
use in dedicated applications - i.e. you put a program into the (EE)ROM and
the chip just keeps repeating that program. However, because you have the
I/O capabilities, they can be used as quite sophisticated controllers taking
input from a keyboard, limit switches, sensors etc. and controlling relays,
LCD displays, etc. from their outputs. They are ideal for tasks like DROs or
other straightforward machine control but won't go quite as far as full CNC
(although by cascading a number of them each dedicated to a particular task
it would probably be theoretically possible). All we need now is to try to
understand how to program the darned things or, more specifically, to
understand how to break down the task we want the thing to do into bits we
can program it to understand!

Ian

--
Ian W. Wright
Sheffield UK

----- Original Message -----
From: John Stevenson <john@...>
To: <CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@egroups.com>
Sent: 29 July 2000 11:26
Subject: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] PIC for Thickies


> I keep seeing the PIC reference in this list.
> Being an 'Electronically Challenged Person' could someone explain exactly
> what a PIC is and it's general uses in not too advanced an explanation.
> --