gmane.comp.hardware.microcontrollers.pic

[EE] JTAG cables

David — 2013-06-19T21:09:48

All,

I'm looking for a JTAG cable suitable for small CPLDs, specifically
right now the Lattice ispMACH 4A range.

USB preferred and I don't mind buying something that will last, but it
is for hobby use and not programming 10k devices a year.  My motherboard
does not have a parallel port or header.

I see Chinese "compatible" JTAG cables on eBay for $10 and manufacturer
specific ones for $300, with a range of others in the middle.

Any recommendations?

David

[OT] re pic post Peter Anderson's LCD117 - Lives On

cdb — 2013-06-19T10:36:16

 I hadn't realised he had died, his website is still up. I purchased a 
number of items from him including his Pic 'C' course some years back.

Colin

--
cdb,  on 19/06/2013

[OT]: My Son wants to learn how to write games

Justin Richards — 2013-06-18T09:29:08

It is a tall order but my son (12) has asked me several times to teach him
how to write games.  This seems like it would be so much easier on a
commodore 64 (I enjoyed moving sprites around the screen with a joystick)
but as that is long gone I thought i would ask the list what would be a
good way to start.

I am (was) familiar with C, assembler and perl.  I enjoy PIC assembly but I
dont think that would be appropriate for a intro into programming games.

Years ago I attempted Windows programming in C and assembler was just too
much for me.  A case of not able to see the tree for the forest.

Perhaps starting with perl and moving alpha-numerics around the screen to
start with.

Any thoughts.

Justin

[OT] Virtual USB ports over network FLOSS

YES NOPE9 — 2013-06-17T23:07:38

I am trying to discover software that will provide virtual USB ports over a network.

I want to be able to have machines based on Linux , OS X and Windoze act as thought they have USB ports.
These ports would actually be at a remote location connected via TCPIP.

I have been searching Giggle ( no joy ).   Any suggestions are welcome.

Gus in Denver

[OT] VOIP use

Gordon Williams — 2013-06-17T19:26:34

Hi,

I'm going to be moving house shortly and was thinking of dropping Bell as my
phone provider and moving to one of the voip systems.  I've heard comments
that sometimes the sound quality and reliability are not very good.

Has anyone tried this and what did you think?

I'm not sure there is a lot of savings as one still needs to get dry DSL.
It may save us $10/month which is not a lot in the grand scheme of things.

I'm in Ottawa, Canada.

Gordon Williams

[OT]:: Another kickstarter project

RussellMc — 2013-06-17T17:53:56

Nothing remotely resembling anything electronic or mechanical or ... useful.

I'd be exceeding miffed if this came within 50% of its funding goals.

At least Rowling could/can spell.
Or mayhaps the Kane's are long time computer programmers.

You don't get to be "coolest' just by slapping "Coolest ever ..." at
the top of your blurb, and (very good) odds are that if you do so then
you almost certainly aren't.

However, it's good to know that they have 'discovered the appeal
formula'. Maybe they could next apply it to working out how to make
successful 'movies'.

It's good also to know that the project is not all about the
gratification of achieving much financial success. But, mostly so,
presumably.

It's interesting that they consider they can cost promotional material
to an adumbrated accuracy of ~ 1 part in 280. (ie $70,250). All other
components on $5000 or $10,000 boundaries (as they indeed should be).

Plot / storyline.
Deja Vu here somewhere.
I think Nika and Cohen may really be Luke and Leah.
Or maybe

[OT] Piclist web page thread search question

Joe Wronski — 2013-06-17T15:29:33

Hi, I'm looking at the piclist dot com List Post Browser page, and I see 
options to search Full Text or Quick Search (Subject only) and I want to 
just get posts with "bluetooth" in the subject line so I choose Quick 
Search.

And I get a bunch of results, but they range in date from 2001 to 2007 
then there options for "More looser matching",  "Last day", "In 2007, 
2008 only", "Today" and "New Search".

I can't find a way to prune the results to more recent posts.  Any 
suggestions?

Joe W

[OT] Electrostatic discharge

veegee — 2013-06-16T00:06:56

Is BBC posting garbage, or does any of this have any truth to it?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4252692.stm

Try to ignore the complete failure in use of physics terms (voltage,
current, charge) while you read.

Sounds like someone at BBC is trying to get back at his boss...

[EE] Favorite photo-voltaic opto-isolators?

Dwayne Reid — 2013-06-14T17:13:26

Good day to all.

I'm working on a project where I need to be able to turn OFF a relay 
that is controlling AC Mains voltage at a precise point on the AC 
waveform.  The incoming AC is either 120 or 240Vac.

Someone else had done a previous incarnation of this project and they 
used a standard electro-mechanical relay.  They compensated for the 
release time of the relay with an adjustable timer.

I'm leaning in the direction of using a pair of decent-sized MOSFETS 
back-to-back with a photo-voltaic opto supplying gate drive and 
another opto-isolator to either interrupt or short the gate drive to 
the MOSFETS.  This should give me sub-millisecond response and 
eliminate the need for manually adjusting a timer.

Digikey has a few photo-voltaic parts available and I'm just 
automatically selecting one that has sufficient output voltage (8V) 
and the maximum available output current (40uA) - its a Toshiba 
TLP191BF.  They also offer a 20uA version (TLP190BU) for a dollar less.

Before I actually go and order t

[EE] Weird Antenna

Herbert Graf — 2013-06-13T16:00:57

Hello everyone!

I was out for a bit and noticed this weird antenna pointed at the sky.
It is sitting next to a standard DBS dish.

Was wondering if anyone might know what this antenna is used for, what
is it pointing at? It's certainly nothing terrestrial due to the angle.

Thanks for any pointers!

[EE] Graphic LCD and Fonts

Manu Abraham — 2013-06-13T08:58:30

Hi,

Does somebody have an idea, how these fonts are generated ?

http://mbed.org/users/wim/code/SSD1308_128x64_I2C/file/fa18169dd7e6/font_16x24.h

I tried a few different applications, but none seem to generate a font this way.
Any ideas ?

Thanks,

Manu

[PIC] TMR1 16F628 gpsim

Martin G. McCormick — 2013-06-12T13:29:21

Is there a bug in gpsim that prevents TMR1 from counting
when receiving pulses from a stimulus file? In this case, TMR1
has T1CON set to 7 which is un-synced external input from RB6,
clock from RB6 and finally TMR1 is on.

gpsim shows TMR1 as never counting although you see RB6
cycling high and low like it needs to in the project at hand.

I can clear T1CON Bit 1 temporarily which switches the clock to the
system and TMR1 counts.

For those who have seen some of my other messages, I
may, and I stress may, finally have a system that will run
gnome. Gnome has a screen reader for computer users who are
blind but the question to answer will be, "Does mplab-x's output
play nicely with speech?" There's a lot of this stuff right now
that doesn't but I will report if it works. It depends on how
well the java works.

Martin WB5AGZ

[EE] PCB-solderable fastener?

Neil — 2013-06-11T23:38:28

Hi all,

I need to attach a PCB to a textured plastic panel without any visible  
fasteners in the front.  The only double-sided tape I can find that  
would handle the temps (say up to 200 deg-F) has a noticeable  
thickness, so leaves a gap that takes away from an otherwise clean  
appearance.

The PCB is a just a couple touch-pads and will have a thin vinyl decal  
over it, though which even PEMS-type studs would show.  Ideally, I'm  
looking for some type of screw stud that I can solder onto a pad on  
the back of the PCB, or perhaps some thin springy piece of metal that  
would easily accept solder, which I can bend to into a clip of some  
type.

The only springy metal I know is spring steel and quite sure it's not  
solderable -- at least not with they usual 63/37 or 60/40 stuff.  I  
need to do about 100 of these for now, so I'm ideally looking for  
something off-the shelf.  Any clues to workable materials, or perhaps  
a solder that would adhere to spring steel?

Cheers,
-Neil.

[OT]:: yrdy

RussellMc — 2013-06-11T22:01:20

Alas, it was an abject failure.
Lacking a properly formed, or any, subject tag it either went to
everyone or very few people, deep-ending which manual you are citing.

Please use subject tag [OT] for such things unless there is a very
good reason not to.

If there IS a good reason not to it may not belong on list at all, but
if it does then please explain why it is being sent to everyone or
almost nobody etc.


   Russell

[PIC] Rotary encoder, another pair of eyes would be helpful

Manu Abraham — 2013-06-11T12:26:01

Hi,

Rewrote the Rotary encoder for use with an 18F4550 in C18.

I can't really make out what is wrong in there. It looks as though
everything makes sense, but the result doesn't make sense,
ie the increments/decrements, I cannot see (at least 0-9)
Change is quite random.

The code is here:

http://goo.gl/Qm0Re

If someone could lend another pair of eyes, would be very helpful.


Thanks,

Manu

[EE] Rotary encoder

Manu Abraham — 2013-06-09T22:43:46

Hi,

What's the best way to decode a rotary encoder (gray code) output,
when the outputs of the encoder are connected to edge detectors
both of which result in an IRQ each ?
(in a microcontroller, of course)

(I have connected the decoder pins A&B to CCP1&2 of a PIC which
result in 2 IRQ's (ie; CCP1 and CCP2) on each state change)


Thanks,

Manu

[OT] Test

veegee — 2013-06-05T19:19:56

Just checking if my messages are going through.

[OT] Best way to attach uninsulated NiCr wire to a copper pipe?

veegee — 2013-06-05T06:22:17

Hi all,

I'm making a small melting tube that can quickly melt wax and pour on
demand. It's simply 3" long piece of 3/4" copper pipe with uninsulated
NiCr wire to be wrapped around it. What's the best way to wrap the NiCr
around the tube without shorting it? One option is high temperature
manifold paint, but I'd rather find a more thermally conductive (yet
electrically insulated) solution.

[PIC] Page appraisal

IVP — 2013-06-09T08:00:47

Hi all,

I've documented some work I've done with 128 x 64 LCDs and will
put it up as a Help page for some students who are familiar only with
bog-standard 16 x 2 alphanumerics

Here's the first draft

http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/joecolquitt/text2lcd.html

If you could look it over

- does it make sense ?
- is it arranged OK ?
- anything missing ?
- typos ?
- etc ?

If / when it passes muster I'll pass it on to James to include at PICList

TIA

Joe

[EE] SSD1308 addressing

Manu Abraham — 2013-06-08T08:37:22

Hi,

I hope at least some one on this list would have given a shot with
the SSD1308 OLED display.

Trying toget "Horizontal Memory Addressing Mode" working..

Does Horizontal Addressing Mode require a start and end like the
other two ?

According to the datasheet, once Horizontal mode is selected,
once can keep writing to the memory pages till the last mapped
segment. But somehow it doesn't seem to appear to be working
the way I am looking at it or understanding it.

ie, for me it is either not working or writing a single line.

Maybe my understanding is incorrect. Hope that someone with
a better understanding on it can shed a bit more light in there.


Thanks,
Manu

[OT] LED Array Power Supply

Grant Tudor — 2013-06-08T03:29:40

I have "inherited" a LED Array that is used as a grow light in a hot house
environment. The problem is that the power supply that comes with the array
has gone missing and the LED array has no markings so I am unsure what
brand it is. I have pulled apart the LED array and it consists of 15
parallel "strings" of LEDs. Each string consists of 15 LEDS (of which 11
are red and 4 are blue) and each string is terminated by a 47 ohm resistor.
Any suggestions as to what the power supply might be?
I am thinking that the current through each LED should be about 15mA so for
a single string of LEDs:
1.   the voltage drop across each red LED is about 1.8V so for 11 red LEDS
the voltage drop would be 11 x 1.8 = 19.8V
2.  the voltage drop across each blue LED is about 3.5V so for 4 blue LEDs
the voltage drop would be 4 x 3.5 =  14V
3.  the voltage drop across the 47 ohm resistor = 47 x 15mA = 0.7V
so the power supply voltage should be 19.8 + 14 + 0.7 = 34.5V and with 15
strings of LEDs the current should be 15 x 15mA = 240