Maybe I need to start a new post: Which processor is the easiest to graduate to from an 8-bit to start doing some highly educated management of my MMMMM's?
I have succeeded in controlling on/off speed/direction of my MMMMM's but I don't have any memory or processing power to do anything else!!
Right now, as a basis for comparison I have the following "conveniences:"
(1) I can edit, compile and program the 16F886 chip in less than 60-seconds. I simply unplug the DIP chip and pop it into my programmer and bingo!
That's very important to me, since MCU hardware programing is always full of unexpected surprises! (2)
5V supply. I cannot help but find it so easy to interface to and do A2D accurate work with and have a high noise-immunity.
(3)I can work with a CCBB (Common Chinese BreadBoard), makes it so easy to construct, modify any idea I have.
(4) I can make multiple PCB's each using a SOIC packaged version of a PIC MCU to make small modules; so each instantiation is something quite small enough and compact to fit into a tiny space of my robot.
(5) I can always aford'm find and buy a dozen, a large supply of (10x cheaper than Arduino) PICC chips when I blow the #!**$ out of one and still have enough money to buy a new dress at the end of the month. ( I have a large collection of somewhat zorched PICC chips, more than a dozen, in my parts drawer.) So this is what fits my tight budget that relies on salvaging parts form discarded electronic equipment and then buying new only what is necessary, practical and cheap.
What I don't have is any way to simulate my code. I have to just carefully and tediously examine the unexpected result, study my scope readout and then look over and over my code, then maybe a few hardware spike scope markers, that is all I have to try to make any sense out of whatever I am doing when it almost always does not do what I think it should be doing.
This does certainly slow down my catching up to Japan in robotics.Right now, if I attempt to use anything more than a few 7-segment approximations of display, and even using only a measly
16 chars of feedback, I quickly exhaust a great deal of the 8-KWords of program memory.
Right now,
if I try to do something interesting with my MMMMM's I cannot because I have run out of memory. Any attempt at a more than a very few floating point calculations to unleash the power of my hare-brained Al Gore Rhythms results in my program memory, processing speed and R/W ram space being sucked dry.
Ok, so I've tried the ATMEGA2560, its got more RAM, but with the ATMEL IDE 6.x. It take s'many mouse clicks here and there, and so more than a few minutes to make a minor edit of the source, exit, compile and download the code to the MCU. I'll have gray hair if I have to work that slow!
I also don't like the bulk of the Arduino board, it doesn't fit into the tight corners of my robot!
So what works well, is better, I donno?
? DO YOU?
p.s. If you don't know yet what a MMMMM is: look at my previous post. It's my moronic mutl-MCU modular approach to multi-motor management.