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Should we categorise the MCU section ?
Posted by
Simon
on 04 Apr, 2014 16:39
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I've been thinking, based on my own experience of this section wouldn't it be an idea to put categories in for the main popular MCU's or development platforms ?. I have been using AVR quite a lot but i end up posting on the AVR freaks forum as having this mishmosh of MCU section i tend to not take it seriously and i can see that being a large branch of electronics the section will fill and flow fast so people coming in to answer questions might miss them or not be bothered to read all through the stuff.
So if we had subsections then we know where to post and where to go to answer questions and this stay organized.
So question is should we have subforums for each major category. Naturally you can suggest the categories and we'd probably need to retain a general section for those odments.
My feelings would be:
C programming
AVR
PIC
ARM
Arduino
Picaxe
MSP430
etc......
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#1 Reply
Posted by
diyaudio
on 04 Apr, 2014 17:25
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Not a bad idea. however it means more administrator moderation people are generally lazy to even use the search feature. so its a toss.
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#2 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 04 Apr, 2014 17:27
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I'm not sure what you mean. From a moderation point of view it is the same, it just makes browsing easier and people who want to hangout discussion a particular micro will "have a place" to do so.
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#3 Reply
Posted by
diyaudio
on 04 Apr, 2014 18:33
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I'm not sure what you mean. From a moderation point of view it is the same, it just makes browsing easier and people who want to hangout discussion a particular micro will "have a place" to do so.
not when you a single admin person and lazy people are posting ARM stufff inside PIC topics msp430 topics inside ATMEL topics. you just have the same problem all over again.
Yeah thats what im saying.
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#4 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 04 Apr, 2014 18:38
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What are you on about ? I've hardly posted in the section at all. And compartmentalizing the various MCU families will help prevent this won't it ? your just arguing my point.
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#5 Reply
Posted by
diyaudio
on 04 Apr, 2014 19:11
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What are you on about ? I've hardly posted in the section at all. And compartmentalizing the various MCU families will help prevent this won't it ? your just arguing my point.
why you getting angry im not the admin dude, lol gizzz.
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#6 Reply
Posted by
pa2ees
on 04 Apr, 2014 19:16
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I'm for dividing up the MCUs. Add a 'general' section for those questions you just don't know where to put. I personally like PIC, and don't particularly like arduino (don't hate, I have my reasons), and I would like a place to 'hang out' with threads relevant to my interests.
- Erik
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#7 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 04 Apr, 2014 19:37
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What are you on about ? I've hardly posted in the section at all. And compartmentalizing the various MCU families will help prevent this won't it ? your just arguing my point.
why you getting angry im not the admin dude, lol gizzz.
Do you speak English, everything you say is totally nonsensical give us a clue?
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#8 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 04 Apr, 2014 19:40
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I'm for dividing up the MCUs. Add a 'general' section for those questions you just don't know where to put. I personally like PIC, and don't particularly like arduino (don't hate, I have my reasons), and I would like a place to 'hang out' with threads relevant to my interests.
- Erik
Yes that's basically my point although I'm more interested in AVR but I wouldn't want to mix it with Arduino has AVR would discuss things like actually setting the chip up and its registers whereas AVR would be more about higher-level programming.
But I would also like to see a general section on programming in C, this is one of the problems I had with AVR freaks I posted in the GCC section thinking that was right and got told to go stick it in the AVR section which made no sense because I was purely talking about C programming and writing functions with no relation to the actual microcontroller itself. Of course if there are other languages they could do with a section to although to be honest I haven't actually seen a successful basic language from microcontrollers but perhaps there are others.
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#9 Reply
Posted by
hans
on 04 Apr, 2014 19:52
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Apparently I'm one of the few who voted 0.
I like the way it is now. It sounds like more of a clutter to keep up with with less overview. I am still amazed people are scared of on subjects when they would read the word "Arduino". "No I don't want to read it" - that's fine but then don't open the thread. I wouldn't shop for Arduino stuff, but sure there are some interesting projects on the platform.
Most importantly; if this subforum has on average 5 active topics per day I am pretty sure each subforum will feel completely deserted except for 2-3 subforums (ARM/AVR/PIC) which will get all the attention. Does that motivate instead?
Moreover, I think the same philosophy should be applied to other forums as well. Should test equipment be divided? There are so many out there.. Bench scopes, USB scopes, handheld DMMs, bench DMMs, power supplies, function generators, RF equipment, optical equipment, power equipment (dummy loads etc), component testers, etc, etc etc.
Or divide up into brands? For the Rigol/Tek/Agilent fanboys.
I know the struggles (as I have ran some forums myself before) and what bigger sites have done to tackle this is have tags to each thread and let people browse on those. For example, questions on stackexchange often are tagged with maybe: embedded, C++, template, ARM, GCC. If people want to read all embedded threads, that's possible, but also narrow it down to ARM. I don't think SMF forums has this capability, though..
Too many subforums with little posts just makes the place feel deserted and uninterested, IMO.
Also, it would be a clutter for me personally to daily check each subforum on here, as I would have to open yet more tabs
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#10 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 04 Apr, 2014 20:00
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yes there is that side but when you have something specific like an MCU family theres not a lot to mix up so having a specific section for the more popular ones will help people find what they want and have somewhere dedicated to chat in, I'm hoping that once we categorise things it will attract more people. I see the mess that it is now so just head over to AVR freaks because i feel that there is more help there and knowledge, but that may be because there are a few popular pic or other mcu topics on the go so the avr stuff has been pushed to the bottom or off the page. If people know they can come straight in to a familair section they may be willing to hang out a bit more and so we will become more popular as a forum for mcu discussion of all kinds. It would then lend itself more to thinks like people writing tutorials or helpful posts that can be stickied in each MCU section so that common questions are answered.
Yes you right about the tests equipment, if you really think so then setup a poll there too and see what people think and if the reponse is positive Dave will start setting up categories there no doubt.
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#11 Reply
Posted by
JTR
on 04 Apr, 2014 20:21
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Please leave it alone. There is just no NEED to fix it, it aint broke. If there were a lot of posts then sure, but there isn't. What we have is a gentle stream of broad base micro stuff and it is actually a nice way to have your insights expanded. I would not typically look at an ARM forum but if there is an odd post here and there in front of me then it is easy, recreational click bait. This forum is unique like that and is just to small to be further divided at this time.
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#12 Reply
Posted by
rsjsouza
on 04 Apr, 2014 20:27
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+1 for leaving the section alone. I am interested in the subject "microcontrollers" in general and love to browse through the overall discussions. Also, IMHO I am unsure that every device has enough demand to create a subsection for it - in other words, some subsections may be very void of discussions and therefore not be very visible...
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#13 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 04 Apr, 2014 20:29
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Please leave it alone. There is just no NEED to fix it, it aint broke. If there were a lot of posts then sure, but there isn't.
Maybe that's because it's generic. Like i said I don't get the impression that it's a serious section so i personally go elsewhere, perhaps more feel like me that it's not being taken seriously enough.
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#14 Reply
Posted by
pa2ees
on 04 Apr, 2014 22:09
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I'm torn. On the one hand, compartmentalizing it would be great and handy for getting to the discussions you want. one for each popular micros, and a catch-all for the rest. I do like the idea of a C/Assembly forum (yes I still code some of my micros in assembly).
On the other hand, if the tags would work, that would be great (kinda like Gmail, which rocks), but would you have to tag your own post? some people could get abusive with that, and others wouldn't know what to do.
And finally on the third hand, breaking it up might make it quite sparse, and seem deserted, as some have commented.
Hmmmmm... I'd say
1. tags, if they are easy and seamless,
2. split it up otherwise.
3. I think the forum has room to grow, and I don't think we should leave it as is.
- Erik
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#15 Reply
Posted by
miguelvp
on 04 Apr, 2014 23:03
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Yeah, we could have C and Arduino and ATMEGA... wait, maybe that should go together, Microchip, Atmel (wait the other way around since Atmel is better), STMicro, Cypress nah that is the new kid, to the bottom with him. then FPGA , nah lets' split them Xilinx, Altera, z80, 80C51, C++, ASM, VHDL, Verilog, DSP nah just put blackfin since that's what everyone uses. ARM, Erlang, Haskell ... nah FPGA's using functional programming "unheard off!!!" the lunacy! Freescale, Mips ... TI, do thy even do chips anymore?? Toshiba? yamaha? uff got a headache already.
.. nah, leave it alone.
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#16 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 05 Apr, 2014 07:44
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Well we don't need to categorise down to the last part number, I'd put things that belong separate seperate. Like not too much point in putting arduino and AVR together as on avr it's more about the chips and programming them in C an arduino section will end up dealing more with actually writing basic code or using the arduino functions and libraries and people wanting to talk avr will get fed up with it. Sure we still need a catchall category and things will need broadly putting together in some cases. I doesn't have to happen all at once and suggestions are welcome.
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#17 Reply
Posted by
Christe4nM
on 05 Apr, 2014 11:26
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I haven't voted yet: on one side I think dividing is not necessary (yet), on the other side I think the following would be worth considering:
Keep a general section similar to the "General PCB/EDA/CAD Discussions" and add only 2 child boards being:
1) MCU related (i.e. MCU's, programming languages, compilers, MCU dev kits etc.)
2) Programmable Logic (i.e. FPGA, CPLD, Verilog, VHDL, FPGA/CPLD dev kits etc.)
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#18 Reply
Posted by
GeoffS
on 05 Apr, 2014 11:39
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The fewer subforums the better, less work for moderators to relocate misplaced posts.
The split between MCU and FPGA sounds like a good one.
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#19 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 05 Apr, 2014 11:45
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yea like the topic in this seciotn asking for PCB software recomendation. If people are going to be dumb they will. Yes certainly separate FPGA from MCU, it's so vague at the moment people seem to feel anything goes anyway.
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#20 Reply
Posted by
BravoV
on 05 Apr, 2014 11:45
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Voted no, reason, still not enough traffic per day to warrant multiple sections, I can still can read and see posts made few days ago in a single screen. (Default forum's setting on threads/screen)
From the moderation perspective for the forum as the whole, I think the "Test Equipment" section needs more considerations and thoughts in dividing into sections instead of here, cause interesting threads/posts usually will be drowned at the bottom so fast and like they're gone in there.
My 2 drops of solder worth.
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#21 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 05 Apr, 2014 11:47
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well like I said I was hoping it would attarct more MCU discussion, if it's in a generic section peolple feel their questions won't be taken seriolusly and will go elsewhere.
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#22 Reply
Posted by
nuhamind2
on 05 Apr, 2014 12:42
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+1 for MCU and programmable logic subforum
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#23 Reply
Posted by
diyaudio
on 05 Apr, 2014 19:30
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The fewer subforums the better, less work for moderators to relocate misplaced posts.
The split between MCU and FPGA sounds like a good one.
+1 down voted.
The diversity makes the forum feel more dynamic, and skilled people from various backgrounds offer alternative solutions and inputs.
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MCU/FPGA subs makes some sense.