Need advice on an alternative mcu

[asgard20032]

I am now part of a team, developing a product. One of our mcu (PIC16F18855) is suppose to monitor the battery status , and offer some other information to the main mcu. (main cpu is one board, and there is the power board).  I was wondering if there is any micro that may be cheaper and more low power for the same role. I was thinking of an msp430g2553, but it happen to cost 1$ more.

[Xenoamor]

What do you need. What frequency, flash/RAM size, SPI/I2C/UARTS, ADCs, GPIO pin count, voltage tolerance

[wraper]

Check Silicon Labs sleepy bee, they cost significantly less than microchip MCUs.
http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/EFM8SB1_DataSheet.pdf
That is not classic 8051 core, only same instruction set, they are faster than 8 bit pic at the same clock speed.

[autobot]

Not only sleepy bee, i think the busy bee family is cheaper.

[wraper]

They all are cheaper, and have more goodies in them. Just Sleepy bee is what OP asked for (low power).

[dannyf]

Low power consumption is more of a software issue than a hardware issue.

For your applications, your MCU should be sleeping most of the time, and only waking periodically to make measurements. So try to pick one that has low sleep current and wakes up quickly.

I would look into the cm0 or cm0+ chips. Stm32L, efm, and even the lowly stm8L.

[asgard20032]

Frequency : as low as possible. Sleeping most of the time. Doing communication as slave i2c. Using some adc.

Just need as cheap/low power as possible. Nothing fancy.

Also, the price of the programmer/debugger is important. We don't want to spend 500$ on a programmer. 75$ Max.

[asgard20032]

Check Silicon Labs sleepy bee, they cost significantly less than microchip MCUs.
http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/EFM8SB1_DataSheet.pdf
That is not classic 8051 core, only same instruction set, they are faster than 8 bit pic at the same clock speed.

But is it more low power than a pic16f18855?

[wraper]

Compare the datasheets, there was a link. IMO it seem to have lower consumption while doing the same task. Note that µA/MHz current consumption is not directly comparable between them because EFM8 will need many times less clock cycles for doing the same amount of computation.

[ebclr]

0,18 USD is fine for you ?

STM8S003F3P6

Core
16 MHz advanced STM8 core with Harvard architecture and 3-stage pipeline
Extended instruction set
Memories
Program memory: 8 Kbyte Flash memory; data retention 20 years at 55 °C after 100 cycles
RAM: 1 Kbyte
Data memory: 128 bytes true data EEPROM; endurance up to 100 k write/erase cycles
Clock, reset and supply management
2.95 V to 5.5 V operating voltage
Flexible clock control, 4 master clock sourcesLow-power crystal resonator oscillatorExternal clock inputInternal, user-trimmable 16 MHz RCInternal low-power 128 kHz RC
Clock security system with clock monitor
Power managementLow-power modes (wait, active-halt, halt)Switch-off peripheral clocks individuallyPermanently active, low-consumption power-on and power-down reset
Interrupt management
Nested interrupt controller with 32 interrupts
Up to 27 external interrupts on 6 vectors
Timers
Advanced control timer: 16-bit, 4 CAPCOM channels, 3 complementary outputs, dead-time insertion and flexible synchronization
16-bit general purpose timers, with 3 CAPCOM channels (IC, OC or PWM)
8-bit basic timer with 8-bit prescaler
Auto wakeup timer
Window and independent watchdog timers
Communications interfaces
UART with clock output for synchronous operation, SmartCard, IrDA, LIN master mode
SPI interface up to 8 Mbit/s
I2 C interface up to 400 Kbit/s
Analog to digital converter (ADC)
10-bit ADC, ± 1 LSB ADC with up to 5 multiplexed channels, scan mode and analog watchdog
I/Os
Up to 28 I/Os on a 32-pin package including 21 high-sink outputs
Highly robust I/O design, immune against current injection

https://world.taobao.com/item/43177451657.htm?fromSite=main&ali_refid=a3_430620_1006:1110346096:N:STM8S003F3P6:37d2d1427d7dc66d9731122a0b031de2&ali_trackid=1_37d2d1427d7dc66d9731122a0b031de2&spm=a312a.7700714.0.0.mvajsm

[danadak]

Cypress PSOC. Low end PSOC 4 (M0), PSOC 5LP (M3), routable,
onchip Vref, DelSig to 20 bits or SAR to 12 bits, tons of "compo-
nents" (their word for HW features) all with lots of code APIs to control.
Linear, OpAmps, Comparators, IDE free, many boards $ 10, some
at $ 25.

Parts with DMA, Digital Filter, LCD, HW that can be created by GUI drag and drop
or use Verilog (it has FPGA like HW fabric on top of the standard HW blocks).

http://www.cypress.com/documentation/product-selector-guide-psg/product-selector-guide-psg-psoc-programmable-system-chip

Attached, depending on part, its catalog of component HW.

Roadmap      http://www.cypress.com/file/151476/download

Focus on PSOC 4, 5LP families.

Regards, Dana.

[amyk]

Frequency : as low as possible. Sleeping most of the time. Doing communication as slave i2c. Using some adc.

Just need as cheap/low power as possible. Nothing fancy.

Also, the price of the programmer/debugger is important. We don't want to spend 500$ on a programmer. 75$ Max.

One of the 8051s or even a 4-bit mask ROM MCU might suit your needs.

[krho]

I know that you said MCU, but just wondering does none of the chips in Texas instruments fuel gauge or battery management range suit your needs?

[gauravmp]

I know that STM32L4 are ultra low power chips that are very frequently used. Although I've never used them, I know some people have used them to monitor tire pressure in cars.