Post by David Murray on Jan 21, 2005 22:48:56 GMT -5
Okay.. I've been thinking this for months but been to shy to ask about it. First let me explain that I am building a life-sized shuttlecraft from Star Trek in my back yard. Here is a website with some pictures and more information about it.
galaxy22.dyndns.org/shuttlecraft
Okay, giggles, pointing and laughing aside.. I've been considering buying a microcontroller and having it monitor several environmental aspects and control them. For example, I'd like to monitor temperature of the outside, inside, and hull. I'd like to be able to control (through relays) turning on and off of the heat and cooling systems. I'd like to also be able to control different vents that will be opened or closed electrically. Monitoring of main system voltage would be nice, Lighting would be good, and even an alarm system. I could probably think of a hundred things. You get the idea.
I thought of a Commodore 64 (or even Vic20 or Plus4) a year ago when I conceived the idea but decided against them because the power requirements were too irritating. They need two different regulated voltages plus 60 hz oscillation. Too much of a pain for me.
The DTV certainly has some attractive qualities as a microcontroller. For one, it is super easy to power from battery. It is also very small and requires no cooling for the most part. It also has a vast array of toos for programming and I already know how to program a Commodore so that takes a huge learning curve from the microcontroller. Also it the benefit of a PS/2 keyboard and a Composite or S-video output that is very versitile. I could esily design a graphical program for interfacing. It has two built-in POTs and quite a few digital input lines from things like joystick and those four buttons A,B,C, & D. Heck there is even a lightpen.. (I've asked about this before)
The disadvantages seem to be the fact that I would need to grind down epoxy and solder lines to interface any type of I/O that could run relays or anything. Also the fact that I boots up to a screen which isn't very desirable for my spaceship unless I hold down the K key and load the program from disk (in this case, I'd probably use an X-1541 cable to my main thingypit computer to load the program from) and it would stay running 99% of the time and rarely require a reboot.
What would be cool is if the chip itself were available in a DIP package.. that would be a dream.
Anyway.. I think I'm getting the idea across. Anybody who is experienced in embedded devices have any suggestions for me? Is it too much of a pain? Should I just go with an off-the-shelf microcontroller and learn to program it or is it worth the time to try adding the required hardware to this thing... Or.. Is there maybe an easy, effective way to combine the DTV with a microcontroller that already has a lot of inputs and outputs? Yet I could take advantage of the video and audio features of the DTV? Or does anybody think maybe the Nintendo-on-a-chip is easier to get and work with?
--DavidM
galaxy22.dyndns.org/shuttlecraft
Okay, giggles, pointing and laughing aside.. I've been considering buying a microcontroller and having it monitor several environmental aspects and control them. For example, I'd like to monitor temperature of the outside, inside, and hull. I'd like to be able to control (through relays) turning on and off of the heat and cooling systems. I'd like to also be able to control different vents that will be opened or closed electrically. Monitoring of main system voltage would be nice, Lighting would be good, and even an alarm system. I could probably think of a hundred things. You get the idea.
I thought of a Commodore 64 (or even Vic20 or Plus4) a year ago when I conceived the idea but decided against them because the power requirements were too irritating. They need two different regulated voltages plus 60 hz oscillation. Too much of a pain for me.
The DTV certainly has some attractive qualities as a microcontroller. For one, it is super easy to power from battery. It is also very small and requires no cooling for the most part. It also has a vast array of toos for programming and I already know how to program a Commodore so that takes a huge learning curve from the microcontroller. Also it the benefit of a PS/2 keyboard and a Composite or S-video output that is very versitile. I could esily design a graphical program for interfacing. It has two built-in POTs and quite a few digital input lines from things like joystick and those four buttons A,B,C, & D. Heck there is even a lightpen.. (I've asked about this before)
The disadvantages seem to be the fact that I would need to grind down epoxy and solder lines to interface any type of I/O that could run relays or anything. Also the fact that I boots up to a screen which isn't very desirable for my spaceship unless I hold down the K key and load the program from disk (in this case, I'd probably use an X-1541 cable to my main thingypit computer to load the program from) and it would stay running 99% of the time and rarely require a reboot.
What would be cool is if the chip itself were available in a DIP package.. that would be a dream.
Anyway.. I think I'm getting the idea across. Anybody who is experienced in embedded devices have any suggestions for me? Is it too much of a pain? Should I just go with an off-the-shelf microcontroller and learn to program it or is it worth the time to try adding the required hardware to this thing... Or.. Is there maybe an easy, effective way to combine the DTV with a microcontroller that already has a lot of inputs and outputs? Yet I could take advantage of the video and audio features of the DTV? Or does anybody think maybe the Nintendo-on-a-chip is easier to get and work with?
--DavidM