New engine controller

[mobile_bob]

i certainly am no expert on micro controllers, but have been working with the bs2 stamp for the last couple years
and here is my take

even at 50bucks each they are a real bargain for small runs, i might have a differing opinion if i were to want to market
a product where the need would be hundreds or thousands

on projects that are one offs, prototypes and the like, the bs2 stamp is hard to beat.

can't think of another controller that is so well supported, easier to use, and program

so i guess it comes down to saving 45 bucks by going with a pic chip

how much is my time worth?

personally i would rather spend 45 more dollars and have a product that is so much simpler to integrate

but i know everyone has an opinion on that,

alternatively is the cubloc product at about 35bucks is about the best of both worlds, the ability to program
in their version of basic or ladder or a combination of both make them pretty cool
and they have all the pc boards one likley would need to put together all sorts of control schemes.

damned hard to beat their board prices such as the cb220 proto board, at 5 bucks and it is compatible with
the 24 pin bs2 product.

i am finally at the stage, and have all the bits/pieces, actuators, sensors, rack, module cases together to start
the full on control system which will not only autostart the trigen but manage AC, DC charging, refrigeration, heat and A/C,
solar input, wind input, battery management, and full load managment as well so that the engine is kept at peak operating
efficiency.

i am going the multiprocessor master/slave route so that i can attain true parallel processing

Its taken a very long time to get to this point and i am looking forward to starting the assembly.

now if i can just get the kid well, get the wife healed up, and get through another round of spinal injections on me, then
finish up the "exhaust heat exchanger" plans for those that have expressed interest,, i can get started on this stage of the project.

i think it is really neat that there are so many working on control systems for their applications

bob g

[MacGyver]

Hey Bob, I've got nuthin against the Basic Stamps...  I've used *LOTS* of them in various projects. Heck, the controller for my reflow oven (that I use to solder PIC's) still uses a BS2. 
But I used enough of them that it no longer made sense for me NOT to migrate to the PIC's.  The various flavors of PICs have on board ADC's, voltage comparators, hardware PWM outputs and about a zillion other features that make them *very* handy to use with a minimum of external IC's, which helps reduce board complexity and additional cost. 
Performance? A BS2 performs (if memory serves correctly) about 3000 instructions per second.  Most PIC's can perform a million or more instructions per second. They are WAY faster!

And the $4 vs $50 cost factor is rather hard for me to ignore. ..

I'm not a great programmer, but I can hammer stuff out in Basic pretty well so I finally bought myself a Basic compiler for the PIC's and now I have the best of both worlds.... the easy to use language that Basic Stamps enjoy, AND all the excellent peripheral features, much higher performance, and dirt cheap cost of the PIC's. And I can work on learning assembly language as my mood and time permits...or not... my choice.  In the mean time, Basic works fine for most of my needs with a little ASM thrown in as needed.


So... anybody wanna *buy* some Basic Stamps?  I've got a bunch of "extras" in my Stamp bin that I'll probably put on fleabay soon.
Make me an offer.   Lets take a look in the bin and see what's still in there....

NEW:
1ea. BS1 (new, 14 pin sip)
2ea. BS2p  (new, 24 pin dip)
1ea. BS2e (new 24 pin dip)
1ea. BS2sx (new 24 pin dip)
4ea. BS2p40 (new, 48-QFP) (Parallax P/N SX48W/P40

USED:
1ea. BS2p (good used, 24 pin dip)
1ea, BS2 (good used, "OEM style")

Hmmm. I'm surprised there aren't any of the "standard" BS2's left. I used to have a bunch of those. Maybe I've got another bin somewhere.

Anyway, how many can I sign you up for Bob? 

[mobile_bob]

i got about a dozen of the bs2 rev G and a couple of the  bs2p

let me do some checking i might be up for some of what you have.

i haven't stretched my wings to the pic chips yet, mainly because there is so much available
to plug and play with the stamp, saving me from either making pc boards or having them made.

but that may very well change at some point,

i can certainly see the benefit to the pic controller having all the built in functions, and the lower cost
certain applications (slave modules) could benefit from their use for sure.

using the master/slave scheme the need for processing a million lines of code per second has not presented itself
as necessary in my opinion.

but that may very well change too

maybe i ought to take another look at the pic and a basic compiler?
any suggestions for getting into the pic controller that doesn't have a horrible steep learning curve?

bob g

[jzeeff]

If anyone wants some Arduino programming done, let me know.  I used to program engine controllers for Ford.  Temp, rpm, pressure, volts, CO gas, throttle position, air flow, etc are possible.