On Wed, 1 May 1996, Prashant Bhandary wrote:

> This is addressed to all PIC gurus on the list. The application is, you
> guessed it, a DCC decoder which fits inside a tiny train. I am looking
> for suggestions/ideas/advice.
> Regards
>
> Prashant
>lots of snips--------------------------
> P.S. Looks like Digikey sells single 10 MHz SMT PIC 16C84s. Anybody know of a
> source in my neck o' the woods(Australia)? The supplier here wants a minimum
> order of 126 pieces and this part is not popular enough for a bulk buy. Any
> suggestions, Don?

Bob Nicol of Microzed in Armidale has a bigger stock of PIC parts than I
do, although SMT may also be a problem for him. I have never stocked them
for similar reasons. If that other mob has a stock of 4Mhz versions or
you have some, you could try pushing the chip speed a little.

With DIP parts, I have the 84/04 running off an 8Mhz crystal. Take your
pick out of the box. Any piece will work. When I told Gary Barnes of
Perth WA about this he sent me a little prototype board he had made up.

It has one of those 4 pin canned oscillators (ttl characteristics) and
will run any 84/04/P at 12 Mhz!!!

If you sent a man to the moon with it, watch out for legal stuff because
of manufacturers specs., but for 'you and I' projects, who cares!, as
long as it works 100%.

As I am sure you will be up against no stock in Australia. Do what I do,
go through digikey if you really need small quantities in a hurry at a
reasonable price.

Hope this is of some help. Don...

Don McKenzie donmck@labyrinth.net.au
DonTronics Tullamarine, Australia
http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~donmck

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