Hullo Mike! > Wow!! Can I suggest a rethink. Look at an I2C (pronounced eye- > squared-see) data book. The I2C is a 2wire protocol that supports I'm a little confused about I2C. Is this an actual IC chip that I need to connect to the PIC? Or do I use this instead of the PIC? Can you recommend any web-sites or manufacturers of this (if it is a chip) please. > on writes. What sort of motor control? stepper/servo? can do in i2c. Not quite sure if I'm going to use a stepper motor or a regular motor with a hall effect sensor. I want to spin a plate around and send out burst of data (PIC to PIC communication) 45 or 90 degree increments (ie send out a burst at: 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degress) I was think of using the hall effect sensor to sync up when I reach 0 degrees (cheaper than a stepper motor....I think). > Urr, are you using an integrated chip/display? These offer differing > address modes serial/nibble/byte sometimes. Only other reason to read > would be to do a dump of the contents of the display, or the char gen - with > a view to doing read/modify/write to either one. I would be using a standard integrated chip/display (Sharp or Seiko or Optrex 2 x 16 LCD display) > clear wdt. eg latter case - if you have noise prone design micro can latch > up so a s/w reset won't fix - or brownouts will stop it working too. If its > a life or death thing (and it better not be - it can't checksum itself) then > an external wdt is the way to go. The DS1232 is a micromonitor chip which will provide 3 functions: 1) Power monitor for brown outs. 2) Watchdog 3) Push button reset Any of the 3 conditions will produce a 250mS reset pulse. I wish to do all three. >> 2) The timer for PIC to PIC serial >> communication > > Async (RS232) or sync? The latter is probably easier and faster. If you > dont need speed, you could put both on i2c bus - it is multi-master. (but, I will be doing sync communication. I just want to use 2 lines (data & gnd) as I may want to do this over an RF link in the future. I not using RS232. Speed is not really a concern. I bought "Easy Pic'n" and "Pic'n up the Pace" and PIC to PIC communication is implemented by using the timer. I thought perhaps I could use this. But of course I am open to better or alternate ways of achieving this. I guess my main question was can I do all three items as they all use the timer in some way. > You're using a connector to connect to your ICP, right? How about making it > something like a 10 way dil ribbon connector. When not in program mode use > links to route thru to your regular cct. Its a lo tech soln, but sometimes > they are ok. Depends on skill of assemblers. I guess I'm going overboard. I was thinking of the circuit automatically switching to ICP mode once the connector was plugged in and switching back to normal mode with the connector removed. I'm using an 8 position RJ45 connector as the ICP port. I have since given up the automatic mode and installed 2-position jumpers to isolate the circuit. > What IS it? If I tell you....... I will have to kill you! ;) Just kidding, it is actually a remote data logger/transmitter. > If i2c is not for you, let me know, and I'll see where the mux techniques > lead. Still thinking about mux as I don't know too much about I2C. Can you send info please. Thanks in advance! -Randie /*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/ */ Randie Ohtsji /* /* Glenayre R&D, Vancouver, BC CANADA Phone: (604) 293-1611 x4555 */ */ Email: rohtsji@glenayre.com Fax: (604) 293-4317 /* */ ________ /* /* / ____/ /__ ____ ____ ___ _________ */ */ / /___/ / _ \/ __ \/ __ `/ / / / __/ _ \ /* /* / /_\ / / __/ / / / /_/ / /_/ / / / __/ */ */ \____/_/\___/_/ /_/\__,_/\__ /_/ \___/ /* /* ________________________/ / */ */ /_________________________/ /* /*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/