I would strongly encourage making the interface board in the SimmStick form
factor. This opens the design to anyone using a DonTronics controller board,
thus to PIC and Atmel microcontrollers.

This would, of course, also allow the use of the USBSIMM. Then one version
of this workbench tool would be accessible via the USB port on a PC.

-Rob
http://usbsimm.home.att.net


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Michaels [mailto:oricom@LYNX.SNI.NET]
> Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2000 1:59 PM
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: Jim Newton's Idea
>
>
> [This is breaking away from the previous "Re: An Idea ..." thread,
> which was getting rather long and diverse, to pursue ideas Jim
> Newton expressed earlier].
>
> At 09:50 AM 2/17/00 -0800, you wrote:
> >
> [snip]
> >Nice unit (1-chip testbench) you have there! Lots of
> function for little
> >price. Now, if you can just add device programming,
> bootloader (have to go
> >open source for that don't you?), monitor, debug, and
> improve your user
> >interface software.... What do you sell the bare board for?
> >
> >---
> >James Newton mailto:jamesnewton@geocities.com 1-619-652-0593
> >http://techref.massmind.org NEW! FINALLY A REAL NAME!
> >Members can add private/public comments/pages ($0 TANSTAAFL
> web hosting)
> >
>
> Jim,
>
> Thanks for the compliment about the PIC Monitor chip (aka the 1-Chip
> TestBench). I've been thinking about putting it on a board along with
> PIC ISP hardware. The Monitor chip, via a host PC shell, would be
> used to immediately test & stimulate the target PIC, onced programmed.
>
> The PIC Monitor chip has register/port view/mod, 50 Khz 5-channel
> oscilloscope, 1 Mhz logic analyzer, PWM, pulse counter, and 5 Mhz
> generator routines built-in. You can display waveforms in
> pseudo-graphics format on a terminal emulator screen, accessing
> the Monitor interactively, or send as a data block to a PC shell
> program (not currently available).
>
> There are several ways to go with creating a complete system around
> the Monitor chip:
>
> 1) Design the ISP h.w. as a knockoff of some shareware PIC programmer,
> so the Monitor/test part would be independent from the programmer,
> and the Monitor would not need to be modified. No open-source
> required,
> and people could use available 3rd party dev tools and programmer h.w.
> design.
>
> 2) Build a downloader (and maybe '87x debug capability) into
> the Monitor
> chip, in which case, the unit is now a new programming device
> incompatible
> with others (probably needing to provide open-source for the
> Monitor, etc).
>
> Either way, the pcb could be laid out with op amps for signal
> conditioning, bare proto space, power, etc. The PC shell could be a
> dumbed down version of my Pocket TestBench s.w.
>
> The pcb alone would be about 3"x5" and sell for at least $20+. In
> smallish quantities, such boards cost $20/ea from APC (10 bds
> @ 3"x5"x$0.7
> + $2/xtra holes + $48/setup + $25/shipping). Add another $20-30 for
> the Monitor chip + shell s.w.
>
> Then, users wire up about $10 in parts, and they've got a complete
> programming/test facility. Good for people without a fully-equipped
> work bench. Also, slightly more portable than an entire work bench.
>
> OTOH, the MPLAB & ProPIC2 ICDs are so cheap, $159, this may
> not be such
> a good idea. OTOH, the ICDs don't have a test/stimulate capability
> built-in.
>
> - Dan Michaels
> Oricom Technologies
> http://www.sni.net/~oricom
> ===============
>