Lawrence Lile wrote:
>Well, for my nickel, ICSP will be more important than the ULN2803 hooked to
>port B.  I'll probably plan on hacking out the RB6 and RB7 pins somehow, and
>adding an ICSP header *somewhere* .  I'm going to have another support board
>nearby anyway because my battery charger is going to reside mostly on the
>'Bot.
>

Hi Lawrence:

On the new go round, I have room for an ICSP header. Std pinout,
no RB3.

Regards the ULN2803, this chip really adds a lot of versatility to
the design. How about direct driving 8 LEDs at 500 mA, or a unipolar
stepper motor, or relays for hi-V switching, etc.

Also, all of the RB pins are already hackable - you can jumper them
straight to header HDR3, and cut the traces to the 2803 inputs
without disrupting the trace to the header.
=============

>
>I'd say ICSP is on my list of 2nd generation pic-o-botboard features.
>Pretty much all my develpment now is done with a PIC16F877, serial LCD,  and
>ICSP, and I port it to whatever micro I will use eventually.
>

This board has a MAX232, so it would probably be possible to directly
connect to a "serial" LCD if you like.
=============

>
>My personal I/O list for a bot will be something like:
>
>2 H bridges ( Got em on the botboard) for wheel motors
>1 driver for a high current switch (could just be a single port pin) for
>mowing head motor
>RS232  for serial LCD
>10-12 switch inputs  (mostly bump switches and a keyswitch, tiltswitch)
>Possible  2 A/D for charger
>1 D.O. for charger
>ICSP
>
>I'll not bother with the botboard's 12C and the ULN2803 diver chip, opening
>up enough I/O for ICSP and all those inputs.   Other than that it looks like
>it will meet my needs pretty well.
>

You basically have it all here - extra RS232 chan, 4 switches on R-network
to A/D RA3, 6 direct digital I/O, and 8 pins on HDR3 that can be used for
port B direct, ULN2803 driver, or servo connection. MORE than you asked for
:).

Ummm - what's a D.O. ??? [something obvious no doubt].

thanks,
- dan michaels
www.oricomtech.com
===================

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