> -----Original Message-----
> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On
Behalf
> Of V G
> Sent: 19 November 2010 05:58
> To: PICLIST
> Subject: [EE] BattMan
>=20
> Hey, what do you guys think of this project?
>=20
> http://www.stefanv.com/electronics/battman2.html
>=20
> I've been looking to make or buy a computer controlled battery
> charger/discharger with voltage/temperature monitoring.

I tend to avoid anything with a parallel port these days since modern
PC's don't come with integrated ports any more and the USB adapters are
often useless for bit bashed applications.

A USB equipped microcontroller would make a suitable controller e.g.
PIC18/24 or even one of the ARM parts as they are now so cheap.  This
way you can guarantee connectivity with any computer modern enough to
sport a USB port and virtually any operating system if you use one of
the pre-defined interface classes (e.g. HID).

The discrete DAC designs are interesting, but ultimately the performance
will be limited by the resistor matching and the logic gate output
matching.  A high resolution delta/sigma ADC can be bought quite cheaply
these days and would offer significantly better performance and come
with an industry standard 2 or 3 wire interface e.g. Microchip MCP3901
has two 16bit inputs, an SPI interface and costs $1.44.  Really not
worth rolling your own ADC's at this kind of price.

Regards

Mike

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