I've been on Piclist on an off since about 2006.  Other than the wonderful =
OT's we have, I most was into the PIC messages.

I had a couple of development boards, and a few other things.  I think that=
 the "best" thing I came up with was a serial connection between me and the=
 PIC board, connected to a stepper motor.  From a windows terminal, I could=
 enter L4 and it would go left 4 "steps".  And a few other very simple comm=
ands like that.  The PIC would read them and make the stepper motor do what=
 I told it to do.  All in PIC assembler.  Which I loved working with.  The =
PIC chips are wonderful computers to program.

But just knowing how to program a PIC was just more of the same for me.  I =
just had to understand things like PWM, I2C, analogue input, and all the ni=
ce IO stuff PICs can do. =20

I finally figured out how, after all these years of working with computers =
and also doing a lot of development, how a CPU really works.  By writing in=
 a very simple HDL, I was able to create NANDs to NORs to ANDs ORs XORs Mux=
's, up to a nice ALU.  I haven't done the next step, the CPU with all the o=
ther stuff in it.

Now I am focused on electronics.  Analogue electronics I mean.  I don't wan=
t to be wiring any logic gates if I don't have to, other than maybe a simpl=
e transistor latch.  I want to understand what all the resistors, capacitor=
s, and other analogue components do and how they work together.  I would li=
ke to be able to look at a schematic, point out a resistor or capacitor or =
transistor and have at least a good idea why it is there.

I think that with a breadboard, a good set of components, a multimeter and =
a USB scope, and the myriad books I have, plus kind help from this group, I=
 can now focus on learning how EE works.

I even  have an excel spreadsheet where I'm trying to keep all the math peo=
ple suggest to me.

I got me and my girlfriend a Lego Mindstorms for xmas.  Probably after the =
25th I will be moving my breadboards and other junk to a safe place for a w=
hile.  :-)  But then back to learning.  :-)

BR; Lindy


________________________________________
From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [piclist-bounces@mit.edu] on behalf of Herber=
t Graf [hkgraf@gmail.com]
Sent: 12 December 2013 18:25
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: RE: [EE] Help configuring a 555

On Thu, 2013-12-12 at 16:03 +0000, David C Brown wrote:
> Cost of 555:   50c
> Cost of PIC:    20c
> Cost of programmer,  $40
>
> Cheaper?

Cost of programmer for some: $0, since I already have one.

I don't know if the op has a programmer, if they don't it's not that big
a deal to get and will open up vastly more possibilities.

That said, knowing how to properly use a 555 is a valuable experience to
have. It all depends on where one is going with things.

TTYL


--=20
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