> I do see the Arduino platform taking the place of PICs in many=20
> hobby projects.  That isn't a bad thing - there is a place for both.

The schoolkids I mentor use Arduino, PICAXE etc, which does
distance them from the micro operation. All they know are the
high-level BASIC-type languages. It gets the job done and so my
attempts to get them to look deeper have largely been ignored as
too hard or unnecessary. Also, there are many very inexpensive
shields and plug-in modules, which distances them from firmware
design. If they need to do something that there isn't a ready-made
solution for, they're boned. Then you have to try and explain how
to select components and design a board

This might not be typical but ..... maybe it is typical

For instance, I helped a boy last year and made/gave him a couple
of steppers + controllers. The boards have the L297/L298 combo,
with a header for a micro's lines. A perfectly good set-up for what
he wanted to do.

One issue he got stuck on, and I and a forum helped with, was how
to detect that a shaft driven by one of the steppers had stalled. One
of my suggestions was measuring the stall current by way of the sense
resistors. Even a patterned disk would work, with a light sensor. Or a
10c magnet and $1 Hall Effect sensor.

I thought he'd got it but he recently revived the topic saying he was
looking at the DRV8825.

This has more user outputs than the L297, which on the face of it
makes it look easier for the user

https://www.pololu.com/product/2133

But he's talking about perhaps making his own board (TSSOP and
0201 components - yeah, right. Even *I'd* pause for thought)

A whole lot of probably impractical work that is more effort than
pursuing the original suggestions and solutions. I just don't know if
micros-for-the-masses helps them to think in any way at all. Being
a programmer since before there were all these "aids", I like to think
that's helped me tremendously to find solutions and feel a sense of
accomplishment doing it "the hard way", not just copy something
from a CD of projects

Joe


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