I came across Little Bits (http://www.littlebits.cc/) somewhere in my webdrifting and I think these are an awesome idea. I don't know how sturdy it would be, but maybe it can get the younger generation into playing with electronics and not just trusting the boxes that share our living space aren't planning to join in the coming war between man and the Brotherhood of Machines.
At work, we are moving from high priced specialty DSP's(That seem to get obsoleted with out a drop in replacement about a month after the design is finalized) to PIC's and AVR's. Mostly because they are cheaper. If the board breaks down, they just chuck it and get a new one. On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 7:07 PM, Frank Pittelli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > > Doug Conn wrote: > > I think the C6C is nifty, but would you and Joe have gone through all the > > effort if you had only planned to use it yourselves and not make it a > > product ? In that case it probably would have made more sense to shell > out > > the extra $100 for a commercial product. > > Negative. The C6C is clearly a hobby product (I'm definitely not going > to retire - or even eat well - on the profits from it), but it is still > worth while to develop on an inexpensive, modular platform. > > After over 25 years as a professional programmer, I can assure you that > the amount of time spent coding a cheap micro-controller is basically > the same as coding an expensive micro-computer ... neither one saves a > significant amount of development time. Compilers, available libraries, > development environments, and the testing cycle is roughly the same > these days for all platforms. > > But, when you start designing things with modular hardware, you get a > *big* payoff in terms of flexibility and architectural evolution over > the long term. That is, modular hardware lets you move up and down the > complexity spectrum very easily, while larger, more powerful monolithic > hardware prevents you from easily solving simple problems. > > For example, Joe built his ESC first to solve an immediate need. An ESC > is a medium-easy component and all the lessons learned from it apply up > and down the spectrum. When someone asked about a simple relay trigger > one day, Joe grabbed a smaller PIC, grabbed some routines from the ESC > software and quickly developed a production-ready servo relay switch. > Then, when we chatted about gamepads as input devices, he jumped up on > the complexity spectrum, grabbed a more powerful PIC, copied some > routines from the previous projects and developed the first C6C. Three > different problems, three different complexity levels and three > different inexpensive solutions ... all using the same development > techniques, baseline code routines and all interoperable. > > Therein lies the power of the micro-controller approach. > > The only thing a micro-computer platform (or these "packaged" PIC > platforms) does for you is eliminate the need to create your own PCBs, > but that also locks you into solving problems just with the hardware the > package gives you. So, they cram more and more hardware options on the > board, thereby driving the price up, even though it is highly unlikely > that *any* application actually uses all of the hardware on the board. > > I have been monitoring the new generation of modular high-level > components (e.g., tinker-toy electronics) which provide a family of > well-defined components that can be integrated with each other easily. > There are lots of good benefits to such an approach and the only wiring > required is point-to-point or bus based, thereby eliminating the need to > create PCBs. But, unfortunately, they all seem to be aimed at the > educational robotics market currently, with a hefty price tag per > component, making the final solution even more expensive than a > micro-computer approach. > > Frank P. > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
