DS1077 programmable oscillator

welcome back to another ultra-interesting post! :D today we gonna waste our time talking about a DS1077, a programmable oscillator just arrived from the free sample foundation :p anyway, I wont talk long about the chip, RDFM (https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Components/SMD/DS1077.pdf).

LOW PIN COUNT USB compatible board

Here I am again! this time I'll show you how to build a USB demoboard like the Microchip USB LOW PIN COUNT... save your money, DIY!

Almost every Raspberri Pi owner uses it without a monitor/keyboard attached to it... One simple option is controlling the (mini)computer by ssh or directly by an iphone (thanks to xbmc + airplay, GREAT invention!). Anyway, after listening hour of justin bieber music you could think... "and now, how the hell I can turn this off?" after some moments of hard-thinking you end up with the simplest solution: unplug the power, no matter if the (poor) system tells you every time "the system was not shut down properly".

Next move: use google to search for "raspberry power off button". One of the most interesting site you could find is: http://www.3cc.org/blog/2013/01/raspberry-pi-shutdown-switch-safely-turning-off-the-pi/. Perfect! i will use the code reported there to turn off my very special media player! let me see the code... 






                                                                                         

scheda PICDEM FS USB compatibile

Volendo imparare a usare il controller USB dei microcontrollori Microchip, ho iniziato a guardarmi intorno per qualche esempio di applicazione. Ho trovato un prodotto della stessa Microchip, il PICDEM FS USB, che monta un microcontrollore della serie 18f4550 e permette di utilizzare le funzionalità offerte da questo a partire da un po' di esempi da usare con MPLAB.

Il problema di questa scheda è il costo, così ho deciso di costruirmi un clone da solo.

How to use 4 HARDWARE PWM on a PIC @ 50hz

simplified block diagram of PWM operation 
(from PIC 16F1509 datasheet)

Do you need to use a servomotor with a PIC (with the PWM modules integrated in it)? it could be a problem, since servomotor works around 50Hz, which is a really-slow frequency.

I'll use the PIC 16F1509, teach you the basics, so you can arrange the code to other PICs too.

My new project (lucky me) needs 4 hardware implemented PWM source, but I noticed that the pic microcontrollers usually have just 2 or 3 PWM modules. then I discovered this useful page: http://www.microchip.com/maps/Microcontroller.aspx which allows you to perform a parametric search over the complex pic-world. I ended up with the PIC 16F1509, which seems to be perfect: USART, 4PWM, comparator, 18 I/O pins, ADCs AND software selectable frequency for the internal oscillator!