Microcontrollers

I once worked on an HP1000 minicomputer used for Automatic Test Equipment (ATE). It was used for periodic testing on items. A lot of circuit interface were made, and programming done for each item that needed to be tested. This took many man hours. I was hired because of my knowledge of microcomputers and they were about to put some microcomputers in the products that they were testing. Everybody was catching up to what micros could do. So, I proposed that if we get a micro development system and build a few programable controller systems we would not have spent as much time on circuit design. HP like the idea because we used there first micro development system. I also like machines that can react to you or does something physical. This will bring me back to one of the reasons I keep taps on what microcontrollers are doing. I did take a double look when I saw that microcontrollers were being used for emulating some of my favorite retro 8bits. I looked even harder when reading articles that showed that it was cheaper to program an Atmel microcontroller to act as a 555 timer.

When I started doing stuff with microcontrollers, most of it was opensource. This make things simpler to startup. There is a lot out there. I started with a Beaglebone Black because it seemed a lot more professional. When I got my first Raspberry Pi, I thought more fun to play with. I then got a few Arduino’s just because that’s what started the opensource microcontroller stuff. This is normal for me to start backwards. This is how I started with electronics, intergraded circuits, transistors, and then tubes.

I am now using an Arduino like kit call Microduino. I use it because it is like a small hardware software development system. It has small little units call cookies that can be stacked on top of each other. Microduino uses magnets to keep it together and spring like fingers to make electrical contact. Very easy to add remove components.