PIC and BITS
Posted 18th June 2008 at 10:26 PM by Mikebits
While the advent of devices like the AVR and PIC microcontrollers have enabled the hobbyist to implement their vision into a real world working piece of hardware, it has also become a substitute for a solid knowledge of digital circuits and design by some.
The digital circuit hobby designer has become a black box, embedded code designer, and may lack the rudimentary knowledge of digital hardware design. Don’t get me wrong; there are many PIC and AVR users that do have a good digital design foundation, but use the embedded approach out of convenience. Often however; a budding hobbyist learns the ways of the black box art without much knowledge of digital design. The latter situation becomes apparent when a person inquires about building a divide by N circuit, and the response is often, “Use a PIC”. To me this seems silly when a simple logic device would suffice.
If a hardware engineer were to suggest such a solution for a production unit, he/she would be thrown out on their ear.
So I guess I should have a point here. Not only is implementing an embedded solution often overkill, it also becomes a crutch. I think all electronic hobbyists should develop a strong digital background before jumping on the embedded PIC wagon.
The digital circuit hobby designer has become a black box, embedded code designer, and may lack the rudimentary knowledge of digital hardware design. Don’t get me wrong; there are many PIC and AVR users that do have a good digital design foundation, but use the embedded approach out of convenience. Often however; a budding hobbyist learns the ways of the black box art without much knowledge of digital design. The latter situation becomes apparent when a person inquires about building a divide by N circuit, and the response is often, “Use a PIC”. To me this seems silly when a simple logic device would suffice.
If a hardware engineer were to suggest such a solution for a production unit, he/she would be thrown out on their ear.
So I guess I should have a point here. Not only is implementing an embedded solution often overkill, it also becomes a crutch. I think all electronic hobbyists should develop a strong digital background before jumping on the embedded PIC wagon.
Total Comments 3
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I think taking the easy way is better sometime, don't you agree. Most non-electrical people face difficuilty assembly or understanding circuit. I think for hobbyist and people who are interested in electrical can start easy and the explore as they move on.
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Posted 21st June 2008 at 01:09 AM by uaefame
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I agree Mikebits.The new generation doesn't know anything about digital circuitry.They starts from micro controllers & dropping always down the digital side due to lack knowledge of their digital knowledge.But they will meet the problems when they do higher designs on their embedded systems.
Also on the other hand there is some jealous on new kids from the old persons because now the time is past for them to learn the micro stuff.But they can do lots of wonders with their knowledge. The hell of a technology growing very fast.Its also impossible to adapt to the latest technology suddenly. I never throw my digital stuff thats the strength to embedded stuff. For newbies at least learn even one digital part while doing the embedded stuff. |
Posted 26th June 2008 at 07:49 AM by Gayan Soyza
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As a 2005 Purdue CompE graduate, I can say that a lot of people go into microcontrollers because they are way easier to debug, so many things can go wrong when prototyping on a bread board.
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Posted 27th June 2008 at 10:58 AM by transistance
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