Newbie question, should I use a microcontroller for this?

[Rover1]

Hi there, this is really a great forum such as I'm quite new to electronics and would appreciate your opinion

I'm making a bar graph tachometer for my nephew's soapbox racer, and am using a LM2917 freq.-voltage and an LM3914 to drive the led display. But as I was putting everything together I was just wondering, if I took the time to learn how to program a microcontroller, wouldn't the package be smaller more simple?

Provided programming a microcontroller is a non issue for you, would you use a micro controller for this application or would you stick with the IC's?

Thanks for your help !

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Hi there, this is really a great forum such as I'm quite new to electronics and would appreciate your opinion

I'm making a bar graph tachometer for my nephew's soapbox racer, and am using a LM2917 freq.-voltage and an LM3914 to drive the led display. But as I was putting everything together I was just wondering, if I took the time to learn how to program a microcontroller, wouldn't the package be smaller more simple?

Provided programming a microcontroller is a non issue for you, would you use a micro controller for this application or would you stick with the IC's?

The difference is only down to one IC as against two (it's often a much higher ratio), and the two IC solution is already commonplace so there's no real work involved. To do it with a micro-controller would require you learning to program it, or downloading existing code and circuit from somewhere.

Personally, I would suggest you do BOTH - build the LM3914 version, because it won't take you long - then you can spend some time learning to use a micro-controller to create an improved version!.

 

[philba]

I agree with nigel - be pragmatic.

this is, of course, the perfect opportunity to justify learning uCs. You will discover new applications like logging the performance of the racer and then using this ability to test different things (like lubricants, bearings, wheels, weighting, etc). Being able to see performance at each stage of the run is much better than just the overall time.

 

[Rover1]

Thanks again gentlemen you got me excited about the possiblities

 

[Russlk]

If you are going to use the LM3914, I suggest you use a DC generator for the tachometer, it will eliminate one IC. any DC motor can be used as a generator (well, I don't know about brushless motors).

 

[DirtyLude]

That's a good idea, but I wouldn't want to add any drag, even just a pager motor to a competitive gravity racer.

 

[spuffock]

I'd go for the microcontroller because I know where they are. Finding the other chips amongst the clutter would be a pain.
( Watch Nigel have a go at me for running a museum!)