magna said:
Hello
I'm new to this whole "PIC" world although have a fairly good understanding of programming (vb/etc).
I need to create a device that will read voltage from a signal, and possibly output a voltage aswell.
What would be the best PIC to use for this scenario?
You requirements are too vague, you need to give much more detail about exactly what you want to do.
I see there's been a lot of 'anti-PIC' responses :lol: so I'd better do a 'pro-PIC' reply!.
Firstly, as already mentioned, a PIC is only one of many micro-controllers, but their cheap price and ease of programming has made them one of the most popular.
Because of the cheap cost, they are quite viable to use to replace one or more conventional chips - depending on what you are doing one cheap PIC can replace dozens of normal chips, just for the cost of a little time writing the software. There are many projects which would be totally impractical to build conventionally, that are trivial to do with a single PIC. On the other hand, you can use a PIC to provide a superior performance, for an example, replacing a 555 timer circuit with an 8 pin PIC circuit will greatly increase it's accuracy and versatility - try doing a 555 timer delay circuit with a one year period! - an 8 pin PIC could do that easily, with no extra components.
In some ways it's too easy to get 'carried away', but it's often worth considering a PIC (or other micro-controller) to either simplify or enhance a design - but never forget the conventional methods as well.
There are certainly circumstances where the support components required for a PIC design exceed those required for a conventional solution, obviously in that case a PIC design wouldn't be a good idea.