Saturday, October 1, 2011

LC Display and Encoders Received

I received my ordered LC Displays and Encoder/Switches (see previous post).

Simple Development and
Test Configuration
It has been several years since I have programmed a PIC or other Micro Processor. The following is a quick build to provide a test circuit for getting back up to speed. The processor is the green circuit board on right side of photo. It is a Teensy 2.0 , which is a Arduino look/works-a-like.

The connection to the PC for programming and interaction is via the mini-USB. Power is supplied via the USB or external battery as shown here.

Add on software allows the Arduino Interactive Development Environmental (IDE) to work with the Teensy. In fact most Arduino Sketches (a C like program) run without alterations. I chose the Teensy because of it small size,  it is similar in size to my normal projects.

The Sketch that I have put together is to test and exercise of these parts. It is a simple multi-tasking Scheduler and State Machines. My goals is to develop and provide a simple template for my future multi-tasking Sketches. I plans to merge the Arduino or Teensy with my micro 9-Volt Transmitters (as previous posted) to create interesting more complex projects.

The two Rotary Encoders (center photo) are not completely hooked up yet. My plan is to use Interrupts to decode their input.

As seen by the photo, several tasks (4) provide sample text within several fields on the two line display and controls the LC BackLight Brightness. So far, the multi-tasking Scheduler and State Machines are working as planned.

I wrote several macros to implement Task Switching, Checkpointing, and Scheduling. I remember doing something similar in Assemble Code many years ago by counting clock cycles. These implementation in C was easy in comparison.

No, it is not a full featured multi-tasking Scheduler implementation, but it will do the multiple tasks/things that I require.


UPDATE
There appears to be an old and raging debate about the use and license of the Teensy and it's bootloader, see:

I do not know the current status of the concerns?

More research is necessary.

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2 comments:

  1. I think you are not allowed to merge a teensy design into your own project and use the teensy boatloader :

    http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2009/10/05/teensy-atmega32u4-usb-dev-board-in-stock/


    The arduino is a better choice then.


    Eric SA5BKE

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  2. Hey! I was all set to make rude comments about your choice of wire colors, as I am having trouble decifering your circuit, but as I look back at my post even with different colors you can't see what I did! Have fun- Larry

    ReplyDelete