Im after some advice from folks who have been down this route before. The day job needs an automated multicore wire stripper that cuts the wires to length, and strips back the outer to preset levels. There are all sorts of things that turn up via google and youtube, but does anyone have something they can recommend?
I use a cheap 20x zoom microscope that I brought from a school supplier. You dont want much more magnification than that for everyday use, and you dont need amazing optics. I think I paid £150 for mine. If you do get one, try and get one with a light underneath the plate as its really useful for tracking down solder bridges! It was worth the money alone for a very sneaky short in the PCB trace.
In this case, im completely new to the PIC24 (used PIC16/18 for 10+ years however). The author of the IOIO doesnt know what my error means.....so if he hasnt a clue, then I sure as hell dont :P If it works on 3.30b then thats good enough for what I need to do with it. Im looking at removing all the Android code from the project (https://github.com/ytai/ioio/wiki/IOIO-Over-Bluetooth) to leave with the PIC with a USB Bluetooth adapter as this makes it the (as far as I know) the cheapest Bluetooth solution out there.
I looking at tweaking the firmware in the IOIO board (the one that links to Android phones). Im building the code and its not compiling - posted on their forums and they are building using C30 3.30b whereas im using the latest 3.30c. Problem is I cant find the installer for 3.30b anywhere on the Mircochip site. Ive posted on the Microchip forums to see if they can post the link somewhere, but in the mean time does anyone happen to have the installer laying around that they can upload somewhere?
Might be worth looking at the TELRAN radio chip from Toumaz (will have to google it as im a new forum user and it understandable doesnt let me post URLs)
Disclaimer time....I work for them. I wrote most of the software that runs on it and have to say its a dam cool chip!
Hopefully this doesnt come across as a sales pitch, but we have FCC/ETSI certified modules available at Mouser. They arent the cheapest, but im also trying to get some Arduino shields put together which should hopefully be much cheaper.
The chip runs from 1.08v to 1.5v and our peak Tx/Rx current is 3.3mA/3.1mA. Which to the best of our knowledge is the world’s lowest. The chip works in a Star Network with up to 8 Targets talking bi-directionally to a single Basestation. This Basestation needs a microcontroller to manage the link. However the Targets do not. We have implemented a simple scripting language where a script can be uploaded to the Target over the radio. This script can then run and send and receive bytes over UART/SPI/I2C and 1 Wire interface. E.g. we can setup a script to talk to a DS18B20 1 Wire temperature sensor every 200 mS, do some basic processing on the received reading and then transmit it back to the Basestation automatically. Or monitor a GPIO pin and if it changes sent an alert to the Basestation. For advanced customers we also have the ability to upload code plugins to the Targets which are executed on the CPU directly. Unlike most radio chips, the radio protocol / MAC is built into the device. You just send/receive data to and from the chip using UART/SPI commands much like the XBEE's. It’s a pretty cool chip!
Our inhouse silicon test back end is running a LabVIEW GUI interfaced to Bus Pirates.....I love those things!
