How could I find a FET with specific specs?

[EasyGoing1]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

Never used a C64 but as a 6502 I don't think that's horribly bad. I do have my qualms with 6502 however, not a great processor either but much better than PIC 8-bit...

6502s are fast however. Beats the Z80 which I've preferred, but 6502s murder the Z80 MHz for MHz.

This new laptop I got has 32 gigs of RAM in it...

My first computer, the C=64 had 64k of ram...

So TODAY, my computer has 500,000 times more ram than my first one.

That's pretty phenomenal to me.

[eccerr0r]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

Never used a C64 but as a 6502 I don't think that's horribly bad. I do have my qualms with 6502 however, not a great processor either but much better than PIC 8-bit...

6502s are fast however. Beats the Z80 which I've preferred, but 6502s murder the Z80 MHz for MHz.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

No, I generalized all PIC 8-bit microcontrollers into the same bin... the trash bin...

That's where my Commodore 64 went several decades ago and I still don't regret it ... even if these weirdos are obsessed with the C=64 making a come back... I don't live for the past ... I'm happy to be done with it.

[eccerr0r]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

No, I generalized all PIC 8-bit microcontrollers into the same bin... the trash bin...

[EasyGoing1]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

Are Microchip/General Instruments PIC8s dead yet?
If so, good riddance.
If not, ()#$*#(@#*(@ their memory management.

Could you have meant the PIC18 Microcontroller?

[eccerr0r]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

Are Microchip/General Instruments PIC8s dead yet?
If so, good riddance.
If not, ()#$*#(@#*(@ their memory management.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

if your going from AVR to Pi or STM32, remember your i/o is 3.3v
good for displays - you dont need resistors,zeners or buffers anymore - but may need a bit of attention with some sensors

I've had two Arduino Due's ... and managed to foul them up pretty nicely because i wasn't being mindful of the 3v limit. However, these Teensy 4.0's I've managed to not damage and they are 3v so ... this old dog can learn some new tricks.

[stj]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

if your going from AVR to Pi or STM32, remember your i/o is 3.3v
good for displays - you dont need resistors,zeners or buffers anymore - but may need a bit of attention with some sensors

[EasyGoing1]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

I ended up carefully checking the compile results when converting object files to hex each time it completes, if it had to program a location that's beyond the end of the device, don't bother programming it, back to the drawing board, cut a few bytes out.

I had 2KB (1024 16-bit instructions) in the AT90S2313, and will be da**ed if I had to waste more of that 1024 bytes for the arduino infrastructure.

Oddly enough I had an issue with my AT90S4433 where I had a software clock, it was drifting real bad - several seconds per hour. I sort of knew why - I was using the hardware resources kind of messily because, well, I ran out of hardware resources. However I hacked my clock software to match the hardware cheat I did...and wow, only a few seconds off per month. Not bad for a breadboard that I can't properly tune the crystal.

Alas it used up more precious bytes in the 4KB (2K 16-bit instructions) to compensate for the hardware problem...

Sounds to me like you're a lot more comfortable with low level programming than I am. My experience with machine language was like 1992 with a Motorola 6800 chip at the college lab... I do remember programming it with hex... the keyboard had 0-9 A-F and if you messed up, there was no delete ... you started over.

Beyond that, I think maybe twice I had to get down to the hex level when trying to hack something but that is the extent of my experience with low-level coding. I just was never very comfortable in that space for some reason. I admire people who can do it ... and who UNDERSTAND it ... I mean ... that is the highest level one can achieve in terms of mastery control over a microprocessor.

Yeah, the Arduino Nano, at least ... did not impress me with a larger project. It's just fine for simple to moderately complex tasks.

I ordered two of those new $4 Raspberry Pi Pico's with a dual core ARM Cortex M0 ... it seems like a lot of microcontroller for $4 when you add in all the GPIOs and ADCs and all the other goodies... I just wanna multi-thread on an MC before I die ... lol ... this thing has two actual cores ... I darn well better be able to multi-thread with it ... or I'm gonna troll their forums! LOL

I read the first page of the datasheet for the AT90S4433 - seems like a decent little MC - not sure how long its been since it was first introduced, but you could do some damage with that controller for sure.

A few things about MC manufacturers that both bother me and have me confused ... why aren't 12 bit ADCs standard on all modern microcontrollers? Seems to be more of a novelty than it should be! I mean who wouldn't want to read a voltage with 4096 steps of resolution compared to 1024? Best I can figure is that the cost of including it must be such that it ends up on the cutting room floor.

The other thing is why not include RTCs ... but I'm starting to see that happen more often in newer controllers. The Teensy 4.0 has a nice one with pins for battery backing it. That Teensy 4.0 can actually do some sick tricks with audio in real-time ... I think, depending on what you're doing, it can process like 16 channels of 192-bit uncompressed digital audio simultaneously and the engineer who designed it included a ton of various audio functions right in the chip. He even wrote this really weird app that lets you drag and drop objects for audio processing, cross-connecting channels and a whole slew of things ... it's like a DJs wet dream.

I have no interest in any of that except that I do want to make my own EQ someday... Mainly just to do it but also to better understand what digital EQs do at a lower level.

Mike

[eccerr0r]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

Why would I use it, I didn't need it then, so why now? Just more overhead...

[stj]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

As I've been using AVRs like the AT90S2313 and AT90S4433 (which don't support arduino

https://github.com/SpenceKonde/ATTinyCore


btw, i prefer STM32 chips - lots more memory for the same price as AVR.
BluePill, and Nucleo boards.

[eccerr0r]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

I ended up carefully checking the compile results when converting object files to hex each time it completes, if it had to program a location that's beyond the end of the device, don't bother programming it, back to the drawing board, cut a few bytes out.

I had 2KB (1024 16-bit instructions) in the AT90S2313, and will be da**ed if I had to waste more of that 1024 bytes for the arduino infrastructure.

Oddly enough I had an issue with my AT90S4433 where I had a software clock, it was drifting real bad - several seconds per hour. I sort of knew why - I was using the hardware resources kind of messily because, well, I ran out of hardware resources. However I hacked my clock software to match the hardware cheat I did...and wow, only a few seconds off per month. Not bad for a breadboard that I can't properly tune the crystal.

Alas it used up more precious bytes in the 4KB (2K 16-bit instructions) to compensate for the hardware problem...

[EasyGoing1]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

I'm sure you've run up to the memory limit before when programming microcontrollers ...

Once I built a CO2 sensor for a friend of mine who built his own kiln inside his garage. I used an Arduino Nano, a 16x2 LCD display, a CO2 sensor, a temperature sensor, a battery-backed real-time clock, a CF card reader/writer, and a Bluetooth module for wireless programming/reprogramming. I even sprung for the custom made PCB from China.

I was constantly having to find ways to squeeze my code so that I didn't use up all the memory. This is where a deeper knowledge of C++ can really help someone, especially with variables when you can figure out how to keep your byte usage rigidly defined, it makes a HUGE difference. There is also an area of memory that you can use with some datatypes - but I forgot now how that all worked.

What was and still is frustrating with that Nano, is when your code exceeds 80% of available memory ... your code can do unpredictable things ... just odd things like not running loops or like in the CO2 sensor project, once I exceeded 80% or program memory, I would get garbage characters on the screen, so I would have to use direct memory access using chars instead of Strings and it became a real pain in the ass.

It also had horrible time drift in the RTC, but I was able to figure out how many seconds it drifted per hour and so I set it to the current time, then wrote to the flashcard the current Unix time (milliseconds since 1/1/1970), then if it ever had to be disconnected from power, the next time it booted up it would read the RTC and compare the current Unix time with the last one that was written to the CF card, and depending on how many hours it was different, it would add in the known drift and get right back to being within seconds of accurate. If the number of drift seconds per hour that accumulated from the last power-off was excessive (like if it were powered off for weeks or months) and the total of offset seconds exceeded an hour, then for each of those it would add an additional drift offset...

Been almost two years and he tells me that the time is correct every time it boots up so I obviously got that part right, but what a shitty RTC. Never used those again. It did rely on an external crystal, so it could have been the cheap Chinese crystals that I bought but I've since gone to an RTC that has everything internal to the chip and they work perfectly.

If the Teensy 4.0 would have been available back then, it would have been a far better choice. Compared to the nano, program memory space would be like going from a backyard shed to a Costco warehouse.

[eccerr0r]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

avrdude is also used for burning via SPI, or at least I also used it for raw AVRs. The thing that got me was when I was looking at the difference between programming straight AVR and using arduino is that there was a piece of code segment that needed to reside on the AVR. As I've been using AVRs like the AT90S2313 and AT90S4433 (which don't support arduino), that little code segment hurts so I didn't investigate further.

I'm sure you've run up to the memory limit before when programming microcontrollers ...

[EasyGoing1]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

I've been hearing that arduino has a special software loading mechanism that doesn't require SPI access to burn new code onto it. This clearly uses some resources to complete this task. The in-circuit debugger must use some resources as well, at the minimum a pin or so, and not entirely sure how it handles stuff like single step.

You can turn on full verbose mode in the Arduino IDE settings so that when the code gets uploaded, you can literally see EVERYTHING that happens in a command-line format ... it's like watching it open a shell, then seeing what it does when it compiles and uploads the code.



I do know that it uses avrdude to handle most if not all of that entire process.

Here is an example of the output when those settings are set (I had to snip some of it or this post would have been too long to post):

/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/arduino-builder -dump-prefs -logger=machine -hardware /Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware -hardware <snipped>
/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/arduino-builder -compile -logger=machine -hardware /Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware -hardware /Users/michael/Library/Arduino15/packages -hardware <snipped>
Using board 'nano' from platform in folder: /Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/arduino/avr
Using core 'arduino' from platform in folder: /Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/arduino/avr
Detecting libraries used...
/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-g++ -c -g -Os -w -std=gnu++11 -fpermissive -fno-exceptions -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fno-threadsafe-statics -Wno-error=narrowing -flto -w -x c++ -E -CC -mmcu=atmega328p -DF_CPU=16000000L -DARDUINO=10813 -DARDUINO_AVR_NANO -DARDUINO_ARCH_AVR -I/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/arduino/avr/cores/arduino -I/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/arduino/avr/variants/eightanaloginputs /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/sketch/delete.ino.cpp -o /dev/null -DARDUINO_LIB_DISCOVERY_PHASE
Generating function prototypes...
/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-g++ -c -g -Os -w -std=gnu++11 -fpermissive -fno-exceptions -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fno-threadsafe-statics -Wno-error=narrowing -flto -w -x c++ -E -CC -mmcu=atmega328p -DF_CPU=16000000L -DARDUINO=10813 -DARDUINO_AVR_NANO -DARDUINO_ARCH_AVR -I/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/arduino/avr/cores/arduino -I/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/arduino/avr/variants/eightanaloginputs /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/sketch/delete.ino.cpp -o /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/preproc/ctags_target_for_gcc_minus_e.cpp -DARDUINO_LIB_DISCOVERY_PHASE
/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/tools-builder/ctags/5.8-arduino11/ctags -u --language-force=c++ -f - --c++-kinds=svpf --fields=KSTtzns --line-directives /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/preproc/ctags_target_for_gcc_minus_e.cpp
Compiling sketch...
/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-g++ -c -g -Os -Wall -Wextra -std=gnu++11 -fpermissive -fno-exceptions -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fno-threadsafe-statics -Wno-error=narrowing -MMD -flto -mmcu=atmega328p -DF_CPU=16000000L -DARDUINO=10813 -DARDUINO_AVR_NANO -DARDUINO_ARCH_AVR -I/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/arduino/avr/cores/arduino -I/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/arduino/avr/variants/eightanaloginputs /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/sketch/delete.ino.cpp -o /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/sketch/delete.ino.cpp.o
Compiling libraries...
Compiling core...
Using precompiled core: /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_cache_191331/core/core_arduino_avr_nano_cpu_atmega328_51f02b7210b938436b779d1c032618e1.a
Linking everything together...
/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-gcc -Wall -Wextra -Os -g -flto -fuse-linker-plugin -Wl,--gc-sections -mmcu=atmega328p -o /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/delete.ino.elf /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/sketch/delete.ino.cpp.o /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/../arduino_cache_191331/core/core_arduino_avr_nano_cpu_atmega328_51f02b7210b938436b779d1c032618e1.a -L/var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547 -lm
/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-objcopy -O ihex -j .eeprom --set-section-flags=.eeprom=alloc,load --no-change-warnings --change-section-lma .eeprom=0 /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/delete.ino.elf /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/delete.ino.eep
/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-objcopy -O ihex -R .eeprom /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/delete.ino.elf /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/delete.ino.hex
/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-size -A /var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/delete.ino.elf
Sketch uses 3910 bytes (12%) of program storage space. Maximum is 30720 bytes.
Global variables use 204 bytes (9%) of dynamic memory, leaving 1844 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 2048 bytes.
/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avrdude -C/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf -v -V -patmega328p -carduino -P/dev/cu.usbserial-1441230 -b115200 -D -Uflash:w:/var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/delete.ino.hex:i 

avrdude: Version 6.3-20190619
     Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, [url]http://www.bdmicro.com/[/url]
     Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch

     System wide configuration file is "/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf"
     User configuration file is "/Users/michael/.avrduderc"
     User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping

     Using Port          : /dev/cu.usbserial-1441230
     Using Programmer       : arduino
     Overriding Baud Rate     : 115200
     AVR Part           : ATmega328P
     Chip Erase delay       : 9000 us
     PAGEL             : PD7
     BS2              : PC2
     RESET disposition       : dedicated
     RETRY pulse          : SCK
     serial program mode      : yes
     parallel program mode     : yes
     Timeout            : 200
     StabDelay           : 100
     CmdexeDelay          : 25
     SyncLoops           : 32
     ByteDelay           : 0
     PollIndex           : 3
     PollValue           : 0x53
     Memory Detail         :

                 Block Poll        Page            Polled
      Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size  Size #Pages MinW MaxW  ReadBack
      ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
      eeprom    65  20   4  0 no    1024  4   0 3600 3600 0xff 0xff
      flash     65   6  128  0 yes   32768 128  256 4500 4500 0xff 0xff
      lfuse     0   0   0  0 no     1  0   0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
      hfuse     0   0   0  0 no     1  0   0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
      efuse     0   0   0  0 no     1  0   0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
      lock      0   0   0  0 no     1  0   0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
      calibration  0   0   0  0 no     1  0   0   0   0 0x00 0x00
      signature   0   0   0  0 no     3  0   0   0   0 0x00 0x00

     Programmer Type : Arduino
     Description   : Arduino
     Hardware Version: 3
     Firmware Version: 4.4
     Vtarget     : 0.3 V
     Varef      : 0.3 V
     Oscillator   : 28.800 kHz
     SCK period   : 3.3 us

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e950f (probably m328p)
avrdude: reading input file "/var/folders/54/5r84qmzx1ys3694t14j0zh940000gn/T/arduino_build_673547/delete.ino.hex"
avrdude: writing flash (3910 bytes):

Writing | ################################################## | 100% 0.69s

avrdude: 3910 bytes of flash written

avrdude done. Thank you.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

Thanks but is there one for getting started with the nano because this what I would to learn because of engraving machine controller board that I would like to modify the program that in especially for PWM to work correctly with the laser and spindle motor controllers that what I am after at this point

Well, here is the first question I have: do you have the code that the Nano is loaded with currently?

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

Sam, check this out ... I think this might be the first DUAL CORE microcontroller for less than $5 - ever ... that I know of anyway. I haven't looked into it in depth yet cause I just saw this but multi-threading apps should be completely possible with this little gem.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-pico/

Thanks but is there one for getting started with the nano because this what I would to learn because of engraving machine controller board that I would like to modify the program that in especially for PWM to work correctly with the laser and spindle motor controllers that what I am after at this point

[eccerr0r]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

"arduino" is software. Nothing on hardware block diagrams have anything to do with it, hardware can't tell if it's running arduino infrastructure or not. Nothing special about it except that

- it must use memory. Without arduino you can make bigger programs.
- it must use some resources. Without arduino you can control all resources.

I've been hearing that arduino has a special software loading mechanism that doesn't require SPI access to burn new code onto it. This clearly uses some resources to complete this task. The in-circuit debugger must use some resources as well, at the minimum a pin or so, and not entirely sure how it handles stuff like single step.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

My problem is I do not know where to start looking for this information is it possible to point me in the right direction

Thanks

Sam, check this out ... I think this might be the first DUAL CORE microcontroller for less than $5 - ever ... that I know of anyway. I haven't looked into it in depth yet cause I just saw this but multi-threading apps should be completely possible with this little gem.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-pico/

[EasyGoing1]

Re: How could I find a FET with specific specs?

To be honest 450Hz should be fast enough to not see much flickering unless your software is glitching and introducing a beat pattern... so are you actually seeing a beat pattern without the capacitor? What frequency is it beating?

So I successfully increased the PWM frequency of the ATTINY85 ... at least I think I did ... my phone wont detect the flickering anymore but my scope seems to have given up the ghost ... thinking of starting a new topic on scopes cause I want to get a better one this time ... not this cheap $80 Hanetek USB pile of crap.