I think this article has a lot of good stuff.
If not used as described it does give a lot of great odds and ends

information.

...Chrissi

I was extremely disappointed. With a little extra effort he could have
shown how to interface the sensors with a single chip microcomputer
and written and published a bit of source code. Nuts & Volts magazine
does that every month.

Apparently Jim Weir is stuck in an analog age.

Paul Lamar

Still, you have to walk before you can run.
Nuts N Volts appeals to a geek and techie readership who are willing

and

capable of dealing with microprocessors and code.

I guarantee a similar article would never get published in Kitplanes

because the material is over the heads and intimidating to the readers,

most

would just turn the page.

What Jim offers is within the grasp of those who follow his hand

holding

column.

I am sure there are those that subscribe to this list in the same

situation. Build Jim's circuit and you will have a greater chance of
success. Those that get that far and have a hunger for more tech can then
take a known working system and replace the brain with a microprocessor,
multiplexed inputs and an LCD display.

...Chrissi

It might be intimating at first but when you get down on that level
and the light lights in your brain it is probably the most simple
thing I can think of. Programing in assemble language a single chipper
is a piece of cake. It is like having bunch of different things and you
are  moving them around from box to box. Put something in the out box
and out it goes.  Each box has an address. All memory
locations and CPU registers are boxes with an address. It is no more
complicated than that. Any post office worker could learn to program in
single chipper assemble language in a flash. It is very mechanical.

Furthermore assembly language pneumonic are much much easier to remember
than stupid terse C.  This is what is used in C for commands ! @ # @$ %

<

' :.
By comparison  assembly language pneumonics are self documenting such as
MOV or LDA for move or load. Besides, all this can be done in PIC BASIC.
Commands in BASIC are even more simple. IN, OUT, PRINT etc..

A couple of paragraphs explaining this or a complete article should be
all that is necessary to get started.

When I first started programming I used only about ten commands for
the longest time.

Paul Lamar

P.S. This is a simple assemble language simulator and trainer that

should

run

in a  DOS Window. If somebody wants the compiled version let me
know. It would be simple to convert this to a PIC version.

bunch of source code snips....

Yeah sure ! That burnt out my geek alerts. Then again I'm just a pilot.

Cheers,
John

Even pilots can understand this John. Just run it in a DOS window.
 Super simple version.
 I will give you an amazing insight into how computers work.
 Nothing like it on the web that I can find and that is a shame.

Paul Lamar

I am amazed how many people on this site are working with embedded systems,
PIC processors, etc.  I certainly would like to see more technical articles
in the Sports Aviation, Kitplanes, etc on building sensors and integrating
them with cockpit displays/control systems.  What is needed is a series of
articles on how to use microprocessors starting with something like the PIC
Stamp board.

By the way, the January issue of Circuit Cellar (www.Circuitcellar.com) has
an article and circuit description of a Fuel-Injection ECU.  Circuit Cellar
offers a downloadable version of their magazine at a very reasonable price
($15/year).  The whole magazine comes as a pdf file.  The nice thing about
the electronic version is that I can same a year's subscription on a CD and
refer to article later.  It sure beats the stack of magazines that I have
laying around.

Del Johnson

I agree. I think the printed magazine's days are numbered. They need to integrate
better with the web. The cost is getting out of sight. They need to 
broaden the appeal to make money from ads so they are getting less
and less focused and are dumbing down to the lowest common denominator.
The last issue of EAA Sport Av is an exception. I am not saying
that just because they published my article. There are a lot of
other good article in there too. Lets hope they keep it up. 

It is so nice to be able to search the web and find good focused 
info on almost anything.

Paul Lamar
 
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