AVR-Chat

--- In AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com, "phyock" <tfcsd@e...> wrote:
> I am looking for a production microcontroller/computer  board that 
> has 50+/- I/Os with drivers, two RS232 ports, RS485 port, LCD, 10+/-
 
> ADCs, 3 DACs, Ethernet, 512K+/- memory. We also want stand-alone 
IDE 
> testing and field flash programmable. We use about 20 a month in 
> small industrial equipment (and prototypes) to drive several motors 
> (steppers to .5 HP DC). I have used AVR and wanted to see what was 
> available. If you know of anything similar  or somebody else 
besides 
> AVR that is fine. Basically I need a 4"X6" ish board that does 
about 
> anything a robot hobbyist would want.



I make a small board for the BasicStamp, but it only has 16 I/O Pins 
and we use 8 for serial contorl.

the 'problem' with what you ask is that trying to drive several 1/2 
HP motors is going to take a lot of board space and require some 
pretty hefty heatsinks.

Moving that section off-board would remove a lot of the cost for each 
dual H-Bridge for steppers.

Ditto for the ADC.   we make a 11 channel SPI bus ADC board as an add-
on.    Each 11 channels makes it easy to expand without adding the 
high ADC chip cost into the main board and the 12 bit ADC is better 
than most 10 bit's on the uC's.

But, the #1 thing you will find is that if you want to use screw 
terminals, you need to add up the width.  at -.2" each, that is 
roughtly 100 pins or 20 inches.  your entire perimiter would be 
nothing but screw terminals and that would reduce board available 
size.

Just some ideas.

Dave