FWIW I'm actually trying to help Jez. Did you not see my comment "its been made unbelievably simple"? I don't know whether you have actually looked at Arduino IDE (free) to see what I mean.
Here are the basics
void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
}
void loop() {
// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
}
...and this uses one pin on the Arduino as a voltmeter and outputs to a serial device connected to the USB port. If your computer is connected then it appears in an Arduino IDE terminal emulator Window or you could connect a TFT display with serial port. If you buy a starter kit £20 -50 you'll get everything you need with code to drive all the different modules. I have a box load of this stuff and for peanuts.
// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {
// initialize serial communication at 9600 bits per second:
Serial.begin(9600);
}
// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
// read the input on analog pin 0:
int sensorValue = analogRead(A0);
// Convert the analog reading (which goes from 0 - 1023) to a voltage (0 - 5V):
float voltage = sensorValue * (5.0 / 1023.0);
// print out the value you read:
Serial.println(voltage);
}
A Voltmeter with just one line to set-up and 3 lines of simple code. Just in case I've high-lighted these in blue as theose starting with // are comments.
There is code like this for almost any input/output device that you can buy. So you could get by without ever having to read a manual! Its amazing the amount of effort thats gone into this project so that people can learn about computers and micro controllers at pocket money prices and without any tears.
You can see how easy this is for youngsters at school to use and build things like robots...............
Cheers,
DV
You have missed the entire point!! I do not do programming of any sort, any way, under any circumstances. As far as I'm concerned Arduino, Raspberry Pi, PIC's and microcontrollers don't exist and were never invented!! They are not a part of my "armoury" or "tool box" and probably never will be. I have zero interest in them.
Hence when requiring such functionality I use hard wired logic, usually TTL and sometimes CMOS... even discrete transistor and diode logic sometimes (all are still in every day use and still available in SMD form from any supplier. They are not in any way obsolete). I couldn't give a monkeys if the same job can be done by something a tenth of the size and cost using "modern technology".... Hence the A4 size board using loads of TTL logic that's in "The Alchemist" pre amp to decode remote control and handle all the logic for the touch sensitive controls... which are themselves done in CMOS.
This is not something for sale... it's a unit for my own use, intended to be made entirely with whatever is to hand... even if there are much simpler ways of doing it if I spent some money on it. I'd rather spend 50 hours on it than £50 on it!
Hey I could maybe buy a ready built relay based stepped attenuator with Arduino or PIC control electronics, made in China and for £20 from ebay but that is not the point! I
like 60's, 70's and 80's technology and I'm a self confessed Luddite towards all the tech that has made mobile phones and lap tops etc available. I can also use parts purloined from old gear such as mil spec reed relays where each one would probably be more than the entire bought in Chifi board to buy!
The tech I use has to be controllable and manipulable by me. That's probably my main paradigm in everything I do in electronics, and without the resources and back up of a huge multinational company. There are all sorts of amazing things that can be done with a BGA IC the size of your thumbnail and with literally hundreds of connections to it but unless you are manufacturing in huge quantities in a big factory with millions of £ worth of kit then the 8 layer PTH PCB, the pick and place robot with 0.001mm precision, the infra red soldering oven and pre heating oven etc etc are not doable... then there's the time and effort in developing the software etc! Even if they were, the time, effort and money required can only really be amortised if the product is to be mass produced! ie it's the cheapest and fastest way to produce a million of something but a non starter if you only want to make one or ten!
Hence to me even a bought in Arduino board is incompatible with my own design paradigms in electronics as although I could apply it I couldn't design it or build it or repair it....(I guess if it was a matter of life and death I could...) it's cheap as chips so if it fails you bin it and use another one....but VERY difficult to work on... and VERY expensive to manufacture in terms of the plant and machinery etc needed.
As time goes on equipment tends to get smaller, lighter in weight and much cheaper in real terms, but it doesn't necessarily do the job any better than the huge, heavy kit from the past and in fact in some ways is often inferior.
The big plus point of the older stuff (apart from it just being fab!) is that if it goes wrong or out of calibration then it can be repaired and re-calibrated, even modified to improve it or add extra features, by a one man band like myself! If you look at my avatar of a part of my bench the test gear is all from between around 1958 to 1980 ish and for all the reasons I just gave... plus I just like collecting and using it! Some items were more than a house to buy new and everything still does what it says on the tin. If it was good enough at the time for the MOD, and companies like Quad, Racal, BAE and numerous research depts in university and gov then it is good enough for me!
It won't get skipped while I'm around! Which is also good for the environment.
Compare a 10WPC class D amp module the size of 10 cigarettes and only £15 to buy to a 10WPC Leak Stereo 20 and it says all the above far more eloquently!!
