Hello sci.engr.mech users,
No question here, just a general topic for you to discuss...
I'm finishing up my senior project in mech engr and I just wanted to see if anyone here works with or is interested in electronic controls.
We haven't actually tested anything yet, but our design uses a PIC microcontroller (18F452) to read sensors, take input from buttons and turn on relays. If you have done anything similar to this, please post a reply. (Don't worry, it's far too late in the semester for me to steal any of your ideas.) Oh, for programming, we purchases PIC Basic Pro (from MElabs)... it's very simple, but sometimes I question that accuracy with which it compiles code into assembly.
One question: We would like to be able to have some data acquisition capability through RS232. We've got the chip set up for output, and we know how to code the commands for output... but what are some good computer programs for receiving this data output? I would like to output the voltage that the A/D converters read. Sometimes the chip behaves strangely and I really have no way of seeing what it sees, other than using a volt meter.
It seems to me that PICs are really intended for robotics hobbyists... I haven't heard much about industrial applications for these. My main concern right now is the reliability of these things. From my experience, these chips can be pretty flakey. (No pun intended) However, they are very very cheap compared to PLCs, and I was wondering why they're not replacing them. Maybe there are differences and advantages that I do not know about.
Sorry for such a long post! I just haven't seen much discussion about this and thought that some of you might be interested. Soon I'll be documenting our work and putting together beginner's howto manual for controlling projects with PICs. Let me know of any recommendations you have... I'll make the howto available on the web soon.
-matt