Talk:Motor Control II

Awwww come on, no love for the 555 timer squarewave generation circuit? ^_^ -- qDot

Nope -- The PICs I work with have hardware PWM, cost $1.25-$5 (in onesies), and interface to a computer over serial with nothing more than a pair of small signal mosfets and a couple of resistors. If I build a circuit using a 555, a resistor and a capacitor, I still need something to interface the PC -- at minimum (for parallel port) a resistor ladder DAC, a digital buffer to drive it, additional power conditioning, and all the power mosfet junk that I would need for either circuit. After I've done all that, I have a circuit that's less robust, uses up an entire parallel port instead of a two-wire serial interface, costs more and is less powerful. The parallel port gives me 1@8 bit PWM with a 555. With a serial port, I can get 3@10 bit PWM and additional fun stuff involving pattern generation. Sometime in the next week or so, I hope to put up a basic PIC serial and PWM tutorial - but it's not ready yet.

I remember the old 555 cookbook circuits - but they really don't make sense anymore. --Jricher 16:43, 16 March 2007 (PDT)

\*grins* I was joking, silly. -- qDot

Sorry. One of the engineers I really admire once said that if you have a problem and think you can fix it with a 555 timer, you have two problems. --Jricher 09:59, 17 March 2007 (PDT)