30w low voltage PWM controller

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

PICAXE is still going.   Has all the virtues and vices of an educational system:

• for simple applications rather than complex
• limited number of boards and add-on modules
• quite expensive – the starter kit is about £50. Might be just what’s needed, or not.  Decide yourself!
• interpreted, not compiled, so will on the slow side
• only works with pic chips pre-loaded with the PICAXE interpreter
• requires a special cable
• programmed in a language that’s vaguely like BASIC.

Example:

for b1 = 0 to 63 ; start a loop
sertxd(“The value of b1 is ”,#b1,13,10)
pause 1000
next b1 ; next loop

Though the PIC chips and language are potent PICAXE is closed source.  That severely limits community support, so the number of add-ons is pitiful compared with Arduino and others.   The number of microcontrollers supported is small too – a subset of the PIC family, whereas the Arduino-IDE supports many different hobby and professional development microcontrollers – not just Arduino.  Here’s what the PICaxe forum says about Arduino vs PICAXE support .

Chief selling point is the claim that PICAXE is simple:  certainly true in a classroom, but after that, I doubt it.   I suspect Bazyle is right about BBCMicroBit – it too is aimed at education, with an even simpler drag and drop load mechanism.    The raspberry Pico with Python is also drag and drop, well worth considering if you want a cheap powerful board and a modern language.  If Python performance isn’t good enough, or doesn’t support a module, Picos can be programmed in C/C++.   It’s not boxed in like PICAXE.

Dave

 

 

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

The RaspberryPi Pico series are impressive but a bit overkill as a 555 replacement 🙂

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

555 has the great advantage of a much larger output current, 200mA if I recall correctly. It can be used for all sorts of things apart from timers, latching flip flop comes to mind

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

PicBasicPro directly supports both software (any device any pin) and hardware (needs a pic with one or more PWM modules) PWM.The hardaware commend is:

HPWM Channel, Dutycycle, Frequency

The frequency is only limited by th clock frequency the PIC is clocked at.

[duncan webster 1]

On duncan webster 1 Said:

555 has the great advantage of a much larger output current, 200mA if I recall correctly. It can be used for all sorts of things apart from timers, latching flip flop comes to mind

I should perhaps have mentioned … There is also a BB variant of that little 1803 module, with higher current rating, and a heatsink.

MichaelG.

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