Thread: 300W tiny PSU final feature requests collecting

omg you guys RULE! I bow down before you! Do you have a paypal link so we can contribute to development costs!

Wow, didn't expect that kind of support

No, no paypal link at the moment, heh... development costs won't be a real issue for my SDC side of the development until I have to start getting prototypes made, which will probably fall during my "poor college student" 3/4 of the year... unfortunately, when stuffing a microcontroller and various other circuitry onto a PCB that's on the order of 1-2 square inches, it goes a little beyond the realm of homemade PCB's

But thanks for the outpouring of support so far... to all of you

Originally Posted by evandude

Meddler, thanks for the input.

I'm not using a picaxe due to the price, and the limitations on program size and speed... (limited to 600 lines of code at most... whereas on the 16F88 I get 4000 lines of assembly) Also, a regular PIC can do the same functions in terms of not requiring a programmer; all it needs is a bootloader. After all, all a PICAXE is is a regular PIC pre-programmed with their proprietary firmware. As you can see from my earlier discussion, I'm implementing basically the same set of features (including amp turn-on if I can spare the I/O) plus temperature and voltage monitoring... and my final board needs to be significantly smaller than 2"x3" (probably more in the range of 1"x2")
Obviously, i'm using a surface-mount PIC... and the size constraints demand a TSSOP package, which the PICAXE does not offer anyway.
I can easily see the PICAXE being good for quick projects and things, but for a commercial product, spending a couple extra hours getting it set up is well worth the few dollars you'll save on every single unit. (PICAXE is about $8 I think in USD, and the 16F88 is under $5 in single units, and under $3 in quantities over 25)

However, if you have any ideas that you think should be implemented in my board, let me know. It sounds like you've got some programming experience on the computer side of the communications, perhaps you can offer me some advice there.

Due to the modular design of this PSU/SDC interface (the 14-pin socket) there won't really be much stopping someone from plugging in their own custom SDC if they so desire. So it should be very appealing to the hardcore DIY'ers as well

As I said the picaxe was a quick and easy start to making an SDC. I think that the aim to have the board around 1"x2" is quite feasable. I just took a quick measurement of what I have lying on a test board (which was quite messy and spread out). I haven't really looked into any other pic chips at this stage but as you say there are many options out there. I would like to offer my assistance if it is helpful. At least all the info I have collected might be useful.

Sounds very intersting, can't wait to get this thing out. Looking forward to it fellows. Keep up the good work!!