Best choice of controller + IDE (Linux) for use with MMC?
in [Design]
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From: Richard Rasker on 11 May 2010 06:40 Hello, As mentioned in a previous post, I need to store non-trivial amounts of data (> 100kB) over longer periods of time, using a stand-alone controller-based system. I got the advice here to look into MMC cards, which, contrary to SD cards, don't require licensing and other strings attached. Now I've taken a more in-depth look at what's involved in using MMC cards, and I find that I the PIC controllers I'm used to (the 16F series, mostly) are completely unsuitable -- especially FAT support requires more far program and data memory than available in this series. For the same reasons, I need to migrate to a C-based development environment (so far, I did most things in assembly), with a possible extra complication that I use Linux exclusively. So I have a few more questions: - What controller family (brand, types) would be best suitable for the job? - what development environments are available under Linux? - What hardware tools are available for use with Linux? Since I don't expect to be working on this type of projects on a daily basis, I don't want to spend many thousands of dollars on development stuff -- this data acquisition project is a one-off, and I have no similar future projects on the horizon. Thanks for any hints and suggestions, Best regards, Richard Rasker -- http://www.linetec.nl
From: Nico Coesel on 11 May 2010 07:48 Richard Rasker <spamtrap(a)linetec.nl> wrote: >Hello, >As mentioned in a previous post, I need to store non-trivial amounts of data >(> 100kB) over longer periods of time, using a stand-alone controller-based >system. >I got the advice here to look into MMC cards, which, contrary to SD cards, >don't require licensing and other strings attached. > >Now I've taken a more in-depth look at what's involved in using MMC cards, >and I find that I the PIC controllers I'm used to (the 16F series, mostly) >are completely unsuitable -- especially FAT support requires more far >program and data memory than available in this series. > >For the same reasons, I need to migrate to a C-based development environment >(so far, I did most things in assembly), with a possible extra complication >that I use Linux exclusively. > >So I have a few more questions: >- What controller family (brand, types) would be best suitable for the job? NXP has a broad range of ARM controllers. Very cost effective as well. >- what development environments are available under Linux? Codesourcery.com has GCC compilers for free for several platforms. >- What hardware tools are available for use with Linux? The NXP ARM controllers only need a serial port to program them. There is a simple tool for Linux: http://www.pjrc.com/arm/lpc2k_pgm/ >Since I don't expect to be working on this type of projects on a daily >basis, I don't want to spend many thousands of dollars on development >stuff -- this data acquisition project is a one-off, and I have no similar >future projects on the horizon. > >Thanks for any hints and suggestions, I could take some work off your hands. I use NXP's ARM controllers almost exclusively. -- Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply indicates you are not using the right tools... nico(a)nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) --------------------------------------------------------------
From: Royston Vasey on 11 May 2010 09:22 "Richard Rasker" <spamtrap(a)linetec.nl> wrote in message news:4be9341a$0$732$7ade8c0d(a)textreader.nntp.internl.net... > Hello, > As mentioned in a previous post, I need to store non-trivial amounts of > data > (> 100kB) over longer periods of time, using a stand-alone > controller-based > system. > I got the advice here to look into MMC cards, which, contrary to SD cards, > don't require licensing and other strings attached. > > Now I've taken a more in-depth look at what's involved in using MMC cards, > and I find that I the PIC controllers I'm used to (the 16F series, mostly) > are completely unsuitable -- especially FAT support requires more far > program and data memory than available in this series. > Richard, I cannot remember the details but I recall something about avoiding the FAT reqirements by using a single large file on the MMC cards, allowing use of low end pic's. If this is just a one off project it may be worth you having another look at it. > For the same reasons, I need to migrate to a C-based development > environment > (so far, I did most things in assembly), with a possible extra > complication > that I use Linux exclusively. > > So I have a few more questions: > - What controller family (brand, types) would be best suitable for the > job? > - what development environments are available under Linux? > - What hardware tools are available for use with Linux? > > Since I don't expect to be working on this type of projects on a daily > basis, I don't want to spend many thousands of dollars on development > stuff -- this data acquisition project is a one-off, and I have no similar > future projects on the horizon. > > Thanks for any hints and suggestions, > > Best regards, > > Richard Rasker > -- > http://www.linetec.nl
From: John Larkin on 11 May 2010 09:31 On Tue, 11 May 2010 12:40:25 +0200, Richard Rasker <spamtrap(a)linetec.nl> wrote: >Hello, >As mentioned in a previous post, I need to store non-trivial amounts of data >(> 100kB) over longer periods of time, using a stand-alone controller-based >system. >I got the advice here to look into MMC cards, which, contrary to SD cards, >don't require licensing and other strings attached. > >Now I've taken a more in-depth look at what's involved in using MMC cards, >and I find that I the PIC controllers I'm used to (the 16F series, mostly) >are completely unsuitable -- especially FAT support requires more far >program and data memory than available in this series. > >For the same reasons, I need to migrate to a C-based development environment >(so far, I did most things in assembly), with a possible extra complication >that I use Linux exclusively. > >So I have a few more questions: >- What controller family (brand, types) would be best suitable for the job? >- what development environments are available under Linux? >- What hardware tools are available for use with Linux? > >Since I don't expect to be working on this type of projects on a daily >basis, I don't want to spend many thousands of dollars on development >stuff -- this data acquisition project is a one-off, and I have no similar >future projects on the horizon. > >Thanks for any hints and suggestions, > >Best regards, > >Richard Rasker Do you need a file structure, or can you just dump your data sequentially or in blocks to storage? You can buy a Numonix M25P16 16Mbit/2M bytes SO8 serial flash chip for a dollar or so and interface to it through 4 port pins, SPI or just bit-bang. John
From: Spehro Pefhany on 11 May 2010 09:53
On Tue, 11 May 2010 21:22:51 +0800, "Royston Vasey" <royston(a)vasey.com> wrote: > >"Richard Rasker" <spamtrap(a)linetec.nl> wrote in message >news:4be9341a$0$732$7ade8c0d(a)textreader.nntp.internl.net... >> Hello, >> As mentioned in a previous post, I need to store non-trivial amounts of >> data >> (> 100kB) over longer periods of time, using a stand-alone >> controller-based >> system. >> I got the advice here to look into MMC cards, which, contrary to SD cards, >> don't require licensing and other strings attached. >> >> Now I've taken a more in-depth look at what's involved in using MMC cards, >> and I find that I the PIC controllers I'm used to (the 16F series, mostly) >> are completely unsuitable -- especially FAT support requires more far >> program and data memory than available in this series. >> > >Richard, I cannot remember the details but I recall something about avoiding >the FAT reqirements by using a single large file on the MMC cards, allowing >use of low end pic's. If this is just a one off project it may be worth you >having another look at it. IIRC you can find code to use SD cards in SPI mode, including a FAT file system, for the PIC24, which is pretty cheap and easy to use. The C compiler is free forever if you don't use optimization, AFAIR (but check license terms if that's important to you). The Windows-based IDE is free. I'm sure there is info out there for Linux, but I'm not familiar with it. You can also implement a USB host and use a flash drive mass memory device, with a somewhat higher end micro. All this kind of flash memory has an upsetting tendency to just go away for substantial periods of time when you write to it (as much as hundreds of ms), even though the peak and average throughput may be quite high, so make sure you use a micro with enough RAM to buffer your data for a goodly amount of time. |