Brian Stine's Smart Programmer Turns PIC Chips Into Programmable Oscillators and Pulse Generators
Designed as an alternative to 555 timers, custom ICs, and homebrew code on microcontrollers, the PULS-1 is an easy-use PIC programmer.
Electronics engineer Brian Stine has launched a crowdfunding campaign for a tool designed for anyone who's found off-the-shelf oscillators a pain: the PULS-1, a board which turns cheap PIC microcontrollers into programmable oscillators and pulse generators.
"Have you ever needed an oscillator or one-shot at some reasonably low frequency (e.g. < 1MHz or > 1ms) and modest accuracy," Stine asks rhetorically. "Of course, we nearly all have. Usually, three options present themselves: (a) 555 timer chips or relatives (b) relatively expensive integrated circuits (e.g. LT-6995) (c) microcontrollers with custom code."
"We have created a new option which combines the best of all options. The PULS-1 system allows you to create either (a) an oscillator with adjustable duty cycle and frequency from ~1mHz to ~500kHz or (b) a pulse generator with re-triggerable and delay options with delays/pulse widths from more than 10 days down to 1 micro-second."
The board is designed to be as easy-to-use as possible: A DIP-8 or SOT23-6 packaged PIC10F200 microcontroller is inserted into a ZIF socket on the programming board and the desired characteristics and functions picked in software. Once finalised, the chip is programmed accordingly — and can be removed ready to be inserted into a circuit.
"The system covers VDD from 2V-5.5V and temperature from 0 to 50degC and can drive loads up to 3mA and sink loads up to 8mA," Stine explains. "The basic accuracy is +/- 0.2% at VDD=5V and T = 25degC and +/- 1% over 0-50 degC."
Stine is crowdfunding production for the programmer and supporting software on Kickstarter, with two reward tiers: The first, for $100, gets you a board suitable only for DIP-packaged parts, Windows-based programming software, and five DIP-8 PIC10F200 chips pre-programmed as oscillators at varying frequencies; the second comes with a board supporting both DIP and SOT-23-packaged parts, the same software, and ten pre-programmed oscillator chips.
All rewards are expected to ship by the end of the year, Stine claims.