Experimental 3/5 core DMX cable tester. (Including PIC software.)
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- This is just an experiment to see if a very simple USB powered circuit could be used to test long DMX cables where the other end is remote. It basically uses a PIC microcontroller to light LEDs in the passive receiver plug that indicate correct termination and then scans them all for a short time to allow cable wiggling tests to detect broken cores.
This is strictly experimental, so I'm not sure how the PIC will handle being coupled directly to long runs of cable. It does have resistors on its output pins and internal protection diodes to the supply rails, so it should be OK. (Only one way to find out.)
The tester isn't designed to be used through the data in and out of lights, but shouldn't harm them as its levels are similar to the 485 levels used in DMX data transmission. Some cheaper lights may actually react randomly to the test signals if they don't check for data validity.
All the resistors are 220 ohm. This provides protection to the PIC when it is connected to a shorted cable, reduces the peak current if connected to a line with a residual charge or if connected to a signal source and also partly limits the current through the LEDs in the receiver.
The receiver also has three 220 ohm resistors to limit the current through the LEDs if the receiver is plugged into an active network.
The transmitter contains a programmed PIC12F635 microcontroller, an optional (but recommended) 100nF 50V decoupling capacitor across it's power supply pins and three or five 220 ohm resistors between its output pins and the socket connections. Power is supplied by a hacked USB lead. The pins are connected to the socket via a 220 ohm resistor as follows.
channel 1 = pin 7
channel 2 = pin 6
channel 3 = pin 5
channel 4 = pin 3
channel 5 = pin 2
+5V goes to pins 1 and 4
0v goes to pin 8
The receiver has an identical circuit connected to each pin. A 220 ohm resistor and then an LED and generic 1N4148 diode in inverse parallel with all the LED cathodes (and 1N4148 anodes) commoned.
I recommend the use of high output red LEDs as the older red technology is more rugged and also has a slightly lower forward voltage.
You can find the 3 and 5 channel hex files for use with the PICkit2/3 programmers at:-
www.bigclive.com/freebies.htm
plus also the assembler files so you can play with the code.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm 
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"... and the reason I chose a PIC12F635, is because I have over a thousand of them, so that seemed like a good idea!" :D
David Graham Well, there are times when availability and ease of use make a good compromise instead of choosing the best fitted solution.
IMHO If I had to pick a PIC to buy, I'd use a SOT23-5 PIC10F200 for this simple application.
SOT23-5 would not be enough pins for testing 5 core cables as SOT23-5 has only 3 I/O pins. Even for a 3 core tester I would like to have a few I/Os to spare. Offcourse, Muxing the pins is always possible, but it quickly becomes more complex do mux/demux signals the to simply use a bigger PIC:
bigclive.com digikey clone soon? BigCliveKey.co.uk?
On Digikey there's a price break at 100... comes out to around $1657 Canadian for all those.
+sarowie Serial to parallel conversion is really easy actually, using 74HC164s (8-bit SIPO shift registers). If you've got 128 lines to check, you only need 16 registers in a chain! :D
I made a MIDI keyboard out of an old electronic organ in much the same way, it's just backwards (parallel-in/serial-out).
I'm trying to picture how that might have happened: Clive walks down to Poundland - "Special offer: 1K PIC bundle, one pound!" - "okiedokie then..."
@5:05 !! HA!! Nearly pissed myself laughing. I was expecting you to show a data sheet and have a technical reason for selecting that PIC. "...because I have over 1000 of them" LOL - You got me dude!! Good one!
-I manage the A/V dept. at our church, and we discuss the need for this often!! We have 'Remote 8-wire Ethernet testers', we occasionally need the same for XLR and 1/4". This is a great project!
David House Sr. you could make an xlr to Ethernet adapter and just use the Ethernet testers ☺️
Was going to suggest the same.
Excellent. Explaining the program by printing the assembler code on yelloish paper ... very pure. like it.
It's white paper with warm white lighting and locked white-balancing on the camera, though.
I like all your video formats (tear downs, reviews, etc.) but this format - i.e. where you design something and work through your design decisions, component choices, little details like wires on the USB cable etc., - I like this most, because it makes a really good start for me to design little things that are similar or even completely different but using the same concepts. Very inspiring!
You could also use a common anode RGB LED and just invert the logic (all but one pin high on the PIC).
5:05 wow, that came unexpected
Omg... i was drinking just as he did that. Lets just say i got liquid all over the place, and in the wrong thought. Clive! :D
I lolled too :D
Only thing that made me laugh in the vid
Once upon a time I used to do experiments with the acquisition computer some distance from the detectors with a lot of it being controlled by Camac (Computer Applications Measurement and Control). One of the things that would often cause trouble was a bad line on the multi pin camas connectors, so eventually an engineer suggested I write something that would verify the camac lines and I did. It was called Camtest and it was a god send. Hope this proves as useful to you.
A cable tester design was my first PIC project.
Thanks for posting.
I built a similar tester (the non pic version) for testing portable heart monitors when I worked in the electronics department in a hospital in DK in the 80'ies.
When new, the wires were nice and soft. But because the nurses used alcohol for cleaning, the wires became stiff and inflexible. Result, loads of testing for bad connections.
I doubt they use alcohol now, with ozonated water readily available. Love that stuff.
Will pass this along to a stage production friend. They may find this very compact and useful 😺😺
We have a tester that basically decrypts the signal and also tells you the polarity of the signal(which you can do with actual data due to the protocol itself). it also uses the ground reference and the Pins referenced to eachother. So you'll see if there's a problem with the ground or if you have a problem with one of the data pins. My physics teacher built it back in school.
Nothing encrypted, so nothing decrypted.
Well turning the ones and zeroes back into an adress and a value and telling you the length of the start/stop signal and if it's there at all...
L O L ... ".. Is because I have over a thousand of them."
Back in my theatre days, we had a similar multi-cable tester that you showed at the beginning of the video. One of the venues was a permanent installation with many dimmers using AMX, and as they added new dimmers, of course they got DMX. We had a converter that ran between our light board and the dimmers backstage. (A bit off the subject: We had a patch panel that looked like an old-fashioned 'phone operator' panel. Any dimmer (different capacities) could be connected to any circuit. Most of the fly's had circuit/sockets above the pipe. Very handy indeed!
You don't need the 10k resistor for the reset pin, but it helps for troubleshooting\development as you can then pull it to GND later for any reason, without shorting out the power supply.
I imagine that tool is worth its weight in gold for the job you do!
You're my hero. I have a pile of XLR cables that have may be broken and I've been putting off testing them. Now I have motivation to do so!
Hey thanks for the greats videos! Although I have no knowledge whatsoever on the type of topics this channel covers, I nevertheless find myself fascinated. Keep up the good work, and thanks for uploading :)
Another good video from Big Clive.
I loved that you got the purpose of commenting right on the money, to let others know what you were thinking! Now if I could just get the rest of the software developers to do the same thing my job would be easy.
Thanks Clive, another simple to construct aid. I am in the telecommunications industry and have problems all the time tracing cables. I can see a use her for me. I will be having a build and adapting.
Great channel always interesting topics.
Nice idea.
As in all low power usb-fed builds like this one, you may want to add two LEDs and a small resistor in series over the power supply, in order to identify a dodgy USB power source quickly.
And if you would build an inverted twin of this build, you can use the two sets to identify and test two cables at one go. That could half down the time you spend walking back and forth when testing fixed installations of XLR cabling.
Any plans to actually create the tester? I would really like to see it in action.
I have a cable tester, it produces a pattern on its LEDs similar to the first chip you show here. Designed to use with ethernet cables, I also have adapters to some other stuff. You can connect both ends of a cable to the device, or one end, or jumper the output to a wall plate for premise wiring, and use a remote to verify stuff. It's come in handy to show me which cables really are ethernet cables and which aren't, and to show things like crossed pairs, etc. The "fast" speed is similar to what your tester does, "slow" goes a lot slower, I guess giving you the chance to wiggle thing around. Runs off a 9V battery. I should probably open it up one of these days and see how it works. :-)
I like the 2nd programming.
The flashy stuff really gives you a better idea on what's going on.
Jesus, this guy's assembly is more readable than my C++
Clever idea! after seeing this and downloading the software, i bet, at this time in China, they finished the testing stage and the connector tester is ready for mass production. :)))
It's been a while since I encountered assembly "in the wild", and it's nice to read your code. Also, great documentation! You know the programmer knows their stuff if the comments are full of snark :)
Although, it would've been better if your documentation included the fact that your "DELAY" and "SDELAY" routines also turn on the LEDs selected by the bits in the working register. Other than that, it's all fine. The "DECFSZ" operator is a tricky one, though, if you've never seen it before.
If you don't mind me asking, how much did you spend on the 1000 PICs? Must have been quite a deal if you bought that many.
They cost about 30$ on aliexpress in lots of 50 with delivery. Since he has a few thousand, I'm guessing he paid a lot less than 0.60$ a chip.
Exactly, unless he uses them *a lot* (like hundreds every month), it doesn't make sense to buy such a huge stock _unless_ you get a really good price and I'm curious as to what that price was.
well he does use/sell them preprogramed with the rgb controller kits i'd guess thats why the collection there www.bigclive.com/shop.htm
dgo85 The kits currently use PIC12F629 chips. I get through a lot of them too.
I love the juxtaposition of a guy capable of programming in assembly printing said code out on paper. :)
+Ray Cathcart It should have been tractor fed dot matrix printed paper for effect.
@@bigclivedotcom Nah, it should have been the original coding forms on which you wrote out the program, with your hexadecimal hand-assembly to the left of it.
You could create the most powerful supercomputer in the entire universe with all those PICs. That's basically infinite computing power in these tubes.
It's funny how audio and lighting both use XLRs for connectivity, I'd hate to be the muppet who connected a lighting system to an audio amp... :P
Random unpredicted rave party!!!!!!
That's why the direction is reversed. You can't plug a cable where DMX "comes out" (XLR female at the end of the cable) into an amp that expects sound to "come in" (XLR male at the end of the cable).
@TobyAsE120 But you could toast a mic and probably the DMX output if you plug them together.
anonym musiteufel the components usually are quite tough, but im Not entirely sure whether something would Happen. maybe give it a try...
but you wouldnt even get so far. connecting up DMX and placing the mics are usually quite a Long Shot away from each other (time-wise) when you Set up an Event.
Actually the DMX standard says that only 5 pin XLR connectors should be used to prevent mix up between audio and lighting cable. However most cheap fixtures use 3 pin connectors since the 3 pin XLR connectors are much cheaper than 5 pin variants.
Hi Clive, I designed and built a cable tester for my audio cables that does intermittent fault detection as well as showing pin-to-pin layout using only discrete components a few years ago. I'll see if I still have the schematics lying around somewhere - or just pull it apart and redraw it. It's been an absolute lifesaver for me!
How does it do that?
You and Dave Jones must be close! You have the next version of DaveCAD with hierarchical sheets and larger usable area! This isn't even out to be beta tested yet! COOL!
that's a cool looking cable tester I made something similar for a cable tester we had at work it tested 60 connections which tested for continuity and showed open circuit and also crossed over connections and indicated which connector was at fault
You could do like I do when building something "semi-permanant" instead of using resin/epoxy use high-temp hot glue instead. That way if you ever need to service it, you could heat it with a hot air gun to melt the glue out then service it and replace the glue. Can get a bit messy but it works. Cheers.
I used to use a hobbes 258991 for cable testing. I made adapters from "anything" to D-Sub 25 and tested every cable made before shipment. Simple in theory and praxis - awesome in result. Of course, that was a lab/workshop tool, not a field tool like this, but the flexibility pays off.
Great video Clive. I couldn't help thinking that perhaps the PIC could have been better used by looping back the output to the input and doing some form of automated tested. Maybe doing something clever with rise times. I built a few PIC based cable tester for testing some special machine harnesses, these had large multi core Harting connectors and the pins used to frequently push back into the housing and loose the connection. I had more pins and used a bigger PIC. Unfortunately these tester did not survive long as the service techs kept plugging them into live cables. These were 415 three phase and data. Bang
very clearly explanation and very practic usefull wire tester
use these all the time, amazing tool to have
In case anyone is interested, I wrote an AVR version (in c) for the ATtiny85 at github.com/samueldewan/cable-tester/ .
It can be easily configured to support 1-5 cores, custom timing and common anode or common cathode wiring.
Awesome!
Plot twist, DMX based Beowulf cluster just by linking them end to end.
My first PIC programmer was one I knocked up myself with the guts of a USB keyboard (using status LEDs as clock, data and R/W gate, with output via one of the key connections), wrote the assembler for it too :)
Would it be worthwhile to have the micro verify a signal, rather than LEDs? (Would need one with more IO ofc)
Say there's a very brief fault, quick enough that the change on LED might not be visible to a person, but the micro would detect it
This is is the same way the cheap network cable testers work. Nine remote LEDs so you can test shielded cable, each with an inverse diode across it. The one I've got uses a 555 and a 4017 plus scan and single step switches.
a suggestion for an improvement (if possible).
if you put LEDs on both ends it would help in several ways.
1/. remote connection either unit can be put at any end, which helps with cable identification of remote positions (multiple cables missing id tags)
2/. helps if iffy connection is at either end and you cannot see the other end.
3/. if different programmed sequences are used then 2 or more units can be used simultaneously to identify 2 or more cables at the same time.
Not having worked in lighting but in none professional (village hall type) sound, many many years ago, long before DMX was readily available.
This would have saved me a lot of trouble rigging a stage.
Great video, it got me thinking if it would be too complicated to add a button to switch between step scan and the "wiggle test" modes.
HOLY CRAP BATMAN! That's a lot of PICs.
..."see how my mind works..."
16:33 Oh hell no!! :)
That would be a scary place!
But fun :D
Latched indication for testing intermittent faults would be great, I have been scratching my head with how to do that within software. So that once the connection drops, the led no longer shows steady state but intermittent untill power off or reset somehow. It could be quite hard to spot in the scanning mode.
Just curious, why not have the pic step through the pins then endlessly loop the "scan" function? Also, any plans on selling complete units or at least the kits with pre programmed pic controllers? I know which end of a soldering iron is which but programming is a bit beyond me.
Great video Clive and a super simple idea. Any chance you could sell the PIC12F635 microcontroller pre-programmed with the 3 channel hex on your site? I might also buy some 'LED flower PCBs' as they look fun to make also. I ask this as a PICKit3 or Arduino purchase just for one PIC is too much for me at this time to justify. Maybe you could do a video series (your melodic tone just makes such pleasant listening) on programming PICs from scratch & the equipment you use?
>DMX
Clive Gon Give It To Ya?
I know, not what it stands for, but I couldn't resist and everyone else has already made a million jokes about your chip collection.
It stands for Digital MultipleX, the Oberheim DMX drum machine, or Dark Man X.
More on pic programming please Clive !
Clive would the resistors be OK if they had 42V phantom power pushed down them accidentally?
Boris Stanier normally, it should be fine! Because phantom power has series resistance of something like 6 or 8 kOhm so it's current limited.
Now if you assumed an angry off spec phantom power source... That would be quite another matter.
You could have done the same thing with the leds on the transmitter side, it would help you out on understanding which wire on the transmitter matches the wire on the receiver.
Great work
Love the wide type of things you post.... Kabletester, build one based on ESP8266/esp32... then you can make a web interface and use a mobile to setup/adjustment/etc when out in the wild..
Jeeze louise that's a lot of PICs.
That's some very well commented code.
Interesting stuff, and a nice simple program to run it. I enjoy that you go the extra minimalist mile by writing it in assembly. For ultra-minimalist scanning, I wonder if one could simply wire up a very fast ring oscillator?
If i would like to try this out, could you fax over the code printouts?
Oh, the nostagia of typing in code from computer magazines, spending a month to debugging it to get it running, only to find out in the next issue that there was a error in the printing.... hmmm... nah, can't say i miss it.
Can this method be used to test other cables?, As long as the chip has enough pins for the cable you want to test.
How bright are the leds after a long run of cable?
Very good idea BUT with the intermittent fault I note that when you reconnected the lead 12:31 it shows all ok so you might miss it how about some latch if its sees an open circuit?
Why no feedback diodes in the transmitting side? As it is now u have to use the receiving end to get some feedback
LOL! That's a good reason to choose that PIC!
with over a 1000 PIC's we can have a pic-nic
know im a dummy for asking but i have seen thoughs white blocks before, what are they? I mean i know there a kind of board but whats the name of them?
snowfurthefox Breadboard.
thank you very much
Is that the same chip you used in the RGB kits you sold from your website? (i got one years ago before you came to the Island)
+CrashOrgasm Different PIC. PIC12F629. But could run the code with modifications.
bigClive is so obsessed with warm white, even his printer papers are warm n yellow!!
i have the behringer ct 100 cable tester and its very good, you can test: short circuits, intermitent conection, phantom power an also a test tone with level adjustment, but yes i would like it to have a remote...
won't you need LEDs at both ends when you're wiggling connectors?
I have seen pickit 2 and 3 on ebay for cheaper than from microchip. Which one do you recommend, are the cheaper versions ok to use?
I would recommend the pickit 2 by default. The pickit 2 is simple to use and you do not need to change the firmware as often as with a pickit 3. Pickit 2 has/had (I last used it on windows XP) a good standalone programmer software.
I would go for a pickit 3, when I would need support for more modern High End PICs, simply because companies tend to support newer products better then legacy products.
(but pickit 2 might have better support for older pics)
Either-way: Checking the supported the PICs is important. If you plan on using a certain Controller, that might already dictate the decision. Even if not, the compatibility list is still important as it will one way or an other limit the controllers you can use.
Keep in mind, that both devices are kind of "old" for a computer accessory, speak older then five years.
Also keep in mind: Pickit 2 and 3 have limitations compared to other hardware:
Debugging microcontrollers is always tricky. The pickit 2 and 3 are limited compared to higher end debuggers. (After all Pickit 2 and 3 are mainly programmers, that also can debug. The expansive debugger are mainly debuggers, that can also program)
Also check for pickit 2 and/or 3 clones. That might be an option as well.
sarowie thanks for the reply! i previously decided to go for a pickit3 (thought it was overall better) but now im definitely going for a 2. i am also a bit conserned about those clones uploading malware to your computer, have this been a problem to you?
I'd be tempted to make a smart pair using a chip with a few more I/O lines, so that you get full diagnostics at both ends.
This should work with xlr microphone cables, it would be really useful to have at school :)
You could just use 2 PIC microcontrollers, one for stepping through slowly, the other for solid on, and switch between the two with a switch. That way you don't have to wait for the mode you want.
Cheap chinese ethernet cable tester works in similar way, it loops over all lines in order. It's missing all lines constant indication mode which would be very nice to have indeed for the same reason you mentioned!
The unit itself comes in two pieces which can be attached to both ends of the cable, not necessarily in the same room.
I still think your design has a flaw, it would be nice if it has a button to change the mode of operation. Debugging while is looping over modes could get quite annoying still.
If you put an LED and diode pair on the input s you should get the inverted signal at that input end.
This will allow you test test an in place cable without having to be at both ends, or if your helper is not having a good day you do not need to trust their feedback.
Why do you have so many PIC12F635? Is this a job lot gone wrong? Or something from a job that never happened?
TheUnFoundBug General stock. I sometimes use a lot of microcontrollers in props or other projects.
How to program a PIC12F635
Hi Clive, thanks for all the circuity-goodness. Have you considered adding LEDs at both ends so that you can diagnose an installed cable from either end? It might be more convenient sometimes. Also, you could use a very similar circuit for Ethernet CAT5 cable testing too. I can't resist asking... why have you got so many PICs?
I bought something like this for CAT5, but the PIC shown only has 5 open leads. How can this be done with 8 leads?
use a different pic
CAT5 testers are usually 4 pair and screen. The classic Mod Tap testers we use only have 4 LEDs plus one on either end. I'd send mine in for a size 15 bear tear down but they are £120. Worth making your own methinks.
You could multiplex the outputs quite easily.
We (company long gone) made some 10base-t ethernet installations back then and we made our own RJ45 cable tester system with similar idea.. It's kinda simple.. one PIC16C84 (yeah, that old) with leds and passives components. 2-part system was really handy cause one could leave active µc unit at hub/switch side and check the final line from some rooms away.
Never did release schematics or code.. Makes me wonder if I'd could find it.
Hey Clive sweet video.
I was wondering if you could help me on figuring out how to short a switch to turn on with out having to press a button to get it to go.
So what I am doing is I have already put in the LED mods in this Tonka Toy Police Car that I have been modding and even have it hooked into my High-Speed 1 Classics +5V and Ground.
But what I am wondering is how can I get the toy police car that uses a membraine push button to turn on when I run the red light on my High-Speed?
I think it has to do with shorting it out but not sure where I need to put the wiring I can get some photos to you if you need the circuit board which is not really to in depth.
You could possibly use an optoisolator across the button.
So do you send the apprentice to the other end and ask them whether the leds are on?
+Twotone No. You get your colleague to swap it about at the signal end while you analyse the results yourself.
Anyone know the location, cost and uses of the 1000 PIC's
will this signal be able to get through DMX repeaters?
+Prax Zimmerman No. You'd get something out the other side, but it's what the repeater would have interpreted at the input and would not be a proper test.
If RESET is active low (sounds right), you’ll want a 10K pull-up resistor tying it to +5VDC (for 0.5mA, right?). I’m new to Arduino, have worked with PICs in the past, and it seems these things want/need a pullup.
That said, the datasheet indicates a 20mA max on data pins for the ATMega 328P-PU. If the PIC is similarly rated, you’ll want a resistor between the reset pin and VCC, right?
I love your videos; you build useful things as opposed to my own weird tinkering! :) Building a Fox & Hound kit? Useful!
Does it really matter whether the RGB LED is common cathode or anode? Couldn't you just reverse the logic level of the outputs for either of them?
dillerboy You could, but I was meaning for use with the existing software.
Ah, makes sense.
edit: I couldn't quite see, but are you just doing noop loops for delays? Or are you setting up an onboard timer?
very cool.
Hey Clive, i really enjoy your videos!
There is one thing though, the audio levels are really low to the point that I can't understand you when listening to you on my laptop speakers. It would be really cool if you could bring the audio level up a bit.
Keep up the good work (=
Potion Seller it's probably your laptop speakers. He's coming in loud and clear over here at 50% volume
Potion Seller The Moto G4 I record with is let down badly by it's locked audio settings. Low level from the microphone and bass boost on an already bassy voice. I'll be trying a different recording device soon.
Clive I always turn down my bass on my logitech computer speakers (2.1) or otherwise the neighbours can dance on your voice vibes :)
I got a cheap tester that dose the same thing, it step though 8 LEDs for testing network and phone cable that has a fast slow scan switch.
had to get a new one when I plug power in and did not remove the other pace. burn the LEDs out.
A 555 timer with a shift register will do the same thing
Nice vid but could you put LED on both ends so no matter what end of cable you are you can see any problems
check out sound tube rat tester. tests individual pins and powers it.
Not using Neutrik XLRs? What blasphemy is this?
Neutrik is preferred, But I've run out of them.
Motorman2112 switchcraft is just as good
Mario Barreneche I haven't seen any in a while, but if they're still using screws then Neutrik are better when you want to quickly take them apart and reassemble to check for suspected problems.
The pin that is unused could select between 3 or 5 channel and use just one SW for all. If this DMX wiring is too long (not sure if it is) would help adding small caps and tvs diodes on each pin (guess that it wont fit in the shell anymore LOL). But PICs are very hard to kill, after all you have tons of them LOL But they tend to be a bit suceptible to noise that made its way to the pins. Long wiring can pick voltage effortlessly. You used MPLABx ?.
I did toy with that. Just linking that input pin to either 5V or 0V to select the number of channels. Would be easy to do.
I tried MPLABx and it was frustrating. Like starting at the bottom again and absolutely full of features that had to be waded through. I went back to version 8.
You are doing a Julian here and choosing a part that is in the category "only available whilst stocks last". I can buy the last two PIC12F635 from my local "quality" supplier or wait a few weeks for something black and with legs from China. I don't think the MCU matters and will grab whats available on offer locally.
Ahh assembler. OMG. It might be an idea to advance into the 1980s. :-) It was in 1989 that the company where I worked changed the coding standard to say "no assembler". This was for support reasons.
writing in Assembler is sometimes simpler then writing C.
MPLAB comes with a working assembler (no messing with the C tool chain), the Datasheet describes the assembler in detail, Clive already can write PIC ASM, most of the code is accessing Special Function Registers and the business logic is compared to setting the SFRs simple. I would write that in ASM as well. The software will require little maintenance in its life cycle. Most time in software maintenance for such a project will be spend on setting up the tool-chain (where is the pickit? MPLAB X looks so different from the previous version. Where is the driver for the pickit2? Firmware Upgrade for the programmer? Why and how? ...) Even in companies, a lot of time is wasted in rebuilding tool chains.
sarowie I abandoned MPLAB X. It was like starting from scratch and trying to find the simple bits you needed in a mountain of bloat.
Where is The Magic Smoke?
Excellent! :-) could you use this to build a ribbon cable tester too?
It could scale up with a bigger processor.
I've never had one of these. I always had to use a multimeter and do it the hard way.
Cheap as chips?
but a simple 555 timer and 4017 would have done the trick ... "I chose a PIC12F635, is because I have over a thousand of them" yeah.... ok, your fine. I trow with Atmega382s because I have 20 of them. quick and dirty prototyping doesnt care about whats the cheapest or lowest level. It cares about what you have at hand and think "yeah, why not?" ;) clever part sourcing Clive
Why do you have over 1000 PIC16F635....?
The PICs are "very cheap indeed."
One might almost say, "cheap as chips."
we made pretty much exactly this in school by using a 555 and a decade counter (we used it as an ethernet cable tester)
4017?
thx.. ging to build this..