buffer for the pic

Status
Not open for further replies.

Gaston

Member
is there an octal buffer that is generally used to buffer the outputs of a pic. all of the ones i see are tristate. i just need something to supply a little more current. a darlington array mabey? but they are a bit pricey
 
How much current do you need? Most families of buffer chips can handle a decent amount of current - 10's of mA's.

TI has a line of logic gates with built-in power mosfets (100 mA+)

**broken link removed**

Personally I like the TPIC6C595 parts -its a combination 8 bit shift register and 100mA output mosfet array which only eats up 3IO's.
 
Gaston said:
is there an octal buffer that is generally used to buffer the outputs of a pic. all of the ones i see are tristate. i just need something to supply a little more current. a darlington array mabey? but they are a bit pricey

The ULN2803/04 are cheap octal darlington arrays.
 
i just want to drive the base of lets say a tip140 and an led at the same time. and in a dip package
 
Gaston said:
is there an octal buffer that is generally used to buffer the outputs of a pic. all of the ones i see are tristate. i just need something to supply a little more current. a darlington array mabey? but they are a bit pricey
I used a 74HC573 as in the attachment.

The PIC i/o are connected to the input pins (left hand side) and I connected LEDs to the outputs.

The 220k resistor network and 220k resistor (could not buy a longer RN as the shop was out of stock) is to pull the inputs low when some or all of the PIC i/o pins are defined as inputs.

The 74HC573 is a tri state, but I've disabled the tri state to make it a straight buffer. See the data sheet for the 74HC573.
 

Attachments

  • PIC tester.gif
    2.8 KB · Views: 281
Gaston said:
i just want to drive the base of lets say a tip140 and an led at the same time. and in a dip package

It all depends how bright you want the LED's, a PIC could easily do it without a buffer - or you could simply feed the LED from collector of the TIP140, why have two buffers?.
 
the darlingtons are going to be driven by a fairly long wire and the leds are going to be on the board with the pic. which is another reason i want something between the pic and the darlingtons because if the wire got shortedi don't want to desrtoy the pic
 
Nigel's right, I don't think I've ever managed to kill a PIC I/O, even if shorted to ground when it was driven high - you could still kill them by driving them with some high-voltage external source or something of course...
 
The reason I installed the buffer is to minimise the load on the PIC.

My recollection is that the PIC can source or sink 25 mA. So with the buffer driving the LEDs, I have virtually the full 25 mA to drive other devices.
 
ljcox said:
My recollection is that the PIC can source or sink 25 mA. So with the buffer driving the LEDs, I have virtually the full 25 mA to drive other devices.

I suppose... but bear in mind that the 25mA limit is per pin - and that usually the next restriction on top of that is a combined 100mA per PORT, and usually 200-300mA for the whole chip.

Not that I'm suggesting it's a good idea to push the limits, but you can probably get away with more than you might think - LED's with proper current limiting resistors are a piece of cake, though running bipolar power transistors might indeed make the buffers worthwhile depending on what you're switching.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…