Is there an all round best micro

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C

col_implant

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Hi All,

I am involved in biomedical instrumenation development, I use micros for general control, measurements, stimulations etc nothing too demanding I think. I have used the midrange PICs, PIC16/PIC18 in the past and have been happy with them. We are starting new projects and people are suggesting ADU micros which if I remember from my college years are something of a mess to use (or maybe i was something of a mess in college ). I have some collegues who use Actmel micros and they swear by them. Also have had a look and the TI range, they seem nice in hardware terms at least. ST also have some nice micros.

So, sure I could find reason to use any of the above micros mentioned for any individual project. Being an engineer (ie inherently lazy... urg i mean efficient) I would rather pick one and run with it for all projects past and present. No use learning too many different assembly instruction set, and micro hardwares when at the end of the day im more interested in the other aspects of instrumentation development.

Can anyone suggest a good all rounder? Should i stick with the PIC midrange? Or is ther a better option

Cheers
C
 

Take a serious long look at TI products. It's difficult to say any one choice is best, but it's hard to go wrong with TI if you are talking about commercial applications.
 
If you are already using PIC's, and they do what you want, then it seems folly to change them? - PIC's are one of the most popular devices, and certainly the most popular from a single manufacturer.

If you want a bit more power you might consider moving to the 18F series, but if the cheaper 16F series do what you want, what would be the point?.

But as with everything, there's no 'best' - each has advantages and disadvantages.
 
It really depends what you need it to do. I assume you will be developing in C and so the only real criteria is memory, speed and peripherals. What would be the most complex project you would need it to do?

Mike.
 
My suggestion would be the PIC12F683 and the PIC16F88 from Microchip depending on the complexity of the application. Both offer a multichannel internal 10-bit A/D converter, an internal oscillator option and low power capabilities. I have had good luck with both of these in various applications.

For examples of how to apply each see the following links:
Solar Data Logger based on the PIC16F88 **broken link removed**
Digital Temperature Logger based on the PIC12F683 **broken link removed**

Jeff
 
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