Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Very low cost Pickit2 Gauss meter?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Very low cost Pickit2 Gauss meter?

    I've been reading the gauss meter group buy & other associated threads with interest. I quite fancy one of these myself, but can't really justify one - then it suddenly occured to me that anyone like myself who already has a Microchip Pickit2 is already 70% there wrt to constructing a very low cost gaussmeter.

    Hear me out (then feel free to shoot me down in flames!).

    Firstly, for those that aren't familiar with what I'm talking about, a Pickit2 is kind of like a 'Beginners intro to Pics' - but with a programmer thrown in too (a Pickit2 costs about £40 ...which at present exchange rates is about $70 I think)...



    Essentially, it's a PIC programmer that can rather handily provide power to a small cct board (the 5V it supplies is derived from your PC's USB port), but rather funkily, the Pickit2 package comes with a nice little utility called 'Uart Tool', that runs on your PC & acts as a 'conduit' between you cct board & your PC for serial data - this provide onscreen PC info from your circuit....as well as keyboard input.

    Therefore in principle, all it would need is a circuit board with a simple opamp and hall effect trannie - then a little PIC program to AtoD the result for onwards display on a PC.

    I've just ordered myself up an Allegro A1302 from the far east & will have a pop at this when it arrives. The major win here being - providing you already own a Pickit2 - is cost...I'd imagine the outlay should be no more than £5 (about $7.50), due to the PICkit2 programmer 'hosting' a lot of the extra bits & pieces needed for the circuit (PSU, display, IO etc).

    Of course, if you don't already own a PICkit2 ...or weren't pondering buying one to 'get into PICs', then it's not such a viable option cost wise...but still thought it worth tabling here for comments anyway!
    Last edited by peskywinnets; 09-01-2009, 03:40 PM.
Working...
X