HP-IB, Amigo/cs80 was Re: hp 9153 floppy & disk

[Tony Duell]

> > More seriously, the setup for microcontrollers should be pretty  
> > simple.
> > Most of the modern ones seem to have an in-system-programming  
> > interface,
> > normally similar to SPI. That can be bit-banged over the lines of a
> > parallel port.
> 
>    Hmm.  No machines with parallel ports here, except for classic  
> ones.  I suppose I could use a 5150..

I said 'can be bit-banged ove the lines of a parallel port' not 'nust be 
bit-banged...' :-). I've seen devices that connect to a USB port at one 
end and to a microcotnroller at the other (the one I saw was for PICs, 
and not surpisinging it contained a PIC and not much else..) I am sure 
such things exist for most microcontrollers.

As an aside, I miss the 'user ports' that existed on some 1980s home 
computers (Commodore and the BBC micro being the obvious ones). It's a 
lot harder to play around with simple interfacing and control projects now.

> > As regards the actual hardware. as I said, you can hand-wire the
> > microcontroller, clock crystal, HPIB buffers, etc on a bit of  
> > square-pad
> > board in an hour or so.
> 
>    Very true.  It seems that many people think development boards are  
> "ready made microcontroller boards".  I can't tell you how many  
> development boards I've seen mounted in permanent, application- 
> specific chassis.  That kind of idiocy makes me ill.
> 

Me too. It really annoys me when I see a development board kludged into 
an applciation where it doesn't really fit. It would be a lot less effort 
(and money) to design the darn thing properly in the first place.

-tony