I've noticed a lot of free software for analyzing seismic signals. So I thought that I'd make 8 geophones out of speakers(coil and magnet), hit a metal plate on the ground with a sledgehammer thereby triggering an interrupt, and record the reflected seismic waves as detected by the geophones as a voltage change.
I'm new to microcontrollers. I've been messing around with VMLab, programming for various ATMEL chips, but the ATSK600 is too pricey for me right now. And all I need is:

battery powered to operate in the field.
read 8 channels, each about 20 times/second, preserving the timing from the interrupt.
save the data, maybe on a flash drive attached to a USB port.
​

and all for less than five bucks!
Thanks

​

 

So the "less than five bucks" was a joke if that's why I havn't received any replies.
I would have included this in the post by editing it but I couldn't find the "edit" button that was described in the faq that I looked at to see how to edit a post.

 

Hello,

Did you have a look at the pickit?
I got this one from Farnell:
http://nl.farnell.com/microchip/dv164120/starter-kit-pickit-2/dp/9847162
It comes with a 16F690, that has 12 ADC's in it.
That is a lot to play with.
Datastorage could possibly be done on a SD card.

Bertus

 

Thanks for your reply. What you suggest looks like it would work nicely.
I've never used PIC's.
I have a couple of questions.

the solution that you suggested looks like it includes a hardware device for burning the program.
Would installing a bootloader like AN1310 mean that I don't have to have a hardware program burner?
Should I get the hardware progrm burner anyway?


​

 

It would after using the hardware to load the bootloader initially, but unfortunately you can't use bootloaders on the 16F690...

 

Hello,
Did you have a look at the pickit?
I got this one from Farnell:

But have you taken it out of package yet. Just joking! But the PICKIT 2 on the end of its life cycle. If you have the money I will recommend a PICKIT 3. And the 16f690 do not support debugging directly from PICKIT 2

So the "less than five bucks" was a joke if that's why I havn't received any replies.
I would have included this in the post by editing it but I couldn't find the "edit" button that was described in the faq that I looked at to see how to edit a post.

http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/msp-exp430g2.html You will get far by 4.30 $

 

WOW! For a beginner this is a huge capability and low price.
The TI Launchpad seems like the winner over Picit.

But that may be because it's the last product I investigated. The MSP430G2231 has an 8 channel, 10 bit ADC.
​

But it has only 14 pins (versus 20). But I don't know how important a difference that makes.
So: is there a reason I should choose the Picit over the Launchpad?
As a beginner I'm looking for ease of developement. C or preferably C++ compiler.
You probably Know better than I do what I'm looking for...
Thanks for the terrific suggestions.

 

WOW! For a beginner this is a huge capability and low price.
The TI Launchpad seems like the winner over Picit.

But that may be because it's the last product I investigated. The MSP430G2231 has an 8 channel, 10 bit ADC.
​

But it has only 14 pins (versus 20). But I don't know how important a difference that makes.
So: is there a reason I should choose the Picit over the Launchpad?
As a beginner I'm looking for ease of developement. C or preferably C++ compiler.
You probably Know better than I do what I'm looking for...
Thanks for the terrific suggestions.

You choose what you think is best in the long run. Like how easy you can get new chips as one example. As it is for now the MSP430 may cheap. But well the options regarding chips that can be used in the MSP430 demo kit is limited. With a PICKIT you will be more free in your chip selection. C++ is not very often used for MCUs. You may read my posting here http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=42651

 

@t06afre: a very interesting post on c/c++.
Well, the picit 3 seems like the best then.
I can get it for $75+-canadian populated with a PIC18F45k20
which should take me all winter to figure out.
Thank you all so much for the advice.
I'd still think Atmel was my only choice if I hadn't asked the question here.

 

There is an 8051 with built-in 24-bit ADC and 8 channels:

http://bipom.com/products/us/318527.html

It may be easier to program than a PIC or MSP430.