The AM Forum

Not being one familiar with actual programming of these kinds of things, is there any kind of programming environment for the usual small micro-controllers that would allow a person to draw a schematic from classic logic chips or gates, and it would make a program that would make the micro behave in the same manner?

This would be the same as having a small board full of 4000 or 7400 chips and replacing it with a micro controller.

Draw the schematic, and when it's done it makes the code for the micro controller.


It seems like a reasonable question. Any logic board has inputs and outputs, and so do micro controllers have GPIOs and more. The voltage levels and high speed are not important, just the overall functions.

The typical complexity of what I want to do is somewhat like this generic diagram (that circuit's function isn't important, it's just a picture).

I don't know about any schematic translation programs.  The thing to do today is to program with Verilog or VHDL and program a FPGA.  

I highly recommend starting to subscribe to Circuit Cellar magazine. The last issue provided an overview of this. It has the reputation of a hobby magazine for the computing field, primarily embedded programming projects.  However most of the authors are professional engineers, experienced hobbyists and engineering students.  Most of the projects covered are quite amazing, IoT, etc.  It's quite an educational magazine for us who are just following along for now.   For anyone wanting to subscribe, I also recommend getting back issues from the last few years too, as so much good project areas and electronics theory have been covered.

The advertisements at the rear of the magazine for the embedded parts and tools are very helpful.

I'm almost embarrassed to say that I don't know C language.  My goal is to learn in the near future as I want to do some receiver projects and it isn't like the 1980's anymore.  You used to be able to put a board of i.c.s together, strapping pins of a LSI chip to get the functions you need.  Now the chips require serial communications from a processor to configure them.

http://circuitcellar.com/inside-this-issue/

Thank you, I will have a look there.  I would as soon use a small board full of the old ICs but they are not as plentiful nor as diverse as they once were. It makes sense to use a micro and dispense with trying to find the simpler parts especially with the low-ish cost and all the helpful stuff available. There is also the advantage that you can redo the schematic, so to speak, by changing the program.

I agree with WA3KLR, using programmable arrays like FPGA is the right way to replace combinational and sequential logic in discrete chips. Microprocessors (now called microcontrollers) can certainly be programmed to mimic the inputs to outputs functionality of a logic block, but the disadvantages include lacking controlled timing (due to variable instruction speed, i/o speed) and being vulnerable to lockup, loss when power goes off, and having to boot and load to startup. One can imagine that some of the latest varieties are much better in this regard compared to old school uP's but programmable logic arrays and gate arrays are excellent at doing exactly what you request. I wasn't sure when starting a new transmitter project at work in 2009, but the controls engineer sold me when he replaced what I suggested with a couple of big FPGA chips, and did exactly what I needed. Plus we were able to reprogram numerous times as we realized we needed some new feature. This is a complex transmitter with solid state to 5 kW, driving a tetrode to 120 kW, driving a pair of combined tetrodes to several MW. Never had any faults or failures due to the logic quitting. Power supplies, op amps, and connectors, yet, but the program is solid and emulates what I have seen done in circuit boards full of 4000 and 7400 family logic ICs.

FPGAs are mainly used to do tasks a micro controller cannot do efficiently, such as parallel or low latency operations or doing custom logic at hardware speeds. FPGAs can do the heavy stuff where a micro controller would do the opposite. Depending on what's needed in the radio domain, an Arduino would do the job in most cases.  PICs and Basic Stamp are old. Arduino is king and plenty fast.  C and C+ is easy.

Nuts and Volts magazine, although not as advanced as Circuit Cellar, is another source of various microcontroller projects and programming guidance. Once a give-away rag at hamfests, it has risen in status as an entry to programming with plenty of related advertisements. Frankly, I'm still satisfied with a soldering iron and a bunch of components.

[url][http://www.nutsvolts.com//url]

Bob - NE

I'm also satisfied with traditional ICs and transistors for logic, and even tubes where there is a reason for it or I should say only a few reasons against it. The thyratron comes to mind. But some of these things are cumbersome for control systems and and the newer of these things like through hole IC types are passing over time, as even a DIP socket is likely to be used today as a cheap hookup for a ribbon cable rather than an IC hole.