Which microcontroller to use?

skippy84

Hello, I am building a car audio system with alot of motorization, and lighting effects. I plan to use 2 servos and 2 stepper motors up front to position the tweeters, as well as motorized amp racks and the like. I have used the basicstamp before, but was wondering which micro to use, I.E. propeller, stamp, or what . I have some programming experience, but not sure if anything above the stamp would be 2 hard to learn. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Bryan

Mike Green

It's hard to give you useful advice without more information about what you need to do with the microcontroller in your project. If you just want to control 2 servos and 2 stepper motors, than pretty much any microcontroller will do. You'll need some kind of motor controller or at least driver transistors for the steppers.

My particular bias is to use the BS2p/pe/px series because of the extra statements supported and the extra special memory (scratchpad ram and multiple program "slots"), but a plain BS2 would also do. The Propeller is probably overkill unless you want to use a video monitor for control purposes, although I find the Propeller easy to use too.

skippy84

Thanks very much I was thinking about the propeller also, because I am doing some touch screen stuff in the vehicle, but not sure if I am going to use the E-PLEX system from ED&D yet. Thanks bunches for the info.

Ugha

If you want to keep costs down the SX is a decent choice. You have to buy an SX-key but you can use that for any future projects too.
SX/B is also a good bit like PBASIC so its easy to make the move from BS2 to SX.