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Which controller for this project?

Here we are...

What are the criteria to choose the "good" controller?
- Price of the IC => this one is not a problem, those components are just so... Cheap !! Oo'
- Number of pins for this project
- Easy to code, as it is a first for me
- Size
- Availability of the coding software & kit

Regarding the size, the idea is to be able to program the controller and install it on the board, or install the controller on the board and upload the code.
For this reason, I do not think Arduino is a good idea. Don't get me wrong, I don't say it is not good (I am not an expert) and I should give it a try for another project, just that it does not appear the best solution to have a stand-alone controller for this project without any interface/ intermediary card.

Then we have mainly two options: PIC controllers from Microchip or AVR from Atmel.
After having spent a long time reading different articles, comparatives, forums, etc etc... Well... Both solutions can be considered !

As it is the first controller I will be programming, I am going for the "original" stuff => PIC

From then, I need:
- A device to connect to the PIC and upload my program on it: the PICKIT 3 from Microchip is an official one and it is affordable. No need to spend time to save a couple of quids there.
- PIC as a free assembler available, I'll start from that.

Then we need to determine the number of pins for this project:
- Anode drivers: 1 pin per MPSA42 NPN transistor (1 transistor drives 2 multiplexed nixie gas tubes) = 3 pins for our 6 digits
- Cathode driver: 4 pins per cathode driver, 2 cathode drivers (1 K555ID1 connects to 3 tubes) = 8 pins
- Setting buttons: 2 or 3 pins (to be confirmed!)
- Oscillator: 2 pins (OSCI1 & OSCI2) according to datasheets
- Supply: 2 pins (Vss & Vdd) according to datasheets

The choice will be a PIC 16F1828 (obviously it is not an optimized choice, but it has the minimum figures necessary for this project)
And well... It's only 1.5£ :)

If you want to have more details, please follow the link to the datasheet
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Location: Burnham, Slough, UK

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