In
any product design this step is of utmost importance. This is due to
several factors. First one is that the performance of the system you
design will be depending on the equipment/components you use to
create it. Next is that you should purchase the equipment keeping at
least one from each critical components redundant. So if you have
mistakenly broken one critical component you can use the spare.
Another reason is that some equipment needed to be purchased directly
from the manufacture so it will take some time to reach you due to
shipping, so you will be able to order components keeping a time
cushion for safety and you will be able to meet the deadlines.
What
are the most critical equipments in the TS?
First
is the processor. Here I used a PIC16F628A. This is one of the very
basic micro-controllers that you can purchase for around 1$. Due to
the simplicity of the project, we don’t need to buy any
sophisticated micro-controller. This is just a choice. This can be
done by using any other processors (Atmel AVR, etc.).
The
tasks that I want to accomplish using this micro-controller are quite
simple. I want to of course drive around five switches (the number of
switches will be decided later, for now we’ll plan for five). I
want a LCD display to control these switches. I want a
keyboard/keypad to insert commands.
We’ll
forget about power supply for now and just think about the main
board. I need relays to drive AC switches. I need transistors to
drive the relays since they need high current (output current of a
PIC is limited, so we need a current driver to drive the relays).
Those are the most critical parts. Some capacitors, resistors and
diodes will also be needed.
All
the equipment I stated above are available everywhere.
Relays
should be able to be driven by a mere 5V. That should be kept in
mind. And the LM016L LCD display will be used here. I chose it
because I have it with me :) and also it is available in the market
for around 5$.
With
those equipments in mind we’ll proceed to the next step.
:)
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