Micro Controller software on a pc (pc as a P.I.C)

Other Hardware 3rd Party Boards
1

Good day,

Is there like a linux distro or a program etc, im not sure.

That i can load onto a computer (in my case a thin client) and then use its paralle port as io pins?

I am currently developing a project, and i really need multi threading. The arduino is just abit limiting for this.
it needs to constantly send the computer (control computer) 2 distance sensors values, control a varienty of motors and leds tranistors etc.

I was just wandering if there was such a thing? Might be able to make my project more powerfull.

Thanks

2

What's 'P.I.C"?

3

Zapnologica:
I am currently developing a project, and i really need multi threading.

What makes you think that? Maybe you just need to interleave the code properly.

4

dhenry:
What's 'P.I.C"?

5

I am not sure what you mean.
If you want to write a program that diddles with the parallel port, no problem, just use your favorite toolchain.
If you want to emulate a PIC, no, there is nothing like that - certainly nothing that would treat the parallel port as input/output pins.

Besides, if you just emulate the PIC, you lose your multithreading.

6

Zapnologica:
I am currently developing a project, and i really need multi threading. The arduino is just abit limiting for this.
it needs to constantly send the computer (control computer) 2 distance sensors values, control a varienty of motors and leds tranistors etc.

Multi-threading is not the magic bullet some people think it is.

You are asking on the Arduino forum for multi-threading software for the PIC family of processors? Why? Why not ask on the PIC forum?

http://www.microchip.com/forums/

7

i was looking for some sort of software to make an "ardruino" out of a computer, type of setup.

So use the computers hardware to process etc, but i realized i will need extra hardware for the I/O pins.

And arduino is not just a cpu and memory.

8

Zapnologica:
Is there like a linux distro or a program etc, im not sure.

That i can load onto a computer (in my case a thin client) and then use its paralle port as io pins?

Can you clarify? Do you mean a PC (like, a Windows PC)? Or a PIC chip (like, the things Microchip makes)?

9

You might find something like this useful if you are trying to program a computer to interact with other hardware:

http://www.icpdas.com/root/product/solutions/pc_based_io_board/pci/pci-826lu.html

"Universal PCI, 250 kS/s, 32/16-ch 16-bit Analog Input, 2-ch 16-bit Analog Output and 32-ch Programmable DIO"

However that would be a VERY VERY expensive solution. But if you might be able to find something similar but slightly less powerful and cheaper.
EDIT: something like this:
http://accesio.com/go.cgi?p=/pci/pci_dio_24d.html
Of which their are some going cheap (~£40) on eBay at the moment.

10

P. I. C. also stands for "Programmable Interface Controller" which is I think what the OP is really asking about and not a Microchip product... Cool tools for some...

Bob

11

When he was asked what P.I.C. stood for he linked to: PIC microcontrollers - Wikipedia

So it looks like the PIC chip family. But then he goes on to say:

i was looking for some sort of software to make an "ardruino" out of a computer

12

I do apologize... I did Miss That... Seems to me there was a PIC used in the early XT/AT machines and that rang an old dusty bell.

Bob

13

http://arduino.cc/playground/Code/Messenger is one implementation of easing serial communication with an Arduino to turn into into a sort of dumb I/O board.

14

Chagrin:
Arduino Playground - HomePage is one implementation of easing serial communication with an Arduino to turn into into a sort of dumb I/O board.

I will have a look at that.

Thanks for posting some thing useful.