The microcontroller M16C is a very powerful 16-bit-controller and is my new favorite controller for projects.
First the disadvantages: one piece costs 27€ (www.reichelt.de) and you have to have a pcb for everything. It has a 0.65mm-pitch-housing and 100 pins.
But there are so many advantages in using a powerful processor with high-level language support available that I decided to have a trail.
You can get more information from the German distributor of the controller, check www.glyn.de. They are offering a nice evaluation board including some software, including a free C-compiler.
Ok, equipped with this new stuff I found it was time to relaunch my PCR-1000-controller-project.
And after getting a mail from an old friend of mine, Peter, DL2OAM, another idea grew again: Combine the PCR-1000-controller with a GPS-Rx (and a converter for JRC-Code) and realize a device for position-signalstrength-tracking.
At this moment, Peter made the mistake to surgest me a new way of storing the tracking-data: Don't use a static RAM (an external one is needed, because the M16C has only 20kbytes of internal RAM), add an interface for a Compactflash Memory Card instead and you have more capacitity that you can ever use - for a really good price.
And so I have a much longer roadmap than expected.
I (started to) put it down here, as a help for me and as a checklist of my activities, Peter can control...
| No. | Activity | Status | Remark |
| 1 | Learn something about Compact Flash | done | look at www.compactflash.org |
| 2 | Learn something more about a DOS filesystem | partly done | |
| 3 | Describe the subset of filesystem-functions we will need | partly done | In the moment I don't plan to use subdirectories and long filenames. It is not sure that FAT32-support is needed |
| 4 | Set up a test environment on a PC | done | Using WinHex and WinImage I put some Compactflash Cards into an image file and programmed a small sector-oriented interface to access these files like a card. |
| 5 | Program all the functions for reading and writing files in a filesystem | about 10% | After trying to find ready-to-use-stuff in the internet I started to do it by my own... |
| 6 | Find a connector for the Compactflash Card | done, samples ordered | Let's see, If they trust my stories...samples arrived, great |
| 7 | Connect the Compactflash to the processor | about 20% |
Sorry, no more stuff in the moment, the UTRX-Front was more important...