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I have looked at the PIC and Atmel AVR chip families. I only wrote sample code for the high speed loops, but I am fairly confident that the high end chips from either family have enough processing power for this project.
My main worry now is that the on board analog components will not be good enough. I was not able to figure out from the specs what kind of quality to expect when reading a 6600 Hz signal. So the next step is to run some tests. That means deciding on which chip family to use.
The choice came down to a trade off between chip architecture and availability of development boards. I found that I like the AVR architecture better. I think it will be easier for me to program in this project. On the other hand there are more PIC development boards to choose from. But I did find an AVR board that has enough prototyping space for the project. So I have ordered an AVR board that has an AT90S8535 with an internal 10 bit A/D.
I will run some A/D tests before going to the trouble of building the preamp. I will use a PWM to drive the transmit coil and use the A/D to measure the voltage across the transmit coil. This will be a large voltage that I do not need a preamp for. I will be able to find out how much noise the A/D sees and how many useable bits of data I can get.
Robert Hoolko
My main worry now is that the on board analog components will not be good enough. I was not able to figure out from the specs what kind of quality to expect when reading a 6600 Hz signal. So the next step is to run some tests. That means deciding on which chip family to use.
The choice came down to a trade off between chip architecture and availability of development boards. I found that I like the AVR architecture better. I think it will be easier for me to program in this project. On the other hand there are more PIC development boards to choose from. But I did find an AVR board that has enough prototyping space for the project. So I have ordered an AVR board that has an AT90S8535 with an internal 10 bit A/D.
I will run some A/D tests before going to the trouble of building the preamp. I will use a PWM to drive the transmit coil and use the A/D to measure the voltage across the transmit coil. This will be a large voltage that I do not need a preamp for. I will be able to find out how much noise the A/D sees and how many useable bits of data I can get.
Robert Hoolko