keithI was doing some more tests trying to get the PC to fail.
It seems that the PC really likes EVEN delays between data, and it’s wierd because faster data that comes in evenly is better than slower data that comes in uneven.
In some cases I was dropping multiple bytes. Now I’m at the point where I’m not sure if the PC is screwing things up.
I’m going to go BACK to some sort of ACK’d protocol. But I don’t care for the one that I have used in the past.
In the meantime, I’ve been researching memory options. I’m looking for something that is fast (have to write to it about 600kbps), reads/writes data in BYTES (so something x 8 bits), has about 32K bytes, is SERIAL because I don’t have a lot of pins, and has an easy enough interface to it.
I’ve been told that Ramtron has what I’m looking for, and I’m waiting to see if I can obtain some samples from them. I’d outright buy them if I could find a place that sells the one I need.
The one I narrowed down was the FM25256 datasheet.
I’d be open to alternatives that are more easily available through digi-key, newark, mouser, etc.
I also might buy Parallax’s USB2SER development tool that supports super high baud rates.
Ok samples on the way.
The only problem I see is that they are SOIC. But not much choice there. I would have really preferred DIPs etc, but these chips really sound perfect.
I have seen online SOIC-to-DIP converters, but not sure which one I need vs all the ones offered. Plus, some of them get quite expensive….
Here is a link with some wiring technologies suitable for S(mall) O(utline) chips:
This will require some basic soldering skills and a steady hand.
My local radio-shack-like electronics hobby shop has plenty of miscellaneous converters and protoboards, quite affordable – from $1.5 to $5.