Re: DAC software

On Apr 2, 2:36 pm, DL <jim_ntua...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Joel is partly right. I indeed am a hardware design guy, but there is
nobody else who will do the software. So it should be either available
by the company that makes the DACs or I have to write it on my own.

I have programmed in the past similar devices (e.g. ADCs) and one can
directly program them using a computer and the parallel or serial
port. The program can be written in any language and is easy in its
concept. The problem is that I don't have time much time and that's
why I was wondering if there is a ready solution.

m...@sushi you are right. A 10bit accuracy is not needed but 10bit (or
actually 8bit) is the lowest you can find available anyways for a DAC.
Using pots to tweak the bias values has the problem of drifting and
adjustment is needed every once in a while. DACs don't have this
problem and if ones with memory are used, then they just need to be
programmed once and not every time the power is turned on. Another
aspect is that I need 8 biases and therefore an octal DAC will use
much less space than 8 pots.

So basically my question in the post was if anyone has used or knows
of a simple program that runs on a PC and uses parallel or serial
interface and that can directly provide the right sequence of signals
for a DAC to be programmed. A microprocessor or microcontroller is not
needed.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

On Apr 2, 9:43 am, "Joel Koltner" <zapwireDASHgro...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<m...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:69a206f4-a8a8-484c-8dfc-68197f519d38@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The fact products get designed and sold with such a lackadaisical
attitude is mind boggling. I expect this insoftware, but not
hardware.

I expect the O.P. is a hardware design guy and someone else will (eventually)
do thesoftware, hence he's trying to shorten his own schedule since all he
needs to do is verify he wired up the hardware the right way and thesoftware
guy can write the "real" code.

Actually, I suggested digital potentiometers, not a real trim pot. The
nice thing is they have eeprom, so once "trimmed", they wake up in the
right state (value). I don't know what your project is, but some
system designers like the box to stabilize before tweaking. So they
wake up in the last state, then once running a while the user is
requested if they want higher accuracy.

Here is some random hit:
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/22017a.pdf

By no means is the market limited to microchip.
.