Need help deciding = BASCOM 0r PICBASIC

[Chris DeHut]

Hi group.

I am in a dilema and need some help. I am new to PICs and have been using the PICAXE products from Rev-Ed. I love their system and wouldn't consider switching if they were fast enough to do everything I needed to do.

I am working on a fairly large complex project that will require some serious speed and several people suggested I look at Atmels and BASCOM. I spent about a week and half reading everything I could on those products. The Atmels seem fine, however, the BASCOM documentation is horrid at best. So having more questions than answers about BASCOM, I searched around again and found the PICBASIC product.

I see that there are the PICs that run in 40 Mhz range - which is good. I also believe that PICBASIC is a compiler and thus compiles the basic code into the assembler - but I am not certain of this which is the purpose of this post.

Ultimately, what I need to do is this...

I need to maintain a pulse out 5 uSec long at a max frequency of 50,000 times per second. PWM won't work as the frequency is constantly changing based on other parameters. These parameters would be communicated to this PIC via i2C from another PIC. So, while maintaining the 50,000 max frequency, there needs to be time left to check a few inputs and the read/send date via i2C (or even SPI if better suited).

Is this within reason of the PICBASIC compiler?

As I am a research junkie with this stuff befor diving in, if you have any links to other sites that have good information I would love to have those too.

I have not purchased the PICBASIC yet, but based on what you all can help me with, most probably will as from what I got out of the manual I downloaded, looks very good.

Thanks a bunch and anxiously awaiting your comments.

Chris

[mister_e]

IMHO, PICBASIC will be the one to choose. It's on the market since awhile, mature and stable.

On this forum there's a huge amount of people to help you on various area.

Look at the Supported device list of PICBASIC PRO.


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Atmel are great but, i doubt you'll find support as here.

Microchip always growing, there's a HUUUUUGE amount of different device, different size, different speed up to 48MHZ, and, and...

Well choice is still yours

[Melanie]

Atmels have a better price/performance ratio than Microchip PICs (bang goes my free holiday from Microchip this year!) when purchased in quantity. Saying that, PICs have a better design cycle time and you can bring a product to market quicker with a PIC than you can with an Atmel. It's all down to your application.