What does all this have to do with designing a PID Controller? Most controllers are implemented with PIC's "Since PICs are cheap" (another quote from the same site). Well it turns out, the MSP430 is also cheap. Actually they are free if you ask for them, so is the software development platforms (IDE). The eZ430-F2013 development tool is only $20.00 c/w two software IDE platforms. Actually I have all the eZ430 development kits.
Now the next question. Why?
I have been working for the last five months on a project which uses a commercial implementation of a PID controller (LabVIEW) fed from COTS data acquisition boards ("Lawson Labs, Inc.) and some various bits and pieces. The implementation had so many rough edges that required a lot of 'smoothing' that I had to do a lot of research into the PID controller. So now that I have the time, I figure its a good project for the winter.
Thats the What, Why, and even the When. Who and Where are obvious; Me and Here. The tools will be, for the most part, free. If you have to buy the proto hardware the cost is minimal.
Now for todays credits: (no endorsement, use at your own parole)
http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/200205/pidmc.html
Designing a PID Motor Controller
By Randy Gamage (randy @ gamatronix.com)
http://www.lawsonlabs.com/
Lawson Labs, Inc.
lawsnlab@lawsonlabs.com
http://www.ni.com/labview86
LabVIEW 8.6
MSP430 microprocessor, ultra-low-power, 16-bit RISC mixed-signal processors
http://focus.ti.com/mcu/docs/mcuprodoverview.tsp?sectionId=95&tabId=140&familyId=342
The eZ430-F2013 is a complete MSP430 development tool including all the hardware and software to evaluate the MSP430F2013 and develop a complete project in a convenient USB stick form factor.
http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/ez430-f2013.html
