Date   : Tue, 03 Aug 1999 10:05:11 +0100
From   : Philip Blundell <pb@...>
Subject: Re: Econet hardware 

>I was intending to use a PIC to act as the interface between the 68B54 and
>the PC. I considered dropping the ADLC completely, but this would mean
>emulating its transfer protocol in the PIC, and this would take some time to
>do reliably. Why bother when there is a chip to do the hard work for me ?

Well, basically because the 68B54 is an obsolete part now, driving it is quite 
hard work, and providing the same functions in modern technology wouldn't 
actually be all that difficult.  Using a PIC certainly is an option, but it 
seems like a bit of a clunky design.

>Using Acorns circuit as the basis for the interface card means that it I
>don't need to worry about the low level transfer issues when I'm debugging
>the software.

Fair enough, I guess.  If I were you in that case I think I'd do what Mark 
said and use one of the ready-built plugin modules.  You can probably buy them 
secondhand for less than the cost of the component parts, and this saves you 
the hassle of worrying about the analogue side of things (which I have a vague 
recollection was a bit marginal on the BBC).

p.