Serial receive help, Serial shift

Justin,

You came to the right place.  An MSP430 would be much better for the task you described than any PIC.

The MSP430 peripherals are better, and the MSP430 assembly language is easier.

Jeff

I am doing more than just serial input and moveing it to a Port.  I am not familiar with the MSP430.  IT is a 16-bit instead of 8-bit like the 16f, that much I know.

Let me tell you more about what I am trying to do.  I have multiple different signals that I need to use.  I have a PWM that I need to change to just blink an LED to show that there is a PWM.  Then I need an output that takes that pwm and modifies it very little and then outputs it (this output could be used to blink the LED if necessary).  I also have two 5v signals(normally low) that just indicate that there is a signal to the microchip.  Not too hard to do that one.  The last is I have a button interface that uses the 74HC165 parallel to serial shift register chip that requires a clock.  I am using the 555 timer for this. The serial signal needs to go to the microcontroller and light up 8 different LEDs.  Doesn't matter which LEDs light I can figure that out and label how I need.  I have a good regulated 5V supply for all of this.  any help.

  anything cheap is good too.  well inexpensive that is.

Hi Justin,

You might take a look at the MSP430F5310 and MSP430F5510 (difference is built-in USB).  Decent price at $2 USD each for 1000pcs.  You could get a developer's kit for 53xx or 55xx pretty cheap and get started right away.  Switching among 53xx and 55xx is easy.

How do you feel about using 3.3V?  The MSP430 runs on < 3.6V, and the 53xx / 55xx provide a built-in 3.3V regulator that you would power with your 5V rail.  You could then power other circuitry as needed from the MSP430 3.3V LDO output.

Without seeing your design I would guess you won't need the 555 timer.  The MSP430 could clock the register chip, and that would probably simplify the design.

Jeff

Unfortunalty I need something that is through hole not surface mount.  I could handle the lower voltage but I dont have anything for surface mount.

IMHO, the only through-hole MSPs are the new G series like the MSP430G2231. They still have PWM output, complex timers, even SPI (for synchronous data transfer) but are a bit limited compared to the 'bigger' ones with much more integrated hardware.

Your task can easily be done with the proposed 5x chips, but with the G2 series, it is a bit more difficult. Still doable I think. and these chips are CHEAP too.

I agree that your task is doable with the G2 series (as in MSP430G2xxx). There are 14-pin and 20-pin versions in PDIP.  All less than $1.

Also the development kit can get you started right away for prototyping etc at only $4.30.

You'll need a separate voltage regulator to get < 3.6V since the G2 devices don't have the integrated 3.3V LDO.

Jeff