Chip with simple program for Toy

Dear Reader,

I'm looking for information (quotation for production quantity's)
for a little chip in a toy.

The only thing that this chip has to do is pick a RANDOM number (10th of a
second) between 1 and 24 seconds and then change the direction of a
motor.

eg; 1.4 seconds to the left
3.1 seconds to the right
12.4 seconds to the left
8.3 seconds to the right

etc...etc..

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Berrie

 

Thanks for your reply; I've send them my request.
I hope however that the prices for the chip will go a lot lower when you
talk about 10.000 chips.... because else I can stop designing right now

Grtz
Berrie

 

Most simple thing I can imagine is an appropriate programmed eight pins PIC
or a similar tiny AVR. You wil need some transistors to drive the motor as
you will not find random generators with motor driving capabilities.

petrus bitbyter

 

look at PIC chips.
www.microchip.com
they have very small 8 pin types that would be
more than enough for that.
you need a programmer from them to write the
code in it.. its not hard to do and its fun to
learn, after you see what can be done with these
programmable integrated chips you will wonder why
you never looked there before!

 

Flash Programmable and Production Quantity don't go together in the same
sentence. If you want cheap prices for production volumes (which 10,000
is on the low end of), you'll be getting mask ROM parts.

 

the small 8 pin chips are cheap.
but you may want to have some one bulk
program them for you.

 

---
For a toy, an 8 bit pseudo-random pattern is prob'ly good enough,
since you can get 255 tenth-second values out of the thing which you
load into an 8 bit down-counter, start the motor, and then count the
counter down with a 100ms clock. When the counter counts down to
zero, you send a clock to the pseudo-random sequence generator to
generate the next pattern, load it into the counter, reverse the
direction of the motor and run the counter down to zero again to start
the next timeout with the new value from the PRSG.

 

"RANDOM", Maybe easier said than done. A micro running a stored programme
can't do it just on it's own.
There's got to be available somewhere, a real random variable that the
micro can then use as a 'seed' to maybe generate series of psuedo-random
values.
regards
john

 

Thanks all for your help:

this is what I foud as the cheapest out there.
(don't have high volume price yet)
--------------------------------

Program Memory Type Standard Flash
Program Memory Size (bytes) 384
RAM Size (bytes) 16
Data EEPROM Size (bytes) 0
I/O pins 4
Packages SOT-23, 8p DIP

Features
a.. 6-pin SOT-23 packaging

a.. Precision 4 MHz internal oscillator

a.. Baseline Core with 33 Instructions, 2 Stack Levels

a.. All single-cycle Instructions except for program branches which
are two cycles

a.. 12-bit wide instructions

a.. 8-bit wide data path

a.. 25 mA source/sink current I/O

a.. Low power (100nA) sleep current

a.. One 8-bit timer (TMR0)

a.. Watchdog timer (WDT)

a.. In Circuit Serial ProgrammingT (ICSPT) capability

a.. In-Circuit debugging support

a.. Programmable code protection
a..
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Please note that I don't have any electroninc knowledge... (but that
is hardly news i suppose
Why would I need 8 pins... what is so hard at getting a motor to
switch direction randomly

Would you be so kind and help me out a bit more.
Based on the info above I have a chip for less then 0,50 ct (still to much;
but ok... we're getting there)
Now how would you hook up a motor (what other parts are needed)...is there a
schematic example somewhere.
Where would I find motors (eg. lego/toy size...) I had hoped to keep this
whole
technical unit in the 1 to 2 dollar range...since it also need some plastic
parts too

Again; thanks for all the info you can give me.

Regards,

Berrie

 

---
I've already given you an algorithm which you can implement in the
simplest, least expensive µC available and, since your application is
clearly commercial, I feel reticent to finish up the design and also
do your leg work without some form of compensation. If you're
interested in paying for further help, email me. If not, perhaps you
can find someone else to help you for free.

 

John Fields wrote;

Fair enhough... I wish it where allready commercial though

Regards,

Berrie

 

Well,

Guess that six pin processor is the latest PIC. This one will do the job
equally good I think but there is still not much experience with it. The
25mA are good for a lot of things. Driving LEDs for instance. But a motor
that runs on 25mA at 5V? That 125mW power may be enough to move a clocks
arm but will hardly move any significant load. Common toys motors requires
some hundreds of milliamps, especially when just turned on, so you will need
a transistor to drive it. More then one transistor as you want to be able
to change the motors direction. The type of transistor mainly depends on the
motor you want to control and the type of motor depends on the load you want
to move. This things are not very difficult to find out but it takes time
and skills you obviously do not have yourself. People on this forum tend to
be very helpfull but I doubt you can find a volonteer to do the whole design
for you. Sooner or later you will need a pro. John Fields is one but I know
some in my own environment as well. For instance:

Wouter van Ooijen
http://www.voti.nl/

or

Sjaak van Schaik
http://www.jvanschaikconsultancy.nl/

petrus bitbyter

 

Petrus bitbyter wrote;

Yes... the point is very well taken ... don't mean to ride for free on
this one.
I'm just in the first stages of getting to know where and who to find.
So your reply is indeed very helpfull.

It does need to push something of a load... so you put me on an other track.
Although I'm not gettting all of it; I understand that there are more
electronic parts involved.
Which means "production costs" in some shape or form.

Although I'm "just the Toy guy" ....you know how it is; if it can't be
made for less
then a dollar... there's no bother calling "them" again
So that's what I'm doing; I'm trying to get a feel for how this
technical-bit would work out.

Thanks again.

Berrie