I have been working with Microchip PIC’s for many years and currently i am working on a project where i need to accurately sense the voltage levels of a few of the power supplies in my project. Can i simply use the ADC inside the pic to sense the voltages or is it smarter to use some kind of other (off the shelf) device for this? There is lots of information about the ADC’s but i dont understand the sampling timing etc…
I would like to be able to sense 5 independent voltages from about 0v to 30v. Any ideas?
Dale
Most PICs have 10-bit ADCs, which gives one part in 2^10 (1024). If that is good enough for you, you don’t need anything else.
Leon
leon_heller:
Most PICs have 10-bit ADCs, which gives one part in 2^10 (1024). If that is good enough for you, you don’t need anything else.
Quite right, but sometimes other specs may need to be considered, like frequency response, etc. Neondale, you mentioned sampling time. This is the time you have to wait for the type of ADC in the PIC to get an accurate measurement. This of course effects how often you can sample. PICs can easily sample audio frequencies, how often do you need to sample?
Also the noise in the ADC’s measured value. How much (how many bits) does the ADC’s value fluctuate when it repeatedly digitizes the same noise-free DC value ?