Gerald I'm agree with you of course. Your idea of testing is absolutely in place.
Thank you for your comment.

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Thanks Chris, I guess you are a lot quicker in starting in VHDL or Verilog if you are interested (Verilog code is very short and beautiful but therefore harder to learn I think). I so far have invested in buying a lot of different FPGA/VHDL programmers already, and I've printed out a lot of books on the matter VHDL. And also Ebooks on the subject. But sadly the Free Software (like Xilinx's Webversion) is very complex and the schematics not as nice, and the easier versions from other Developers are in contrast much better looking schematic wise but just to expensive. And this does making a start in VHDL much more complex it needn't have to be. And only students at a University get most software as a special deal for free or in a beginners version.

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I absolutely agree with you, but that is a bit higher thematic for the most electronic hobbyist's and repair technicians. Even the world of uC's are for lot of the technicians unknown too...
I don't know, I think on this blog are people who repair now days electronic tools and equipment and the thematic about we ( two of as ) talking about is a bit complex for this blog users.
Maybe someone of as should start to write some articles about of the FPGA etc. and we will see the reaction.
Give you a try if you have time.

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Thanks Gerald. I like those little projects very much too. I also saw another simple AM transmitter somewhere that only used a 4 pole Quartz oscillator and a few passive components around it. So there are more ways to build one. Sadly AM gets lesser and lesser attention, and it seems that the AM Band hardly has left any 'quality' Radiostations left. Maybe it will become a free Radio-Amateur Band in the near future. Who nows? I also saw a FM transmitter project that simply used a Raspberry Pi as programmable Transmitter.

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Thanks Chris. I understand what you wrote. I do have a degree in Basic, and know a bit about Assembly, and Java, and how to program in Flowcode, Bascom and stuff.
But all these programming languages are for micro-processors/micro-controllers. And are just 'old' sequential languages.
VHDL (also called HDL, or the Verilog version) is brandnew
(made by the USA Defence in de 80's) and is a parallelprogramming language.
In which you are able to write complex Digital Electronic Circuits, even micro-controllers! By using simple text commands (in VHDL or Verilog), and afterwards you program this code into FPGAs / CPLDs that are fast flashable.
And after this they work very fast stand-alone
(easily around 200MHz or faster !)
and can contain a complete computer board with thousands of components in a little Complex Logic IC. And the FPGA/CPLD holds its program (the retention time), or the complete digital circuit if you like, without the need of Backup Batteries for decades. Probably most new Computer boards now do contain a few of these complex chips. And the Development programs for this VHDL/Verilog language, include Simulators and Schematic Designing, are very high priced.
And also require more time to learn how to use them. But this is really interesting for Electronic Engineers because of the possibilities and the Fast results. Also making a new redesign after any mistake is much easier then it used to be when you had a complete board with lots of components.

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Hi to all here, I have experience to write code in C,Basic, ASM, Hex even in binary too. No mater is it an eeprom content or a firmware mod for a uC or just a file on the hdd.
I will say, for the very first time, it is very important to make a choice what will I do and then how.
For first I advice to enter into the AVR world but not with Arduino. That is a good product but if you wish the complete picture then use a regular development board like this on this link:
http://www.mikroe.com/avr/development-boards/
This is a complete development environment.
Then make a choice which programming language to use.
No mater which programming language you are use from the 3 of them (C, ASM, Basic) if you are on the beginning.
I prefer C or Basic. ASM is a bit harder ad maybe more complex then the other two. ASM runs faster in the uC but in real I never done some intergalactic time travelling vehicle with this uC and I don't need some extra speedy software in the uC.
For diy project C or Basic is more than enough.
The AVR family is large and meet all of our need.
Of course you can use PIC too, no problem.
Just start with one of these two uC, let the other uC's for some other time.
I use the AVR uC in car electronic and some diy project's now days.
YOu can make a car diag tool with an AVR uC. Is that not enough?
Just start digging with the right dev. board and make some cool thinks with it...

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This is cool Albert, thanks for the link. As a former radio ham I love to read about those types of creative circuits.
Cheers,
GM

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