Question about PICs

[desireemartinez]

Hello,
I wonder why most circuits are made with logic gates rather than a pic.

[mark2]

Are you referring to the popular flip-flop circuit in the Boss, Ibanez, and others? (Great article explaining how it works by RG Keen here)

If so, my guess is that it's primarily about cost. It's approximately an order of magnitude cheaper. And those pennies add up for those bigger companies doing mass production.

But this is entirely a guess.

[Cybercow]

Depends on the circuit IMO. In an instance where we wanted to exact the smallest number of foot-switches for a Rockman X100 rehouse project, we wanted to avoid depending on a programmable device and chose to go with a dedicated sequential logic switching circuit to achieve completed management of the X100's slide switches. We came up with this . . . .



No programming and it works well to access the 4 Modes and 3 Effects with an added 'Effect Bypass' option that the original X100 does not have.

In another version of our X100 rehouse project, we wanted one switch per mode for some clients and came up with this . . . . .



And TBH, we know nothing of how PICs even work.

[Wavelength]

I use pics all the time, the PIC12 or even PIC10 for switching. The 12 mainly if I need to do I2C and switching. You can do a lot in pedals with an 8 pin part. Even thinking about MIDI and I2C controllable pots for a distortion pedal with presets and midi CC messages. I use CCS for a compiler on the 8 bit ones then their C compiler for the PIC32MX and MZ controllers for bigger digital stuff and USB.

[ElectricDruid]

I wonder why most circuits are made with logic gates rather than a pic.

Because most circuits are clones of stuff designed in the 70's or 80's?!?

A *lot* of modern pedals are using an analogue audio path with a PIC to provide control or modulation functions. One example:

https://www.chasebliss.eu/warped-vinyl-hifi