Microcontrollers with dual (or more) ADC's...

[tophathacker]

that was kind of an inside joke but that's cool, lets run with it.

Why'd they pull the plug? probably not cost effective? too many arm chips out there already? market flooded? one of their design buildings ACTUALLY flooded?

[Skimask]

Got 3 of the Stellaris eval kits sitting right next to me...if I could figure them out.  Still reading the datasheets.
The dual ADC on them is what really makes things simple for me.
The only thing that would make it LOADS simpler is if the chip had a DAC on it.
But, since it doesn't, maybe a bit of uDMA, a PWM output, a wave table in memory, and a low pass filter on the output will take care of that DAC requirement.

[madires]

Got 3 of the Stellaris eval kits sitting right next to me...if I could figure them out.  Still reading the datasheets.
The dual ADC on them is what really makes things simple for me.
The only thing that would make it LOADS simpler is if the chip had a DAC on it.
But, since it doesn't, maybe a bit of uDMA, a PWM output, a wave table in memory, and a low pass filter on the output will take care of that DAC requirement.

The XMEGA A1 series got two 12 bit ADCs and two 12 bit DACs.

[nctnico]

that was kind of an inside joke but that's cool, lets run with it.

Why'd they pull the plug? probably not cost effective? too many arm chips out there already? market flooded? one of their design buildings ACTUALLY flooded?

Good question. I looked at the Stellaris chips several times but never found them a good fit for any of my projects. It seems the errata sheets are also very long. Besides that JTAG programming is something I like to avoid. I once visited a seminar with about 30 other embedded programmers. When the speaker asked who doesn't like to use JTAG half the people in the room raised their hands. IOW having a bootloader which can use a serial port (UART) to download the firmware increases the market potential by 50%.

[alm]

Too bad for you TI seems to have pulled the plug on the Stellaris devices.

I think this was limited to Cortex M3 parts.

[AlfBaz]

There is a couple of PIC18's that have dual 24bit sigma-delta adc's plus a 12bit SAR ads that might be worth looking into
PIC18F86J72 and PIC18F87J72

[Skimask]

The XMEGA A1 series got two 12 bit ADCs and two 12 bit DACs.

Now I'm drooling a bit...
Thanks for the heads up.

[mrflibble]

There is a couple of PIC18's that have dual 24bit sigma-delta adc's plus a 12bit SAR ads that might be worth looking into PIC18F86J72 and PIC18F87J72.

That PIC18 remark made me look if there's something similar in the msp430 or stm32 range, and sure enough there's the MSP430AFE253 with 3 simultaneous 24-bit sigma-delta ADC's. Just what I needed to pad my Mouser order.

Incidentally, if 12-bit SAR is sufficient you could get for example the stm32f4 discovery board. That one has three 12-bit sar adc's on it and plenty of other goodies.

[ptricks]

Ti has the new ADC/DAC chips.
http://www.ti.com/product/amc7823
12-Bit ADC (200kSPS):
Eight Analog Inputs
Input Range 0 to 2 × VREF
Programmable VREF, 1.25V or 2.5V
Eight 12-Bit DACs (2µs Settling Time)
Four Analog Input Out-of-Range Alarms
Six General-Purpose Digital I/O
Internal Bandgap Reference
On-Chip Temperature Sensor
Precision Current Source
SPI™ Interface, 3V or 5V Logic Compatible
Single 3V to 5V Supply
Power-Down Mode/Low Power
Small Package (QFN-40, 6 × 6 mm)

[Skimask]

UGH!!!  So many options!  Now if I only had the capabilities to prototype with more of the SMT packages, I'd be in REALLY good shape.

[mrflibble]

UGH!!!  So many options!  Now if I only had the capabilities to prototype with more of the SMT packages, I'd be in REALLY good shape.

Hot air stations are quite affordable these days. Other than that, quite a few of the smd's listed are fairly easy to use dead bug style. Certainly up to 0.65 mm pitch. 0.5 mm gets a little finickey. Main ingredient is patience.

[nctnico]

Not patience. Flux and a BIG soldering tip are the key to soldering fine pitch chips. Don't try to solder each pin but solder 3 or 4 pins at the same time or just move the tip along the pins (but don't push or the pins will bend or the pads may get loose!). A big tip can transfer a lot of heat so you can finish soldering before the flux wears out. It also helps to have the pads extend about 0.5mm beyond the pins.

[kripton2035]

you can soldier some tiny chip (ssop or qfp) on a dip adaptor, there are plenty on the bay
then you can use your tiny adapted chip on a breadboard and prototype as you want.

[mrflibble]

Not patience. Flux and a BIG soldering tip are the key to soldering fine pitch chips. Don't try to solder each pin but solder 3 or 4 pins at the same time or just move the tip along the pins (but don't push or the pins will bend or the pads may get loose!). A big tip can transfer a lot of heat so you can finish soldering before the flux wears out. It also helps to have the pads extend about 0.5mm beyond the pins.

Yes patience. Last time I did some dead bug style a big soldering tip would not really help, but patience did. Other than that if you already have a proper pcb to solder it on then yes, flux + big tip. But that's not what I was referring to. So dead bug style, yes patience. Because every time I do some dead bug style prototyping I do not run out of flux, nor do I run out of big soldering tips. The resource constraint always seems to be patience. ;-)

Anyways, the gist of the argument is that smd parts are easy enough to handle for the hobbyist, whatever your particular chosen method.

[KedasProbe]

I'm planning to use this STM32F37x MCU in the future. (due to its 16 bit ADCs and one shared fast ADC)
http://www.st.com/internet/mcu/product/253084.jsp

[nctnico]

I'd read the datasheet very carefull when it comes to ST devices.

[Smokey]

Any new thoughts on this in 2017?

The TI Tiva seem to have dual ADCs.

[JPortici]

microchip:
one family of pic16 has 2 ADCs
all dspics have one 12 bit ADC that can alternatively be used as 4 simultaneous 10 bit adcs
pic32mz have 5 adcs
pic32mx has 3 i think
then other pic24/dspic have dual 16 bit SAR adc
to make it simple, microchip MAPS, select 2 for min adc module (though it overlooks the quad adc on the dspic)
stm32:
many from each family, on product selection select more than 2 ADC modules
nxp:
ditto.
psoc:
they usually have a SAR and a delta sigma

others, i don't know but you get the idea.

[Siwastaja]

Any new thoughts on this in 2017?

The TI Tiva seem to have dual ADCs.

Pick almost any STM32 (ignoring the smallest sub 1$ chips), and it seems to have dual if not triple ADC.

[vealmike]

PSoCs are available with multiple ADCs. Pretty sure they are delta-sigma though which may not be appropriate for you.

[capt bullshot]

The STM32Fxxx series has up to 4 parallel ADCs, Infineon XMC4xxx also up to 4

If you don't want ARM Cortex, look for some Renesas RX series.
Multiple simultaneous sampling ADCs is pretty much standard today.

No need to go for ugly (complex and not easy to use) Sitara chips. The Tiva (TM4x) appear to be a dead end, same for the Infineon XMC series

[Fungus]

Any new thoughts on this in 2017?

The TI Tiva seem to have dual ADCs.

Why not use an external ADC? (SPI/I2C interface)

There's plenty to choose from and that way you can use a favorite/cheap microcontroller. For two channels you can get them in 8-pin packages - no big deal for space and I'm sure it will be cheaper overall.

[Siwastaja]

Why not use an external ADC? (SPI/I2C interface)

There's plenty to choose from and that way you can use a favorite/cheap microcontroller. For two channels you can get them in 8-pin packages - no big deal for space and I'm sure it will be cheaper overall.

Why not, indeed, and separate ADC is probably the way to go if you can't find a suitable one with integrated ADCs. Separate may also give better performance.

But, it appears that today, cheap microcontrollers -- or those I could consider calling "favorite" --, tend to have dual or triple ADCs -- unless the "favorite" means some 1990's 8-bit controller families, which, by the way, aren't any cheaper than the modern ones, some mid-range AVRs are ridiculously expensive for what they have.

So, in most cases, if you just can't find a suitable MCU with dual ADCs and that's the only reason you consider going to a separate ADC, you are not looking very well at modern microcontrollers. Most modern $2-$3 MCUs do dual ADC along with a ton of other very useful peripherals that greatly simplifies CPU tasks compared to an AVR or PIC, such as DMA, which is a huge blessing from the software simplicity viewpoint, especially with multi-channel, multi-ADC.

[Lunasix]

PIC32MZxxEF has 6 (5 + 1) 12 bits ADC
I use one for signal processing, with 6 output dac, and capabiity, with DMA channels,  is impressive. Who said PIC are just for toys ?
You can also look at MCP3903.

[cyberfish]

PIC32MZxxEF has 5 (4 + 1) 12 bits ADC
I use one for signal processing, with 6 output dac, and capabiity, with DMA channels,  is impressive. Who said PIC are just for toys ?
You can also look at MCP3903.

That's because when most people say PIC they mean the 8-bit stuff, since that's what they are known for, by far. The 32-bit stuff isn't any simpler than other 32-bit stuff, including some very powerful ARM chips like the STM32F7. And simplicity is what draws most hobbyists to 8-bit micros. Most hobbyists don't care about the $2 price difference when they are only building a few prototypes.

The ADCs on PIC32 are impressive, though. High end STM32s only have triple 12-bit 2.4Msps ADCs.