Yes, I mentioned the TCD1304DG CCD chip, why? I fried the TCD1304AP. It was working for awhile, and then...Blewy,,,,,,,,,*#@$ (this was the main reason for never posting any results :( )

This is the main reason for taking some time and making this pulse generator test circuit, simple but effective, working with David Allmon is incredible, one smart cookie :) I am using his newest design from his website with a few necessary mods of my own, so it fits and operates within the parameters of the Raman spectrometer.

The C code remains the same, no changes their, except for my own so I can build a custom interface with MegunoLinkPro for capturing the spectral data and choosing things like dark counts and wavelength ranges.

So the first test I ran was making sure the Push button switch functions correctly and I found no need for a switch debouncer (I think, plot looks good at rise time with no ringing when switch is depressed.)

At the center of the plot you see where the switch gets depressed in order to send data from the buffer at the MCU, I see no "ringing" at rise time so it looks like the raw data should be ok.

Here you see how I have the switch and indicator LED set up at the MCU, the LED is normally off, and will light up as soon as data fills the buffer (first science frame,) depress the switch and data is sent, the next science frame gets loaded into the buffer, and so forth...

These are the other waveforms I have fiddled with from my test circuit and they work pretty good, I don't have an oscilloscope and I cannot afford one, so I like to improvise on the cheap...hey it works.

The C code for the CCD firmware takes only 42% program memory, and the ATmega1284P has 130,000 bytes of flash memory for video, so I have some good breathing room for the extra code for the MegunoLinkPro interface portion.