The lowest power PIC controllers don't support USB, but there are some of the powerful versions which do. It's rather amazing what's available in a PIC device nowadays, and I would certainly choose one as the starting point for my own dream speed controller design.
There are a number of parts these days that support USB -- not just PIC.
In addition, it's great fun programming them in their little pico code assembler.. (Just kidding, you can program them in BASIC, or even C if you are into more pain.)
The pain of maintaining code for a large project over the long term grows much faster for either assembler or BASIC, in my experience. With C you get the kick in the shins at the start, then cruise from there.
Of course, I've been programming in C for $$ for over 20 years, now...
Although the primary ESC function seems simple enough, I suspect the true problem to solve is learning precisely what you WANT it to do for CL Stunt.
That's actually the unwritten part of my dream -- to have a controller where I have
much more freedom to set things up.
Tim, I understand you. My point is, that it is simply not so practical and the cost is not so high. That box is simply terminal, so the program is always in the device you are controlling. So it works for all Jeti devices, also those not developed when you got the box, as well all our timers, active controllers etc. So I have one box 6 years and nothing else. For example if I want tune the power, I simply set 1minute flight and I can directly modify parameters in the circle and do next start. We have 2 producers of usefull ESC here .. one is set by box and second by USB ... guess which all guys want 
Interesting points. We don't have many locals flying electric CL; of the two that I've noticed personally, Paul Walker always shows up with an immaculate plane, fiddles with it not at all, and puts in an immaculate performance. The other guy (whose name I can't remember, but he's a newbie to electric) sets his plane on the hood of his truck with his ESC, his timer, his programming box, his programming interface, and his laptop. It looks like a gawdaful mess -- that was a good part of making me think of what would be ideal.
Of course, part of what I would do if it were me would be to have the controller look like a simple serial device, that talks human-readable text and understands the same. Done right, you could either have one of those "user friendly" (read "we know more than you, neener") set up programs, or just a dumb terminal that lets you access
everything that's available.
Now I'm thinking of how cheaply you could make a simple terminal box with a USB master in it, which would allow one to either use a PC or the terminal.
Don't forget we are a niche market. Most of the stuff we use is adapted from the RC market. A speed controller with a built in timer would be nice but development cost could not be justified for the control line market - even if it captured a 100% of the market.
(snip)
John -- it's a
dream. I want Farrah Fawcett to come back to life, at age 30 or 40, and conceive a mad passion for me. But I don't think
that is going to happen (lucky for my marriage!).
Actually I'm thinking (well, dreaming, given the amount of spare time I have) of developing something just for me, releasing both the hardware and firmware under the GPL or other open-source licensing scheme, and worrying about what to do if someone else wants one when the time comes (probably sell or give away PC boards along with a note that says "good luck!").
Topic: Oh I Wish... (Read 816 times)