Looking for Microcontroller Recommendations
in [Design]
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From: Falk Willberg on 14 Jan 2010 10:22 RogerN schrieb: > Years back I played some with PIC microcontrollers but I've heard that > manufacturers are making better microcontrollers for less money. ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ There is no such thing as a "better microcontroller". Some are cheaper, more powerful, have more/less PINs, UARTs, RAM/ROM etc... > Not looking for professional ICE or anything but maybe something competitive > with Microchips in circuit programmer/debugger. AFAIK is Atmel's Jtag protocol proprietary. On the other Hand an SPI-Programmer can de made from a parallel port and a few wires. MSP430-series: Cheap, free toolchain including in circuit debugger. ARM: In circuit debugger with OpenOCD, free toolchain. > Any recommendations on favorite microcontrollers I hate/like them all ;-) > that I can get up an > running with for a reasonable amount of dollars? Atmel AVR: Programmer is 50� (LPT and wires) controller <1$. Falk
From: Frnak McKenney on 14 Jan 2010 10:39 On Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:22:56 -0600, RogerN <regor(a)midwest.net> wrote: > > Years back I played some with PIC microcontrollers but I've heard > that manufacturers are making better microcontrollers for less > money. > > Not looking for professional ICE or anything but maybe something > competitive with Microchips in circuit programmer/debugger. I was > considering buying Microchips ICD3 with PICDEM 2 board for $230, > but thought maybe something would be a better choice. I'm > considering Atmels line but wanted some input on others worth > checking into. Roger, Texas Instruments' MSP430 low-power 16-bit MPU series has a lot to offer, and they've released a number of inexpensive (relatively speaking <grin!>) development/experimentation kits: http://focus.ti.com/mcu/docs/mcuprodtoolsw.tsp? sectionId=95&tabId=1203&familyId=342&toolTypeId=1 (Or just go to www.ti.com and check under Microprocessors, then MSP430/Tools_and_Software) The lowest-entry-cost package is the ez430-2013, a USB plug-in kit for $20US with a detachable processor board. It's a good kit for learning the MSP430 instructions and internals, but you'll want to solder a header onto the detachable F2013 board when you get around to attaching peripherals. What's really nice is that if you're not yet set up to etch your own PC boards you can pick up additional boards from TI at $10/3 and just wire them into a project. (The spare boards are also handy if you discover you aren't the world's greatest solderer. <grin!>) If you want to play with RF links, there's the ez430-RF2500T for $50US, a two-board kit (wireless is kinda silly with only one board, but not every EVK-maker seems to realize this). But it's hard to get excited by a bare-bones CPU/MPU, and you can code only so many LED-flashers before you start getting bored. This may explain TI's latest MSP430 offering, the eZ430-Chronos: a development kit built around a sports watch. (These were in considerable demand and just started shipping, but the backlog may be gone by the time you make your decision.) This $50US kit includes the watch, a USB RF access point for communicating with the watch, and a USB programming/debugging board/interface. The watch, in addition to its 96-segment LCD display, has a pressure sensor, temperature sensor, a 3-axis accelerometer, and five buttons. You can find more details in TI's ez430-Chronos Development Tool User's Guide PDF. TI provides the source code for the pre-installed application software. You don't _have_ to use TI's code, but having software to look at that exercises each of the peripherals means that you don't have to start coding from scratch, and sometimes it takes working code and some experimenting to really understand the fuzzier areas of a part's data sheet. <grin!> If you're just getting started you'll probably have questions. TI has a number of MSP430 technical documents available, a set of TI-hosted fora, and recently set up a MSP430 "wiki". There is a Yahoo MSP430 group, a 'web site called DesignMSP430 (www.designmsp430.com), and several collections of overciews and university course labs and notes scattered across the 'web. Another option is to choose one of the mushrooming Arduino-class boards: inexpensive boards based on the Atmel AVR series, available in a variety of form factors. Many are designed to accept peripheral boards (ethernet, USB, motor control, etc.) known as "shields". The original site seems to be: www.arduino.cc but you can also obtain parts and information from: www.robotshop.us www.sparkfun.com www.makershed.com (check the Arduino menu) Hope this helps more than it confuses. <grin!> Frank McKenney -- "They [the Congress] seemed, some little while ago, to be at a loss for objects whereon to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the treasury." -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Ritchie -- Frank McKenney, McKenney Associates Richmond, Virginia / (804) 320-4887 Munged E-mail: frank uscore mckenney ayut mined spring dawt cahm (y'all)
From: Joel Koltner on 14 Jan 2010 12:44 "Falk Willberg" <Faweglassenlk(a)falk-willberg.de> wrote in message news:hincej$9tn$1(a)news2.open-news-network.org... > AFAIK is Atmel's Jtag protocol proprietary. More of the newer data sheets contain everything you need to know to program over JTAG. Older data sheet didn't, although back in 2001 or thereabouts I worked at a place where we wanted to program AVRs in-circuit via JTAG, and at the time Atmel was willing to hand over the programming information if you signed an NDA with them. Hence if anything I'd say Atmel is one of the easier parts to use if you want to program via JTAG. That being said, the JTAG standard itself is a bit more complicated than SPI, so given the option, I'd chose the later. ---Joel
From: Falk Willberg on 14 Jan 2010 16:53 Joel Koltner schrieb: > "Falk Willberg" <Faweglassenlk(a)falk-willberg.de> wrote in message > news:hincej$9tn$1(a)news2.open-news-network.org... >> AFAIK is Atmel's Jtag protocol proprietary. > > More of the newer data sheets contain everything you need to know to > program over JTAG. I am still curious if debugging is possible as well, using free tools like OpenOcd. Price is not a great issue, but as I am running Linux, I hesitate to buy tools that can be run under Windows only. .... > Hence if anything I'd say Atmel is one of the easier parts to use if you > want to program via JTAG. > > That being said, the JTAG standard itself is a bit more complicated than > SPI, so given the option, I'd chose the later. Same here. I have an ARM-board here, where programming via JTAG is annoyingly slow. SPI seems to be the fastest way to program an AVR, besides parallel programming, which I never tried. But some USB- and serial Programmers manage to make SPI unusuable slow, because their serial communication with the SPI-Master is 19k2 only... Falk PS: An almost free AVR-Development board is described here: http://home.arcor.de/wehrsdorf/Oled-Display-Recycling.html Originally it is a blood sugar meter, containing a dot-matrix OLED-Display, all needed voltage converters, three pushbuttons, a controller atmega168p, a 32768kHz crystal and an IrDa-Interface. One of them is serving now as a pocket watch for a mentally handicapped person, who has an idea of "time of day" but is unable to understand the hands on a clock. The display now says "It is a quarter to six o'clock" which means that her favourite TV-show will start soon ;-) The idea was stolen from http://www.qlocktwo.com/
From: Joel Koltner on 14 Jan 2010 17:28
"Falk Willberg" <Faweglassenlk(a)falk-willberg.de> wrote in message news:hio3ac$hll$1(a)news2.open-news-network.org... > PS: An almost free AVR-Development board is described here: > http://home.arcor.de/wehrsdorf/Oled-Display-Recycling.html Nice idea, I like it! |