Hey fellers I'm new to the avr line of products and was seeking some advice an clarification.

1. The Ardino, is this basically like a picaxe for avr?

2. What is the standard programmer for avr chips? I've been looking around and can't seem to find the PK2 =ivilent.

3. Would you suggest I start with the ardino's or straight old school avr? I'm not planning any projects based on them but I would like to play with some just to extend my understanding of uC's. I'm really looking for the most compatible for the industry that would help me move on to other chips like ARM's, MSP430's, etc....

4. Which demo board do you guys recommend? I'm looking mikroe's easyavr6 or possibly a cheapo basic board from feebay.

Thanks for any insight you can give, I have experience in ASM and C - 8, 16, and 32bit PICS.

 

I'm not 100% on everything, however,

<research>

According to my research, the picaxe is just a pre-programmed pic, while the arduino is a 'prototyping platform'.

The arduino seems like a microcontroller on a development board, it reminds me of a board meant to learn a microcontroller and make a few playings before moving on to making your own circuits.

the similarities between the picaxe and the arduino seem to be primarily in the programming, as the arduino seems to have it's own, proprietary programming language. I know nothing about this language, so more research.

>research<

The picaxe uses flow chart programming? First i've seen of that, and I think i'll be cynical towards it because i'm a curmudgeon.

The Arduino uses a language called 'wiring' I belive, it seems to be a variation of C/C++ that's more user friendly.


I personally have this vendetta against the arduino, because it seems like it's the lame way out of making and troubleshooting a board. There are plenty of projects out there that use an ardino as a serious project fixture, and at $17+ for arduino _clones_ when a 50 cent microcontroller and a dime's worth of resistors would do the exact same job, so it seems like the most lush solution to a microcontroller i've ever seen. I've even seen one or two projects done by arduino nerds that could be done with a pic 10f200!

I do, however, like the arduio beacuse it's open source hardware. That gives me the warm fuzzy and I like the warm fuzzy.

 

Yah I know ardino comes as a hardware platform but I was more refering to the model of a ardino using a AVR chip with its own language, similar to how the picaxe is a pic with its own language. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems like Ardino and PICAXE are for people who aren't experienced enough to program a PIC or AVR.

 

You can find a lot of information on the Arduino at http://www.arduino.cc/

You will notice that the Arduino board is a prototyping board. There are a couple of flavors of the board that you can get. You can actually program the Arduino without a programmer using the Arduino programming tools and language. You can also program the Arduino using an AVR ISP programmer if you like.

As for your question on a standard AVR programmer, there is no standard programmer out there. The one that I have used and had good success with is the ATAVRISP2. You can buy them from Digikey for $36.

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Cat=2621880&k=avrisp

Software programming tools are absolutely free no ifs, ands, or buts. You download AVRSTUDIO4 from Atmel's website which provides a powerful IDE software environment for assembly language programming. You can then go to www.sourceforge.net and download the GNU C-language compiler titled WINAVR. You will be impressed with the features.

hgmjrhttp://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Cat=2621880&k=avrisp

 

I think a big part of the picaxe and the arduino is that they're more designed for artists than scientists!

To each their own, however.

 

I don't know about the picaxe but the Arduino boards, though originally designed to be programmer friendly for use by artists, has found a significant following in the wider electronic hobbyist community. The Arduino boards have the standard AVR ISP6PIN programming header so it can be easily programmed using AVRSTUDIO4 and WINAVR using an AVR programmer intended for use with the ISP programming port.

hgmjr