I normally use pics, mainly 18f and 30f's. I would like to try some freescale micros, at the moment the 8 bit ones.
I have the keil demo ide and i like it alot, but what do i need to program and debug the actual micro's?with pics I use pk3 and ICD3, what is the freescale equivalent of these? or is there another way?
I would prefer not to get a evaluation board.
many thanks

 

If you pick a controller and go to it's page on the Freescale website, there is a list of applicable programmers toward the bottom in an expanding list.

 

ok great, do you recommend any particular ones? Maybe one that covers the most devices?

 

I don't use Freescale microcontrollers and the prohibitively high cost of starting with them ensures that I won't anytime soon, so I have no recommendations for you. The cheapest I found was $99. If you don't care about cost, it looks like the Cyclone PRO has the most features..

I found a list of programmers and emulators...

 

thank you for that, I was shocked also at the cost! its a shame as i really like the IDE.
Looks like I have been spoilt with pics! They even gave me a free ICD3 when I had trouble with a PK3. Really good company, when I spoke to them and explained I wasnt a engineer, just a kid interested to learn micro's, they were great and set me up a samples account! and sent a couple of small dev boards.
Maybe I should contact freescale? cant hurt I guess. I like the look of some of there Micro's but I cant afford the tool chain .
Another thing with microchip they publish all the schematics of there stuff, so you can clone it! I am going to do a serial analyser based on there design and use there firmware.
I wont use Atmel, I contacted them and there response was along the lines of, well wait until you have a job and can afford our stuff!

 

I might look at other micros but so many its hard to choose one.

 

I am fairly happy with Texas Instruments' microcontrollers. from the MSP430 line (low-cost 16-bit uCs) to the ARMs, I find their stuff pretty nice (They even sell really cheap dev boards like the MSP430 Launchpad and the ARM-based Stellaris/Tiva Launchpad!).

STMicroelectronics has some pretty nice controllers too.

 

I didnt manage to contact Texas, or freescale (I might try again). But I did get a phone number for someone in the uk for silicon labs. I will have a update in a day or two but lets say it went really well

 

Does it have to be a plain micro, did you consider dev boards? Because some of these you simply program via USB. stm32f4discovery is pretty amazing

 

I have a couple of neat dev boards on the way from Silicon labs, they are sending me a couple of 32 bit ones, and a 8 bit one and a dev board for there new generation of humidity sensors! All Free of charge!!!
Really nice people, spent ages asking me questions

 

I have a couple of neat dev boards on the way from Silicon labs, they are sending me a couple of 32 bit ones, and a 8 bit one and a dev board for there new generation of humidity sensors! All Free of charge!!!
Really nice people, spent ages asking me questions

Wow, that's awesome!

 

I have one that tops that.

STMicroelectronics gave me breakfast, lunch, a software training session and this all for free:

 

I have one that tops that.

STMicroelectronics gave me breakfast, lunch, a software training session and this all for free:[...]

...I knew I should have signed up for that...

 

ST wouldnt give me anything!!!