This may be a dumb question.

Thread Starter

Javafiend

Joined Aug 3, 2008
2
But here it goes.. Im new to microcontrollers. And I have Extensive knowledge of Windows, and some BASIC programing knowledge (All-be a bit out of date).. But microcontrollers looks interesting to learn.. Does anyone have a idea of a good place to start and which chip I should start on?? any help would be great.. Thanks for your time..
 

hgmjr

Joined Jan 28, 2005
9,027
What expenditure are you able to make in purchasing the tools you need to pursue your interest in microcontrollers?

hgmjr
 

John Luciani

Joined Apr 3, 2007
475
But here it goes.. Im new to microcontrollers. And I have Extensive knowledge of Windows, and some BASIC programing knowledge (All-be a bit out of date).. But microcontrollers looks interesting to learn.. Does anyone have a idea of a good place to start and which chip I should start on?? any help would be great.. Thanks for your time..
I would start with an Atmel ATmega168. It is a low cost chip (apx $3-$4) and there
are a variety of development boards available.

The boards I have developed are at www.wiblocks.com

(* jcl *)
 

roddefig

Joined Apr 29, 2008
149
The AVR Butterfly is a cheap ($20) development kit for the AVR. http://www.atmel.com/dyn/Products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=3146

You can also take a look at the MSP430. TI offers an MSP430 dev kit on a USB dongle for roughly the same price. http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/ez430-f2013.html

Though I've listed both for the sake of being impartial I would recommend the AVR chips over any of TI's offerings as TI has a history of abysmal tech support and shoddy products. And, the Butterfly has more peripherals (read: toys) than the TI kit. ;)
 

Voltboy

Joined Jan 10, 2007
197
I started with a PIC starter pack, and i heard BASIC stamp is great, but its kinda expensive.. PICs are very good, I recommend it.
 

MusicTech

Joined Apr 4, 2008
144
Very expensive actually $80 at Radioshack, I was considering purchasing it until I saw that... but then again, that's radioshack...
 

MusicTech

Joined Apr 4, 2008
144
That's really good software. If what you see is what you get, I would definitely get. And you get to stay completely within the confines of C, which is good. Just one question, because this has been keeping me back from making MCU projects, Can you modify this to accept multiple different chip sizes with more/less i/o or is this it?
 

RiJoRI

Joined Aug 15, 2007
536
The AVR Butterfly is a cheap ($20) development kit for the AVR. http://www.atmel.com/dyn/Products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=3146

...

Though I've listed both for the sake of being impartial I would recommend the AVR chips over any of TI's offerings as TI has a history of abysmal tech support and shoddy products. And, the Butterfly has more peripherals (read: toys) than the TI kit. ;)
Also, a series has just been started in Nuts and Volts on programming in C with the Butterfly. This may be useful.

--Rich
 

jut

Joined Aug 25, 2007
224
+1 for starting with PICs. Personally I think you should start without a development kit to get more practical experience with the hardware. And besides it's not hard considering how easy it is to wire up a PIC since they have on-board oscillators. You might check out the Pic 12f675 which can be programmed in C using the lite version of the Hi-Tech compiler. My avatar is that PIC flashing an LED. Oh and microchip has ample free samples if you have a student email address ( samples.microchip.com ).
 

kammenos

Joined Aug 3, 2008
127
I would never change my PIC micros :D

They are cheap, really cheap ((PIC16F716 starts from less than $1.5)) with wide range and you may get for $35-40 some really good replica of Microchip PIC programmer and debugger (i bought mine for $35 from Ebay and it bangs!!!!! very very good). There you may debug your assembly program before put your PIC into action.


 
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