Hello everybody, my name is Mike. I'll be taking a course at college in the near future, involving programming of micro controllers using CodeWarrior.
I am a total newb, and have no experience with this, so I need to get a head start before classes begin. I've been looking for some hardware to order, but am overwhelmed with all the different options; and am not sure if all are compatible with my needs. I'd appreciate any help I could get from the fine people of this forum.

In this course, we'll be using code warrior in the lab to make LED's go blinky blink, programming an LCD display, connecting a keypad matrix, and measuring I/O pins etc. I'm looking for a development board that will be compatible. I'm avoiding buying a board from the USA, because of shipping costs and "brokerage" fees, that make cross border shopping as a Canadian an expensive affair. I'm thinking, something from aliexpress.com.

As an aside, I also have an Altera Cyclone FPGA demo board on the way, I'm not sure if I can use that with code warrior too?

Thanks in advance,

Mike D.

 

The following article may be of interest to you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CodeWarrior

The problem with your query is that if lacks specificity. The CW environment covers an incredibly large number of hardware platforms and has been passed on to it's third or fourth successive supporting company. Currently that company is NXP. CW was originally developed for the Motorola(Freescale) 68000 series of processors, and NXP is the former Philips Semiconductor. There is quite a bit of ground between those companies.

 

The following article may be of interest to you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CodeWarrior

The problem with your query is that if lacks specificity. The CW environment covers an incredibly large number of hardware platforms and has been passed on to it's third or fourth successive supporting company. Currently that company is NXP. CW was originally developed for the Motorola(Freescale) 68000 series of processors, and NXP is the former Philips Semiconductor. There is quite a bit of ground between those companies.

Thank you for your reply, The course I will be attending is using an Altera Cyclone II FPGA board custom flashed, with a custom designed add on board that has a keypad, LCD, I/O pins.

I'm aware that there are endless options, that's part of the problem that brought me here. I think it is most important that I learn how to program in CW, it should be somewhat similar across all platforms? As far as the hardware I can use, does that just depend on the chip the respective MCU is based on?

 

Thank you for your reply, The course I will be attending is using an Altera Cyclone II FPGA board custom flashed, with a custom designed add on board that has a keypad, LCD, I/O pins.

I'm aware that there are endless options, that's part of the problem that brought me here. I think it is most important that I learn how to program in CW, it should be somewhat similar across all platforms? As far as the hardware I can use, does that just depend on the chip the respective MCU is based on?

So perhaps the FPGA will contain a soft version of a processor for which the CW environment is appropriate. You need to divine what processor is going to be used.

 

You are jumping ahead of yourself.

I have programmed using CW, IAR, Hi-Tech C etc.
They are all the same. You will either be programming in C or ASM.
It doesn't matter much which platform you use.

Ask your instructor what processor and what programming language you will be using in the intended course.

 

You are jumping ahead of yourself.

I have programmed using CW, IAR, Hi-Tech C etc.
They are all the same. You will either be programming in C or ASM.
It doesn't matter much which platform you use.

Ask your instructor what processor and what programming language you will be using in the intended course.

Thanks, it will be based on C programming. I'm just looking for a cheap, common MCU that has input/output devices I can practice programming using C. I don't really have anything specific in mind, and just want something that many people use; that way I'll have greater information/support. It should have keypad and LCD attachments, and LED's etc.

I realize my questions may confuse those in the know... but I'm just looking for a general advice type suggestion. I have no prior experience with this, so assume I know nothing. Thanks again, lol.

 

If you want to go cheap you can make up those boards using strip board in the Nigel Goodwin Tutorials, his is in Assembly but someone has converted to C if you Google.
The strip boards are available here Prototyping Boards. third way down.
BTW it is very rare now to pay brokerage from the US unless it is by UPS, FEDEX, DHL etc, for USpost/CANpost it is free.
I buy most of my parts from Digikey they air freight it next day air for $8.00, brokerage covered.
Max.

 

If you want to go cheap you can make up those boards using strip board in the Nigel Goodwin Tutorials, his is in Assembly but someone has converted to C if you Google.
The strip boards are available here Prototyping Boards. half way down.
BTW it is very rare now to pay brokerage from the US unless it is by UPS, FEDEX, DHL etc, for USpost/CANpost it is free.
I buy most of my parts from Digikey they air freight it next day air for $8.00, brokerage covered.
Max.

Thanks Max! I happen to have that exact proto board from Futurlec that I bought years ago. hahaha I also love shopping at Digikey, made many orders from there. I just avoid buying from US sites I haven't scoped out before, or that don't use USPS( lots of them don't). I've emailed the lead prof. for this program. I'll likely end up buying a ready made board with MCU already installed. Kind of like an Arduino type deal.

I'll have to keep researching, because I'm confused with regards to my options. The urgency is only that I may have to wait months to get something in the mail, only to have it be of little use.

 

There is also the PicDem 2 boards which cover a selection of different size pics and come with different peripherals mounted, sample programs in Assembly and C are supplied, and also can be downloaded off the Pic site.
But not that cheap.
Max.

 

What about something like this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Fre...lgo_pvid=68c40f2f-ed1e-425d-8dfb-3a5ea8999d31

or

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/lea...lgo_pvid=68c40f2f-ed1e-425d-8dfb-3a5ea8999d31

 

Id rather buy some modern PIC chips off the shelf + take Arduino sketch + convert
of course you need to understand C language already but its a good challenge for beginner

Stay away Assembler and older chips at any cost

Or why not Arduino there are more powerful ones than the UNO

If you choose other platforms be aware the softwares may not be free and they are more difficult and less supported to ask online and are rather aimed at professionals.

The STM8 and STM32 boards are pretty good value if you buy them at the intended pricing level many known distributors have them.

The PIC product lines have a great advantage the IDE and compilers have a free mode with no restrictions and the code size is not neccessarily 400% mostly its rather 30% or so and meaningless for small programs.

Modern PICs dont need a crystal no support parts at all even besides a small capacitor and 5pin header for ICSP.
Even the more advanced PICs only need a few small capacitors basically.
They have many pheripherals integrated such as DAC (Digital Analog converter), hardware serial port, large RAM recently and decent FLASH memory size.

For a few pieces it doesnt matter if you go with a chip that costs $2.50 or $3 instead of choosing a cheaper one with smaller memory.

If you are not sure which one, just choose a most recent one! The only disadvantage is the datasheets are complex affairs but possible to work out all just from the datasheet supplied.

Ive spent years with RISC assembly language and while Ive learned a lot, Id not recommend it- people will simply tell you tehy dont understand your code when you write complex programs I did for 18F and it was quite difficult and wasnt understood and using C language it boils down into a much smaller number of lines fairly easy to understand by others...

 

Visit Technological Arts and explain to them what you want to do.
They will most likely suggest something like an HC12 or 9S12 based system.

 

Thanks guys, there's a lot of good info here, as far as links and suggestions. I appreciate it

I'm currently studying for final exams, and I think I bit off more than I can chew. lol I will go through these tutorial links after exams. I may just end up getting an Arduino, so I can at least get my feet wet.

I would say I have intermediate level knowledge of C language, I took two semesters of C programming using structures, loops, functions, disk read/write.

I'll wait and see if the prof replies to my email. Thanks again, this is a great forum and I'll be around to check out other's projects.

 

Just an update for anybody who's interested. I got a reply from the prof that was pretty unhelpful, it stated that "we don't require students to purchase hardware at this time".

I went ahead and ordered an Arduino Mega starter kit, it has a lot of projects and tutorials including RFID, LCD, 7 seg display etc. That should be enough to at least get me thinking and some procedural logic under my belt.

Here's a link to my purchase:

https://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/0.html?orderId=83254025867799&productId=2044999580

 

Just an update for anybody who's interested. I got a reply from the prof that was pretty unhelpful, it stated that "we don't require students to purchase hardware at this time".

I went ahead and ordered an Arduino Mega starter kit, it has a lot of projects and tutorials including RFID, LCD, 7 seg display etc. That should be enough to at least get me thinking and some procedural logic under my belt.

Here's a link to my purchase:

https://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/0.html?orderId=83254025867799&productId=2044999580

eventually if youre just do what youre told, what you absolutely have to do, you wont get anywhere. An experience I made, its mandatory to make your own descisions, as early as possible, assess situations and take action.

URL is not working since its including order ID

The Atmel 2560 IC quite powerful youll be able to do a lot of projects with this board.

 

eventually if youre just do what youre told, what you absolutely have to do, you wont get anywhere. An experience I made, its mandatory to make your own descisions, as early as possible, assess situations and take action.

URL is not working since its including order ID

The Atmel 2560 IC quite powerful youll be able to do a lot of projects with this board.

Thanks takao, I couldn't have said it better myself, the responsibility is on me to want to learn. This kit looks like it will have more than enough to keep me busy . Here is the correct link: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Fre...rsion-starter-kit-for-arduino/2044999580.html