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Posted by Wayne C. Gramlich on May 26, 2007, 6:58 pm
Joe Strout wrote:
>
>> Onesupermanone wrote:
>>> My preference it to use C language.
>> There are a lot of choices but I'd say the Atmel line is a good choice
>> for you. They offer some traditional 8-bit RISC controllers, and some
>> newer 32-bit ARM-based controllers. Funnily enough, one of my selection
>> criteria is whether the chip is available in a DIP package, so I don't
>> have to solder surface mount, or invest in an expensive breakout board.
>> If this matters to you be sure to note the package availability when
>> you're looking.
>
> For what it's worth, I'm a newbie too, as anyone here will readily
> attest from the way I constantly pester them with questions. :) I
> recently went on just such a controller search myself, looking at
> various boards under $50.
>
> But, based in part on the advice of Gordon and others here, I've decided
> to take the plunge and give a raw Atmel (AVR) chip a try. These are
> electronically quite easy to use; the challenge may be setting up the
> development environment, but if you use Windows then you'll probably
> find that pretty easy too. If you don't, get back to me and we'll
> suffer through setting up the GNU toolchain together. :)
>
> Here's what I just ordered from Digikey:
>
> Part#: ATAVRISP2-ND
> Description: PROGRAMMER AVR IN SYSTEM
> Price: $35.91
>
> Part#: ATMEGA48-20PU-ND
> Description: IC AVR MCU 4K 20MHZ 5V 28DIP
> Price: $2.69
>
> The programmer is a bit on the pricey side, but you get it once and use
> it over and over. The controller itself, as you can see, is quite
> cheap. So if you screw it up and turn it into a brick, you don't suffer
> too much financially. :)
>
> I chose this particular chip because the ATMega48 seems like a pretty
> common AVR chip (it's used in one version of the Pololu Baby Orangutan
> for example -- which BTW looks like a great board if you want something
> with motor controllers built in). And it's a DIP package, as Gordon
> points out (important for me since I use a prototyping breadboard a
> lot). I don't know what the "20PU" or "ND" parts mean, so hopefully
> they're not important!
If I recall correctly, "ND" is a digikey moniker and originally
stood for "No Discount". These days it just means it is a Digikey
part number. The "20PU" stands for 20Mhz in a "28P3" or 28-pin
plastic .30" skinny DIP. A good choice of part. Before you know
it, you and your friends will be buying them in tubes of 25 to
get them at the $1.69 price point.
Not got give you buyers remorse, but I am about to add AVR's
to my bag of tools and have been hunting around for AVR programmers.
The AVRDEVKIT1-ND is a combination of the ATSTK500 and the
ATAVRDragon from Digikey at $49.00. It is supposed to be a
combined programmer and debugger.
-Wayne
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