The AVR Microprocessor
Years ago I did a PIC micro project for the daughter's science fair. I built her a voltage logger and she used it to characterize AA batteries, an important and useful result for a teenager.
Subsequently I was browsing through the Digikey paper catalog looking at all the PIC micro chips that were available. Pages of them. Unfortunately, only about two of them (at that time) were flash reprogrammable - all the rest were only one time programmable. One time programmable chips aren't very interesting for experimenting with - each time a software upgrade is required a new chip is needed. Too expensive for the experimenter. As I flipped the pages of the catalog I came across one or two pages of CPUs from another company, and ALL OF THEM were reprogrammable. Further research indicated that they were fast, executing most instructions in one clock cycle instead of the four cycles the PIC required. An 8 mhz chip was faster than a 20 mhz PIC. This was the ATMEL AVR series of CPUs.
So I got a Raver development system from DonTronics for $39 and interfaced the AVR to LCD displays, rotary encoder knobs, a hex keypad, a 1 wire temperature sensor, and a few other things. I started out with a free C basic interpreter, moved to a demo C compiler, and when that timed out I moved to a version of the Gnu C Compiler (GCC) made for the AVR series. This is a dynamite combination.
When I did all this, it was a bit tricky to figure out how to get AVR-GCC to go. Not anymore. The AVRFreaks website has everything (or links to it) that you will need, and people there to help answer questions.
The STK500 development board from ATMEL, the maker of the AVR micros supports programming and development of almost all their chips. This board is amazingly priced under $80. They also have a USB based programmer (AVR-ISP2) that is under $35. This connects to your target system with a six pin cable and programs your chip right in the project.
The editor/assembler/simulator/debugger toolset is available for free from Atmel, the manufacturer of the chips. You can program the chips in C, assembler, or a mixture of both using a combination of free tools.
The latest nifty AVR gadget is the AVR Butterfly. This small, light (even wearable) micro demo board has AVR, LCD, ADC, and a whole lot more. See the
AvrButterfly page here for more info.
Resources
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AlanB, WB6ZQZ
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