[Al_The_Man]

I have some projects that are crying our for a micro processor and am looking to getting back into using something other than my old M68HC705, (yeah' it been that long)!
There is so much out there now in the way of MicroChip etc, I wonder if anyone has any recommendations as I would like to get hold of assembler, simulator etc but don't want to lock in and limit my options, I am looking at the 16F452 ~18F452.
An comments welcomed.
Al.

[da21]

for quick and easy jobs i use microchip anything bigger use Atmel ATMEGA 32 , ATMEGA128 ETC , both have free tools available depending on what flavor you program with Assembler or C

[Jonathon]

I use PICAXE chips, They are Michrochip processors with a picaxe bootstrap very easy to program easy user interface good support and they are cheap.
www.picaxe.co.uk

[PaulH]

da21-

I am familiar with the PIC processors, but not the ATMEL chips. I like the fact that the MEGA series is RISC! Very cool!

A few quick questions:

Why do you like those processors?
How do they stack up against ATMEL's other microcontrollers?
How do they compare to other brands?
And most important: How much do they cost?

Thanks!

[da21]

da21-

I am familiar with the PIC processors, but not the ATMEL chips. I like the fact that the MEGA series is RISC! Very cool!

A few quick questions:

Why do you like those processors?
How do they stack up against ATMEL's other microcontrollers?
How do they compare to other brands?
And most important: How much do they cost?

Thanks!

take a look at http://www.avrfreaks.net
just about all the questions you ask are answered there ,
cost wise not too bad either

one aspect i like is the compatability if you write code for a lower spec it will work with little change all the way up ,

i prefer to code in C so i use the winavr compiler which is well supported and free !

[pminmo]

The AMTEL parts (AVR's) are a very good family of parts. When I looked at updating some old Intel 8751, they stood above the PIC parts. That was several years ago/ Easy to program. The Microchip parts are good also, more to choose from. Each has their stongpoints and weakpoints. One of the factors for me at the time was a free basic compilier/debugger/programmer software - BASCOM. Not the most professional product, but for the price you could build 2K of code (now 4K).

Phil

[PaulH]

I just bookmarked the AVR Freaks site. Thanks! I'll read through it when I have more time in a couple of days.

[mcurtis]

If your interested in C ompiler's for pics, I use the CCS compiler . Compared to the other pic C compiler's, it's very affordable. I believe they have a demo version on their website that will work on 2 or 3 pics. (time limited)

Other compilers offer demo's which aren't time limited, but only work on a couple chips. High-Tech has one here

Maynard

[H500]

I used both the pic and avr chips. If you program in a high level language such as C, both are equally easy to program. If you want to do assember, then I think the AVR is much easier and more powerful.

The best thing about the avr is that you build a JTAG in circuit emulator for next to nothing. This is very handy for unintrusive debugging. The software is free from atmel.

[TinkerDJ]

I have some experience with microchip PIC's. None with AVR's. As microchip will give you as many as 10 free samples every couple of months i went with them. The 18F452 chip is nice i have a few projects that work very well with them. They are being replaces with the 18f4455 series i think. You can make a very cheap and very easy to use multi programmer and debugger, its an ICD2 clone and the one i built didn't cost me much at all as all the chips were samples and I used some 3406 transistors and the rest I got outa my junk box. Microchip has another good series of chips that have built in usb support. Motor control. There is piles of them. AVR's have some excellent features as well. Almost all of the Univeristy level projects are using AVR's. Basically it came down to who would give me free samples over having to buy chips. Most of the samples i ordered from microchip arrived in 3 or 4 days, thats not saying much to some but in canada anything less then a week seems to be a miracle. Microchip has there c18 C code program that is an addon for the MPLAB IDE suite. It has a student level i think 2K lines, not sure on this i haven't written very large programs and haven't had it not work. I used the ccslite and it worked well for me. I tried playing around with the Renesas microcontroller but gave up after fighting the size of there chips, lqfn is not a very friendly size for hobbiest, 0.8mm trace seperation. Anyways hope this helps. Here are some of the sights i get most of my PIC info from.

http://stolz.de.be/
ICD2 clone, i built the rs232 version, took a couple of evenings works great. The USB one would be better to build from the start.

http://cstep.luberth.com/
Made a 18F452 controller to run his stepper drive's

http://www.mikroelektronika.co.yu/en...ok/picbook.htm
Books and other helpful info

http://www.edaboard.com/forums.html
Very good resource for anything electronic, as well has a very good forum for microcontrollers in general

http://www.winpicprog.co.uk/pic_tutorial.htm
Little outdated but a very good tutorial on pic programming.