malcom2073

I actually just into AVR's (PIc competitor), and they're great. I had it reading from my cars OBD1 port and displaying information in a little LED numeric display before I fried one of my components (ESD Safety is a must!!) And the nice thing is I can program in C

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AngelOfLight

I can only second that. Been using them through my university course and they are just amazing. Really easy to use and the programmers are not too expensive either. Most of the software is free too and the chips are real cheap too!
If anyone is interested: http://www.fischl.de/usbasp/.
Been using the programmer for a good while now and its reliable and cheap, also very easy to build.

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kibble

I've been wanting to get into microcontroller programming for a long time and have actually bought some with the intention of getting started but never really got far. The first one I tried to get started with was the Motorola 68HC11 several years ago. I still have a few sitting around that I keep telling myself I'll get to one day. LOL

I had bought a book a while ago about programming PIC's and I read all the way through it, but I have yet to pick up a PIC and just go at it.

Beehphy

I have quite a bit of experience with PIC, Atmel, and Motorola/Freescale (HC11, 12, 16) micros from school (electronics engineering degree) and hobbies (since 7th grade).

By far, my favorite is Atmel's AVR series.

The development studio, for writing code, testing and programming is awesome. It's free, powerful and intended for only their products so it’s not bogged down thinking about everyone else's bells and whistles. It has a built in simulator for stepping through code virtually. And there is huge noob-2-expert support at avrfreaks.net

The functionality of the chips are awesome too. I'll discuss each of my main points in detail.

Instruction set: PIC’s are too limited with only 31 instructions; you have to baby them around every little step. Motorola’s are wicked complex with hundreds of instructions with variations so small that it’s easy to loose track what they all mean. You can write very concise code but it’s awkward. AVR’s have about 130 instructions that cover all the stuff moto’s do but a lot simpler and easy to remember.

Packaging, PIC’s and AVR’s come in hobbyist friendly DIP packages, Moto’s do not.

Price: Moto’s are expensive (~$20) and have every bell and whistle you can think of. PICs are cheap (~$4), but come with few extra’s. AVR’s have plenty of options but don’t break the bank (~$7).

Options/Extra’s: Moto’s are king! They have so many extra’s its almost scary trying to configure the peripherals. External memory mapping is a cinch. The thing is, you pay for all these extra’s even if you don’t need most of them. PICs have next to nothing. Limited peripherals and limited memory. Every project I started with a PIC had to be upgrade to a bigger chip because the limited instructions caused the code to exceed the available space. AVR’s have most of the options of a Moto, but a price much closer to a PIC. They have plenty of registers and program space.

Programming: PICs and AVR’s have the cheapest programmers available, as low as $15. Moto’s are ridiculously expensive (I got a simple/crap one with a student discount for $135) and basically only companies can afford them. Both PIC’s and Moto’s require a programming voltage (13V) to program the flash/EE memory, AVR do not. A single 5V supply is all you need for programming and running an AVR. This makes the board design much simpler.

AVR’s have the best programmer of all; the AVR Dragon PP/ICP/ICE/ JTAG for $50. It can program almost every chip they make in multiple modes.
Parallel Programming (PP): just the chip in a socket.
In Circuit Programming (ICP): use a small cable to program the chip in your circuit.
In Circuit Emulation (ICE): run/stop/manipulate the chip, in circuit, from the development environment on your computer through a small cable.
JTAG: A different and more universal ICE.

The AVR Dragon is USB, professionally built, and integrated into the development environment. Any new chips are added with software updates from Atmel.

For all these reasons and more, Atmel AVR’s are the best. IMO.

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coucouillu

Hi all,

For the subject, none choice is for my case.
Mine is : "I've used microcontrollers just a little, but I don't know enough and I am trying to learn more."

For my project, I need help.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but just ask a question in relation with µcontrollers.

I am trying to hack Lilliput indash screen.

I have made some "scans" with DIGITRACE software.

below a complete scan I made from one command of the screen (flip up button).


and here the "flip down" button scan



I could tell that the communication between the screen and the mainboard of the unit is made by 2 wires, looks like assynchrone protocol (serial), and like 4800 bauds.

1) First, What could you say about this signal? What do you understand?

2) I am using a PICBASIC 3B µcontroller. I am trying to reproduce this signal (unsuccessfull).

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Brice.

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olds69

You forgot one option:

design microcontrollers for a living...




Olds69

mbuchman

I have to say, I really like the PICKIT2 from Microchip. The programmer is only 35 bucks, and can program most chips (as far as I know), is powered off USB, and they added some really cool features for such a cheap device.

1) You can load code onto the programmer, then disconnect it from the computer to do in circuit programming wherever your PIC may be (but the device is USB powered, so you will have to feed the 5V into the USB port of the programmer).

2) Allows you to use the programmer as a UART port to send and recieve messages (using the Microchip software)

3) Has a (very basic and limited) 3 channel logic analyzer that can take a 5kHz sample for 200ms, all the way to a 1MHz signal for 1 ms with very basic triggering methods.

Obviously, it is not good at anything but programming, but it is kind of cool that they actually added those features (I got it a few years ago when it first came out, and had to reprogram the programmer to get the new features).

As for the best way to learn assembly, I just went at it the brute force method. Start with the samples that are included (if you get the PICKIT2), read the code/comments, try to modify the code, write your own simple code using the new commands you learned, screw up a bunch, and be glad that these things have FLASH memory! Once you learn the different addressing modes and how to set up the registers, you become less afraid.

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