What's a good, clean, cheap MCU for a hobbyist?

C

Costas Vlachos

Guest
A friend of mine is looking to get into MCU projects as a hobby. I'd say
he's at an intermediate level in electronics (and has a Ph.D. in control
systems!). He has used MCUs in the past, I think it was the Motorola
68HCsomething. That was about 10 years ago, he hasn't touched electronics
since then. What he's after is something with a *clean* architecture and
affordable development tools (something under 100 Euros for a starter kit).

I have very good knowledge of the PIC16 series, and although I think they're
good MCUs, I'm worried that their messy architecture (memory paging, messy
look-up tables, etc., etc.) may scare him off. Any recommendations? An 8051?
An AVR? He told me of a cheap development kit he found, for something called
DSP56F800. Is this a DSP/MCU hybrid?

Any suggestions are appreciated (and apologies for starting yet another
"what MCU" thread!).

Thanks,
Costas
 
On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 22:30:52 +0000 (UTC), "Costas Vlachos"
<c-X-vlachos@hot-X-mail.com> wrote:

A friend of mine is looking to get into MCU projects as a hobby. I'd say
he's at an intermediate level in electronics (and has a Ph.D. in control
systems!). He has used MCUs in the past, I think it was the Motorola
68HCsomething. That was about 10 years ago, he hasn't touched electronics
since then. What he's after is something with a *clean* architecture and
affordable development tools (something under 100 Euros for a starter kit).

I have very good knowledge of the PIC16 series, and although I think they're
good MCUs, I'm worried that their messy architecture (memory paging, messy
look-up tables, etc., etc.) may scare him off. Any recommendations? An 8051?
An AVR? He told me of a cheap development kit he found, for something called
DSP56F800. Is this a DSP/MCU hybrid?
Click to expand...
In the 8-bitters, I really like the AVR architecture.

ImageCraft has some nice starter kits in the 100-ish Euro range. Go to
http://www.imagecraft.com/software/ and follow the Hardware link to AVR.
AFAIK, the "Butterfly" hasn't shipped yet.

Also in that same price range is Atmel's STK500 -- which has the
advantage of being useable as a programmer for any of the AVR family.
The disadvantage is a lack of a handy LCD display built in. On the other
hand, it does have a "user side" serial port and RS232 drivers for it.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
 
The 56F800 is a DSP with some microcontroller attributes. A bit power
hungry, and not the best endowed peripherally, but quite a nice looking
part, and the EVK was only around US$30 when I bought mine. Other than
that I like the MSP430Fxxxx from Ti. Low power, good peripheral mix,
flash based, built in JTAG for debugging, and US$99 for the tools.

Al

Costas Vlachos wrote:

A friend of mine is looking to get into MCU projects as a hobby. I'd say
he's at an intermediate level in electronics (and has a Ph.D. in control
systems!). He has used MCUs in the past, I think it was the Motorola
68HCsomething. That was about 10 years ago, he hasn't touched electronics
since then. What he's after is something with a *clean* architecture and
affordable development tools (something under 100 Euros for a starter kit).

I have very good knowledge of the PIC16 series, and although I think they're
good MCUs, I'm worried that their messy architecture (memory paging, messy
look-up tables, etc., etc.) may scare him off. Any recommendations? An 8051?
An AVR? He told me of a cheap development kit he found, for something called
DSP56F800. Is this a DSP/MCU hybrid?

Any suggestions are appreciated (and apologies for starting yet another
"what MCU" thread!).

Thanks,
Costas
Click to expand...
 
If you want go on the cheep and can do a bit of soldering, I'm retired too,
checkout the AVR.

http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php

I've priced it out and he could get started for less than $15.00 USD, less
if he has an electronics junk box.

Jay

"Costas Vlachos" <c-X-vlachos@hot-X-mail.com> wrote in message
news:bjo8mr$dq6$1@titan.btinternet.com...
A friend of mine is looking to get into MCU projects as a hobby. I'd say
he's at an intermediate level in electronics (and has a Ph.D. in control
systems!). He has used MCUs in the past, I think it was the Motorola
68HCsomething. That was about 10 years ago, he hasn't touched electronics
since then. What he's after is something with a *clean* architecture and
affordable development tools (something under 100 Euros for a starter
kit).

I have very good knowledge of the PIC16 series, and although I think
they're
good MCUs, I'm worried that their messy architecture (memory paging, messy
look-up tables, etc., etc.) may scare him off. Any recommendations? An
8051?
An AVR? He told me of a cheap development kit he found, for something
called
DSP56F800. Is this a DSP/MCU hybrid?

Any suggestions are appreciated (and apologies for starting yet another
"what MCU" thread!).

Thanks,
Costas
Click to expand...
 
Oh I forgot to mention, the Olimex JTAG interface is only US$10,
download the assembler, 4K limited free C compiler, IDE and debugger
from Ti for free.

Al

onestone wrote:

The 56F800 is a DSP with some microcontroller attributes. A bit power
hungry, and not the best endowed peripherally, but quite a nice looking
part, and the EVK was only around US$30 when I bought mine. Other than
that I like the MSP430Fxxxx from Ti. Low power, good peripheral mix,
flash based, built in JTAG for debugging, and US$99 for the tools.

Al

Costas Vlachos wrote:

A friend of mine is looking to get into MCU projects as a hobby. I'd say
he's at an intermediate level in electronics (and has a Ph.D. in control
systems!). He has used MCUs in the past, I think it was the Motorola
68HCsomething. That was about 10 years ago, he hasn't touched electronics
since then. What he's after is something with a *clean* architecture and
affordable development tools (something under 100 Euros for a starter
kit).

I have very good knowledge of the PIC16 series, and although I think
they're
good MCUs, I'm worried that their messy architecture (memory paging,
messy
look-up tables, etc., etc.) may scare him off. Any recommendations? An
8051?
An AVR? He told me of a cheap development kit he found, for something
called
DSP56F800. Is this a DSP/MCU hybrid?

Any suggestions are appreciated (and apologies for starting yet another
"what MCU" thread!).

Thanks,
Costas
Click to expand...
 
"Rich Webb" <bbew.ar@mapson.nozirev.ten> wrote in message
news:alcvlv04km19m1dqtk2s1sf74j67g5dg4m@4ax.com...
On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 22:30:52 +0000 (UTC), "Costas Vlachos"
c-X-vlachos@hot-X-mail.com> wrote:

A friend of mine is looking to get into MCU projects as a hobby. I'd say
he's at an intermediate level in electronics (and has a Ph.D. in control
systems!). He has used MCUs in the past, I think it was the Motorola
68HCsomething. That was about 10 years ago, he hasn't touched electronics
since then. What he's after is something with a *clean* architecture and
affordable development tools (something under 100 Euros for a starter
kit).

I have very good knowledge of the PIC16 series, and although I think
they're
good MCUs, I'm worried that their messy architecture (memory paging,
messy
look-up tables, etc., etc.) may scare him off. Any recommendations? An
8051?
An AVR? He told me of a cheap development kit he found, for something
called
DSP56F800. Is this a DSP/MCU hybrid?

In the 8-bitters, I really like the AVR architecture.

ImageCraft has some nice starter kits in the 100-ish Euro range. Go to
http://www.imagecraft.com/software/ and follow the Hardware link to AVR.
AFAIK, the "Butterfly" hasn't shipped yet.

Also in that same price range is Atmel's STK500 -- which has the
advantage of being useable as a programmer for any of the AVR family.
The disadvantage is a lack of a handy LCD display built in. On the other
hand, it does have a "user side" serial port and RS232 drivers for it.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
Click to expand...


Thanks Rich and everyone who replied. It seems the AVR is a good choice. I'm
a PIC guy myself, used to the PIC architecture and like it. But it would be
a good idea to try the AVR. Had a quick look at the data sheets, lots of
nice 1- and 2-cycle instructions. The 17 and 18 series or PICs may be worth
a look too.

Thanks again people.

Costas
 
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