[Coco] Arduino question

Mon Oct 10 11:13:10 EDT 2011

Frank,

Really depends on what you want to do.

The STK500 is VERY reasonable. Look at all the target chips it supports.

Your link below to the mega1284, that is a HUGE chip, maybe you have a specific need for all of those features in that chip???

BTW: The Atmel AVR would be a terrible approach to replace the SuperIDE. Seriously.  Altera, better solution.

Regards,

Mark
http://www.cloud9tech.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Pittel" <fwp at deepthought.com>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 6, 2011 10:25:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] Arduino question

Sorry all for the increasingly off topic thread. :-)

I took a look at the boards you recommend and the all seem out of what I was hoping to pay.
I'm thinking of a low cost way to put the chips through their paces and decide if I want to
actually use them. Right now in my never humble opinion the micro processor to beat is the
Parallax Propeller. But my inner geek is insisting that I check out alternatives.

To that end I was looking around the Atmel site and saw the following available for $29!!
http://store.atmel.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:10500272

While I understand I'm not going to be using it to develop the competitor to the SuperIDE I
think it'll let me test out at least one of their chips and let me decide if I want to
continue on with them. If you or anyone else using the Atmel chips has a minute or five to
take a look and let me know what they think it would be greatly appreciated.

The Other Frank

On Wed, Oct 05, 2011 at 08:48:40PM +0000, Mark Marlette wrote:
> Frank,
> 
> I run the STK500/501/525/526 boards. Atmel has changed their platform a bit on the new development boards. I have one each of the USB and ~4 of the 500/501 combos. Can pick them up on Ebay for cheap, buyer beware....I had to fix one of the 501 boards but for $50 for the set, didn't matter to me.
> 
> http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Cat=2621773&k=stk500&stock=1
> 
> The new platform is the STK600
> 
> http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Cat=2621773&k=stk600
> 
> Notice the cost difference....Basically you pay more for the base board and then the plugins are cheap. The 5xx series is the opposite. A wash if you keep commonality in your AVRs in your projects. I don't, ATtiny - mega128. On app on the mega128 is at 55% capacity and I haven't added the camera code. Fun stuff, not much time to play. As you can see some of the products on the site target the Atmel platform, SD card, programmers, etc. I haven't updated the programmer page but I mod'd some China version to all multiV level programming in a USB version for Altera. Also have JTAG/ISP USB programmers for the AVRs not added up there yet. Have a dozen of each on hand.
> 
> I have so many projects, I don't like to tear down, that is why I have so many.
> 
> SDproto- You can have a FAT SD card up and running in under 10 minutes once verse with the tools.
> 
> I also HIGHLY recommend BASCOM from MCS Electronics. Once you learn the rules of the compiler, you can crank out some code / firmware quickly. Tons of libs, forum support, etc.
> 
> Anyway hope that helps....
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Mark
> http://www.cloud9tech.com
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Frank Pittel" <fwp at deepthought.com>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 5, 2011 3:42:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Arduino question
> 
> Mark,
> 
> Can you recommend a good low cost (read cheap) dev/evaluation kit for the Atmel chips?
> 
> A bit over a month ago I got interested in the "new" generation of microcontrollers when
> I was looking for a way to cheaply run a stepper motor for a automated film processer. Many
> years ago I got a robot kit on a whim from fry's which got put away after the initial OCD wore
> off. The kit used the parallax basic stamp and since then I've settled on the Parallax
> Propeller for the film processer.
> 
> I'm not married to that processer and when I finish the program for the film processer (I'm
> responsible for the controls and a friend is handling the mechanics) I plan on looking at the
> picaxe that Steve mentioned last week and think that it would be a good idea to look into the
> Atmel offerings.
> 
> The Other Frank
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Oct 05, 2011 at 03:59:07PM +0000, Mark Marlette wrote:
> > 
> > Several years ago, at one the the ChicagoFests, I met a guy that was attempting to use the AVR platform to emulate the 6809.
> > 
> > Not sure what happened to this as I haven't seen him there again.
> > 
> > Chris Hawks worked for him or at the same company.
> > 
> > Chris???
> > 
> > I am very verse in the AVR platform have many of the dev kits and tools. It is a blast!
> > 
> > Regards,
> > 
> > Mark
> > http://www.cloud9tech.com
> > 
> > 
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "gene heskett" <gheskett at wdtv.com>
> > To: jdagget at gate.net
> > Cc: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 5, 2011 10:52:51 AM
> > Subject: Re: [Coco] Arduino question
> > 
> > On Wednesday, October 05, 2011 11:51:52 AM jdagget at gate.net did opine:
> > 
> > And your account at gate.net is refusing my messages, James.
> > 
> > > Gene
> > > 
> > > The ATmel AVRs are more like the HC11/HC12 in assembly programming.
> > > 
> > > There are some similarities and uniquicness of the AVR that has to be
> > > taken into account inporting Nitros09 over to say an XMega AVR. There
> > > are 32 8 bit general purpose registers. Register 31 and 32 act as a 16
> > > bit Z register, 29 and 30 would correspond to the Y register and 28 and
> > > 29 would correspond to the X register of the 6809.
> > > 
> > > 6809 code may be easier to port over. Not sure if 6309 is real easy or
> > > not.
> > > 
> > > The XMega series is as powerful an 8 bit processor as there is that is
> > > still in production. There are some neat things they do that are
> > > better. I like the RAMPx instruction where any of the 26 general
> > > purpose registers can be concacted with the Index registers to form 24
> > > or 32 bit registers. You can point to any where in a 24 bit memory map.
> > > There also is a DMA on some flavors.
> > > 
> > > It truly would be a neat project and a rather lengthy undertaking to do
> > > though.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > james
> > > 
> > > On 2 Oct 2011 at 18:07, gene heskett wrote:
> > > > Thanks Mark.
> > > > 
> > > > Silly Q?  Is this atmel chip equipt with the command set that would
> > > > let nitros9 be ported to it?
> > 
> > 
> > Cheers, Gene
> > -- 
> > "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
> >  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> > -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> > It was all so different before everything changed.
> > 
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