[Coco] Arduino question

Thu Oct 6 23:25:07 EDT 2011

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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