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Companies Selling Microcontroller Kits?

Posted by Cliff on from the for-building-your-own-digital-projects dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "I'm in college working on an electrical engineering degree, and I've had a few labs so far involving microcontroller setups. I'd now like to start doing some microcontroller projects of my own devising, so I'll need a programmer, the development software, and the MCUs themselves. The problem is that I don't have a wide experience with the different companies selling this sort of equipment. I know about the BASIC Stamps and the PIC offerings, but what other architectures are there? Both of the MCUs I've named have development tools, but they're for Windows. Are there any companies out there that supply their tools for BSD/Linux? What open source projects are there working on this (I've found gputiles). As always, free (as in beer) is good for us college students. :-)"

3 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How about an 80186 board by baywulf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I just realized you wanted non-windows development environment. Since this board is a x86 with a DOS like shell, you can use any 16-bit x86 cross compilers for Linux.

  2. PIC's rule! by pedro · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While I am sure that there are probably better examples of deadly serious microcontrollers out there, I have to say that Microchip's products really satisfy the hacker impulse in me.
    I cut my teeth on 8080's (conditional calls and returns? WOOHOO!) and 6502's (gotta love those flag behaviours) and the PIC families rock if you're into major algorithmic gymnastics.
    Everything you could possibly want in a uP is there, and executed beautifully if you're a cycle counting maniac like I am.
    Microchip's tools are basic, yes, but they *are* free, mostly, and perform as advertised.
    Braving the win environment is just something you'll have to put up with if you want to stay on the bleeding edge of what they offer.
    As other posters have mentioned, however, there exist GNU style tools that I suspect might fulfill your needs.
    I must mention, however, that the real power of the PIC products can only be accessed fully by coding to the metal directly.
    Know the chip that you're using intimately.
    A logic analyzer might help also, since you're going to be twiddling ports in a rather brazen fashion.

    --
    Brak: What's THAT?
    Thundercleese: A light switch.. of TOTAL DEVASTATION!
    1. Re:PIC's rule! by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "Everything you could possibly want in a uP is there"

      Almost - the only PIC with USB has a UV erasable ROM, not the easiest thing for doing development with.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC