KIK1RIK1
Newbie level 3
I'm a complete beginner with microcontrollers and I'm currently working on a hobby project that will require one. Here's the list of what I'll need from it in terms on I/O:
-Light sensor
-A few basic on/off switches
-Output to 2 servos (5v I think) and one motor(12v)
-2 digit counter
-Toggle on/off 8 fans
I've checked the forums and ran across this by millwood:
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"8051 for example is very simple and lots of sources -> low prices. Yet, the project has highly limited onboard peripherals and not that interesting / expandable, especially if you want to commercialize your skills.
PIC is slightly better with its peripherals but the product is on its last leg: we fired a PIC guy earlier this year and he is still without a job. yet we have a hard time getting an ARM guy.
those chips are great if all you do is hobby and you don't intend to commercialize your skills. if you do, you better be lucky.
AVR is a newer platform and much faster than pic. however, it is more hobby than industrial use, due to its young age.
if you are looking to make a living out of your mcu skills, ARM is a great place to invest your time / efforts. it is more complicated than others, but only marginally in my view. the Cortex-M0/M3 chips are very price competitive and offer great performance for your dollar."
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Based off of that I'm leaning towards some sort of AVR. However, I've also seen the name adruino and axon come up a lot. Checking their websites they seem fairly ideal for what I'm looking to do except I don't know if they could do it all at once. Here are the ones I found might suit me:
-AVR STK500
-Axon2
-Arduino
With each one I have doubts though. The avr... it doesn't look anything like the others (female sockets for other chips? is this a troubleshooting device?). Does the Arduino have to be programmed in it's own language (I want to use C or basic) and would it be able to handle everything I need? The Axon2 looks most appealing, but with the highest price tag and all those features it might be overkill.
The bottom line is I'm looking for something that is easy enough to get started with in the world of hobby electronics, but powerful enough to work for my current project. So I'm hoping to get some feedback on these(lots of tutorials available? software I need to compile and code is free? etc.) or recommendations for others.
Thank you.
-Light sensor
-A few basic on/off switches
-Output to 2 servos (5v I think) and one motor(12v)
-2 digit counter
-Toggle on/off 8 fans
I've checked the forums and ran across this by millwood:
----------------------
"8051 for example is very simple and lots of sources -> low prices. Yet, the project has highly limited onboard peripherals and not that interesting / expandable, especially if you want to commercialize your skills.
PIC is slightly better with its peripherals but the product is on its last leg: we fired a PIC guy earlier this year and he is still without a job. yet we have a hard time getting an ARM guy.
those chips are great if all you do is hobby and you don't intend to commercialize your skills. if you do, you better be lucky.
AVR is a newer platform and much faster than pic. however, it is more hobby than industrial use, due to its young age.
if you are looking to make a living out of your mcu skills, ARM is a great place to invest your time / efforts. it is more complicated than others, but only marginally in my view. the Cortex-M0/M3 chips are very price competitive and offer great performance for your dollar."
----------------------
Based off of that I'm leaning towards some sort of AVR. However, I've also seen the name adruino and axon come up a lot. Checking their websites they seem fairly ideal for what I'm looking to do except I don't know if they could do it all at once. Here are the ones I found might suit me:
-AVR STK500
-Axon2
-Arduino
With each one I have doubts though. The avr... it doesn't look anything like the others (female sockets for other chips? is this a troubleshooting device?). Does the Arduino have to be programmed in it's own language (I want to use C or basic) and would it be able to handle everything I need? The Axon2 looks most appealing, but with the highest price tag and all those features it might be overkill.
The bottom line is I'm looking for something that is easy enough to get started with in the world of hobby electronics, but powerful enough to work for my current project. So I'm hoping to get some feedback on these(lots of tutorials available? software I need to compile and code is free? etc.) or recommendations for others.
Thank you.