Factory support - low cost uControllers

[Jester]

IMO the technical support provided by many of the uController manufacturers has really declined over the past 10-15 years. In the good old days you could call a number, get an actual person on the phone that understood the product and get your question answered quickly so you could move on with your project.

I recently did a couple of small projects using Atmel parts and the technical support was beyond bad. I decided to try these parts because the technical support from Microchip was not what it used to be.

I have always had good to great support from LT, AD and usually from TI for their analog and DSP products.

So what manufacturers have you had good support experiences with for low cost $5-10 uControllers?

 

[doraemon]

Hello!

It maybe different in Japan, but I have always had very good support for MSP430 series
by TI and its distributors.

Dora.

 

[Jester]

Searching this morning for:
5V tolerant
12bit A/D
8K or more RAM
16K or more FLASH
Prefer small package (limited I/O needed)

and found this: https://www.digikey.ca/product-deta...2AAXUMA1/XMC1302T016X0032AAXUMA1CT-ND/4789933
< $2 (qty 500)
TSSOP-16

Seems ideal for my application, anyone use this? I have not used Infineon controllers in the past, customer support?

 

[Jester]

One thing for sure the Infineon website is in a different league than the crappy Atmel site.

Data sheets, application notes and schematic and PCB libraries just a click away (and they work).
Trying on-line chat for support, asking about long term availability.... Response took 97 seconds.

Attempted to get the user manual for the AVR Dragon from Atmel and 2 weeks later nothing, web site link does not work and tech support says sorry the link is broken case closed. I'm done with Atmel rant off