microcontroller Development Board

[saudrehman]

hi guys,
i am new to the field of microcontroller programming.
i just wanted to know if any company gives Free Microcontroller development kits for trial use.
any microcontroller would do 8051,AVR,PIC etc

 

[silvio]

As far as I know there is no such company.
Microcontroller samples YES, but development kits, hmmm.... I doubt.
However there are company which gives you a development kit at lower prices just to encourage you to use their product.

You see what happens when kits are given for free during contests.
But even then you must proove you're qualified to receive it and have a nice ideea in order to advertise that product later for his feature.

 

[Rooftop]

search to www.maxim-ic.com there's a development board of maxq series. It maybe free but need an approval. try it... but i have ever tried it but i didn't get it.

 

[bobsanjose]

Hardware costs money, so does shipping while software cost one time money or time to generate it, then sending it or downloading it can be made free.
What I am trying to say, there are simulators, e.g. https://www.keil.com for download that can simulate a whole chip and you can still get a version with limited code size for free. You can also have a look at https://www.techonline.com/ tan check on the left hand side Devel. Systems, that giv e you the option to remotely play with a system.
Now if I were you, I would bite the bullet and get a low cost evaluation board, e.g. https://www.embeddedartists.com/ and select the LPC2132 board that come with an IAR compiler up to 32 kbytes of code and costs just 29 Euro. No way you can make it yourself for that price if you only calculate your timw with 1 Euro an hour.
Hope this helps to get you in a different direction. If you are serious buy a low cost board, it is worth it.
Bob

 

[bobcat1]

Hi All

All most all company who manufacturer microcontroller will give you free samples
and eveluation board and even C compilers for testing there product - but only if you or your company will commit on purchasing of +10000 unit's or more

But for the mean time until you will became a pro and eligible for free eveluation board go to :

www.olimex.com and order a low cost demo bord and start learn microcontrollers

all the best

Bobi

 

[sunish]

hai
i think that it's better to make a board by yourself
if you had a computer (it's a must for ealuation board also)
you can make a board by yourself.if you buy the boards, normaly the manufacturer soldered all the interfacing units to that.when you make it yourself you can connect the same according to your wish,which will give you more confidence in feture.all of it will cost you less than us$ 20. free isp's are available for program downloading.

all the best

sunish

 

[Code Warrior]

If you come to know the company who gives FREE development board just tell me.

 

[goalied00d]

I think the cheapest dev board you can get is a pic kit 1 from microchip. It's about $36 usd has some leds and a protoboard section.

It is usb interface board and comes with 2 PIC microcontrollers in the box along with software and manual.

I haven't seen any free dev boards at all.

 

[pvinbox@yahoo.com]

hai

without spending money
we cant do nothing
no such company gives dev board
for free
u search electroda for dev board

regards

 

[bobsanjose]

hai
i think that it's better to make a board by yourself
if you had a computer (it's a must for ealuation board also)
you can make a board by yourself.if you buy the boards, normaly the manufacturer soldered all the interfacing units to that.when you make it yourself you can connect the same according to your wish, which will give you more confidence in future.

sunish

Sure Sunish,
if you want to become an expert in soldering, go ahead. Did you build your own PC as well?
Dealing with embedded systems, the know-how is in the software, not very much in the hardware. So, if you intend to become the one hardware guy at a mid sized company, go ahead and spend some 20-50h with te result that you either copy an existing board or start debugging after that time.

As mentioned, professional boards start around 30 Euro from www.embeddedartists.com or if you are in the US you might want to check www.newmicros.com that sells a board with a 32-bit ARM microcontroller LPC2131 for $29!

So, if you want to become an expert in embedded systems, that faster way would be to buy a low cost board and get going with programming.

Cheers, Bob

 

[ezshereef]

hi all,

in fact embedded systems isn't just about software as you say bobsanjose but it's about hardware as well ..... building a development board on your own is very useful and will teach you lots but .... for sure embedded systems isn't about soldering ...... and building a development or evaluation board is not just soldering components together but it needs lots of work and testing. i totally agree with bobsanjose that you start by buying an evaluation board .... you don't need to learn many things at the same time you only need to learn how to write software for embedded systems and after all it will be your first experience with a system that has a high interaction between SW and HW so you needed at least a trusted hardware (Buy an Evaluation Board)

 

[Glogin]

hello,

choose MCU that is popular and you can find lots of software and code examples, like PIC.
you can make evaluation board by yourself or buy one ( e.g http://www.loginway.com ). In my opinion Microchip ICD2 debugger/programmer is good for beginning.

regards

 

[polarized]

Hello,


Free evaluation boards, not very likely, nearly impossible....Free MCU samples, very likely with distributors. Evaluation cross software tools with limitations, very likely.

 

[Mindaugasu]

I was doing LPC2148 dev board by my own. It wasn't so difficult. the hardes part was to trace board. Then just eched double sided and soldered with regular solder. Details are in: http://www.scienceprog.com
I think just don't affraid to start and youl make your own fro mfree samples. Of course in the future I wil prefer bying on as they are tested and have more peripherals integrated in the board.

 

[matrix1]

you better make one yourself and it would not take you more than 3/4 days. and cost under 5$. search on google and you will see a huge collection from different makes.

alternatively you can use KEIL's compilers.
or PROTEUS that support many uc from various vendors to simulate.
its better to get ready on software before directly jumping to hardware bcoz it would save you time there.

 

[eco_icd2]

Hi,
Do you know anyone who want to buy ICD2?
I sell it for half price. I give the ZIF socket and prototype board/evaluation board for free if you buy the ICD2.
If you can help me sell them, I give to 10% discount.
Eco_icd2@yahoo.com