Can I use a 68HC11E1FN to learn microcontrollers on?

[icu2]

Hi, I have an old board that was used for I don't know what. On it it has a Motorola 68HC11E1FN. I wanted to know if I could remove the chip (with its holder/socket) and use it in other things. I can't find any basic tutorial on how to wire up to the microcontroller. I didn't want to buy pic, stamp, etc. if I could use the 68HC11E1FN for anything.

I have very little electronic experience. I know some theory and can follow instructions on how to make a pcb. I have a breadboard and so on. I am a programmer.

Thank you.

 

[Tucson Annie]

If I was you I'd cough up 30 bucks for an Arduino....if you don't know it, it's a prototyping board, ATmel microcontroller chip and a programming IDE....a huge community of followers, lots of code....lots of add ons...super easy to learn and wayyyyyyyy fun! Here's the site:

Arduino - HomePage

Just my 2 cents

Annie

 

[Rhythmtech]

I agree, Get an Arduino, keep the Motorola chip in a drawer somewhere and later on when you've got some more knowledge under your belt you can throw it away because you'll still be using the arduino anyways.

 

[nigelwright7557]

I use PIC's and you can buy a flash 16c506 for about 75p.
The PIC's instruction set is very small and so is easy to learn.

 

[cliff52]

Sure you can. There's lots of material on the web about the 68HC11 and you still see boards and chips for sale on eBay. There are people out there to ask questions and websites to check out circuits and code.
That said, there's a lot more of all this available for the Arduino and it is a lot more current. The arduino platform makes windows/mac/linux code development and connection of the PC to the microcontroller much more straightforward, important when you're starting out.
Some of my favorite sites (after arduino.cc) are adafruit.com and evilmadscientist.com

 

[Rhythmtech]

I just received a free sample stm8s-discovery demo board. They are also only $7 on digikey demo board and all, if you can't get a sample free.