Late to the party?

[Patchouli]

What are hobbyists (not for production one-offs) developing on these days?

PICs, ATs, STAMPs, etc. seem to be a few years in decline??
On Microchip's site the bulk of appnotes and design ideas are from '96-97.
Many of the AVR fan sites link to dead pages. (the U.S. sites anyway.)
Since 2000 there is a lack of new pages and projects out here.

Did I miss the uC party? I may have missed the hobby electronics party
entirely because I cannot solder a 144-pin LQFP by hand. :?

 

[DirtyLude]

I'm sure PICs are still the most popular for hobbyists, but I think the AVR's are catching up fast and have some really nice features.

I just started with the Zilog z8 Encore and it's working out really well for me. I was quickly discouraged trying to get the PICS I started off running, working well. The development kit for the z8e is $50.00 and you get a C language compiler and development environment with it.

The only problem with it is that it's new and still working out some bugs, but it got me developing quickly.

If I didn't go with the z8e, I think the AVR's have a large following and an excellent product lineup.

 

[Gandledorf]

I personally use the AVR uC, and it's very much alive and kicking with the hobbiests. The reason I think you are running into a lot of dead links is a simple fact: People who much around with microcontrollers in their spare time are in a small minority of the population.

Most people would call what we do for fun "work", my wife can't understand why I'd rather be sketching up designs, and fooling with a uC rather than watching TV.

For good AVR information I recommend www.avrfreaks.com

 

[bmcculla]

Actually you can solder QFP by hand. It's really not that hard and it opens up a huge number of parts.

Here's a tutorial:
**broken link removed**

The device in the tutorial is a lower pin count device but I've used the same technique for 100 pin Devices. It also works with SSOP and any other fine pitch devices.

On my micro preference: I love Silicon labs 8051 chips. They have awsome analog peripherals (500ks/s AtoD) and run at 25- 100MIPS.

Brent

 

[crust]

I'll affirm that doing the QFP devices by hand is easily doable with a fine tip iron and thin enough solder.

 

[xjackal]

hi

first of all all of the pages for mcu s are not made by hobbyists.in fact these mcus are very useful things in our entire life.in work and in house electronics u can see the usage of that popular mcu s are so high that u can see a PİC in most of the electronic devices.
dont be bothered by saying that the things u cant but try to learn the things ucant do.i think this kind of forums are a treasure for the ones that want to learn.ihave learned most of the things from this forum and other forums.
try to ask the questions to the forum but not all of them of course.try to solve ur porblems by urself first and then try other sources.
good luck

 

[jem]

Just to add my two bits to the discussion, I also favor the AVR series. A really useful HW platform can be nothing but a 2313 with a crystal (I use 9.216 MHz typically), a couple of 22pF caps for the crystal circuit, and a 10K, and 0.1uF cap for the reset circuit. The AVR can drive LED's (current sink) directly, and with the proper setup, I can make assemble, and reprogram the chip in less than 5 mins. after making code changes. BTW, the SP12 programmer (for the 2313) cost me less than $20, and that's including the ZIF socket, and small Radio Shack project box.

Jem