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Which Microcontroller to choose

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nunotins14 said:
hmm...i just said this cuz im using them at school :D
Nigel what you use, what's the "best" for you, that has PWM, ADC etc?

I use PIC's which are by far the most popular amongst hobbyists, but if you are learning 8051 it would make good sense to go with that. Generally you can do what you want with almost any micro-controller.

Once you've learnt 8051 at school, and you want to move to something more modern, I would suggest the Atmel AVR - which is probably second in popularity, but more similar to the 8051 than the PIC.
 
hmm i see...but i cant find a cheap easy programming popular with PWM and ADC PIC :/, by the way...where is the radio project in your website?
 
With PWM and ADC? Lots of pics have both of those features, lots of AVR's have those features as well. There are cheap programmers by the dozen on the net and you can home brew SPI programmers with a few discrete components plugged into a parallel port and using software such as ponyprog. You can usually home brew something for a few dollars. Try actually looking =)



Supports the bulk of the PIC and AVR lines as well as eeproms and allows communication to any device that use an I2c bus. Circuit schematics provided for all interfaces.
 
lol i know that there are many microcontrollers with these features, but my question was, cheaper with PWM, ADC, home made programmer, easy interface etc, you guys just say, there are many, you can use this you can use that, this site this this site that, but i want a reference :D im using PIC16F84A, so, I should upgrade to ...? :p
 
I was using a 16C84 and 16F84 on one of my projects but quickly switched to the 16F628A as it's much cheaper and easily portable (minus a few setup, my code directly ran on the 628A). The programmer was fairly simple. I also use the AVR 90S2313 and think they're about the same in terms of dev starter costs.

As usual I'd say don't use manufacturer to choose your design, use your design to choose your manufacturer. I still prefer AVR for its general purpose instruction set rather than a fairly hackish PIC architecture, though it's absolutely unnecessary to have general purpose. I like the general purpose nature because things like gcc can have natural backend mappers that work like any other CPU.

You know things are a hack when things like PCLATH and bank switches need to be monitored carefully... And the fixed stack size (though you wouldn't want to go too deep anyway) can be quite annoying. One thing I should have done on PIC is macro btfss as naturally I'd think the next instruction _should_ be executed if true, not skipped :eek:
 
Ok, we have many opinions, damn, why they make so many PIC's lol...but looks like I have some good info for the upgrade...

Thanks alot guys ;)
 
nunotins14 said:
lol i know that there are many microcontrollers with these features, but my question was, cheaper with PWM, ADC, home made programmer, easy interface etc, you guys just say, there are many, you can use this you can use that, this site this this site that, but i want a reference :D im using PIC16F84A, so, I should upgrade to ...? :p

As you're using the long obselete 16F84, the obvious move is to it's replacement the 16F628 - but for similar chips with ADC etc. look at the 16F88 and 16F819.
 
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Trust us, starts with PIC because it is simpler to get something working with PIC first.

Then moves on to AVR, and this is what one gets.

For about the same price per chip, 32 general purpose registers(six of them can be used as three 16-bit address pointer), linear SRAM memory addressing without banks to worry about, unlimited stack level within reasons, vectored interrupt handling and free full-featured GCC C compiler.

I try not to mention the up to four time speed increases at the same crystal frequency as someone will jump in and said there is no point because most of the time the MCU is spent waiting.

The down side of AVR, unlike PIC, which is foolproof on this aspect, is in its fuses programming. Unaware learner can program an AVR into a state where he cannot access it again using more general programmer hardware. That said, the fuse information is clear and it is always the user fault not understand them or following them closely or not knowing what he would end up with a particular fuse setting.

Added: If one still wants to go ahead with AVR, the best one to try is the Tiny2313(20-pin). With 2K of flash, 128 Byte SRAM and 128 Byte EEPROM. One also gets a full 8-bit port and separate pins for serial RX/TX. Not even the bigger 28-pin brother Mega88 can beat that.
 
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Well,

Atmel also has many varieties..

Atmel avr or 89 series

and microchip has pic and its many varieties..

Actually both are good...

1. AVR by Atmel is a fresh controller.. and you can get its easy to make programmer also very easily.. at ..

this page

and refer the websites for tutorials and projects:

www.avrfreaks.net
www.avrbeginners.net

---------------------------------------------------------------------


2. while pic has many advantages that.. you'll get a lot of material on internet to work with..

programmers are easy to be found in the market.. and easy to make at home also..

and a lot of people working with this controllers..

in other words.. lucky to start with pic..

Refer our moderators site for further clarifications:

www.winpicprog.co.uk


----------------------------

Please check my answer before taking decision..

Regards,

Simran..:)
 
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nunotins14 said:
eblc1388 what PIC you recomend that fits my needs?

Doesn't Nigel have already told you about the 16F88 and 16F819? You should also read the Sticky of this forum about PIC if you have not already done that.
 
In my opinion both are aquivalent... but (still in my opinion) PIC is more famous among hobyists because lot of technical support is provided, but ATMEL is more robust and adequate to industial purposes.
 
Its funny how thread's like this always generate such global responses!

PIC's are probably the best on the market in terms of affordable MCU's

And at the end of the day, whats more important, the cost of a mcu, or the support available for program/application development?

Microchip recently announced the sale of its 5 Billionth PIC micro, my gosh. Put simply, you will not get more support for development when compared to the PIC micro range.
 
gramo said:
Its funny how thread's like this always generate such global responses!

PIC's are probably the best on the market in terms of affordable MCU's

And at the end of the day, whats more important, the cost of a mcu, or the support available for program/application development?

Microchip recently announced the sale of its 5 Billionth PIC micro, my gosh. Put simply, you will not get more support for development when compared to the PIC micro range.

that comfirms 50% of what i've said :D
 
Obviously this is a pro-Microchip site, so I don't expect this to go far, but I'll give it a try anyway.

How about the Freescale 9S08 family?
You could get something like the MC9S08QG8 for just over $1.
8K flash, 512 ram, ADC, Timers, SCI, SPI, I2C
Built in hardware debug module

Build it yourself USB debugger:
**broken link removed**
You can find S08 BDMs on the web for less than $40.

FREE special edition Codewarrior professional development tools including FREE C compiler
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=CWS-H08-STDED-CX

Microchip is ok (if you use the newer parts designed in this century :rolleyes: ), Atmel is good, but Freescale is even better.
I guess you could use the 8051… might as well trade in your car for a horse and buggy while you are at it. :)

Just my two cents worth
 
uCTechnoGeek said:
Obviously this is a pro-Microchip site, so I don't expect this to go far, but I'll give it a try anyway.

Not just this site, but the rest of the world as well - the MicroChip PIC is by far the most popular hobbiest micro-controller. To the extent that PIC has become the common 'name' for any micro-controller - rather like Hoover and vacuum cleaners :D

No problem with you mentioning Freescale, generally any micro-controller will do the job - but allegedly better device, lower price, makes you wonder why? (although the reason is obvious really).
 
Nigel, such a statement is blatantly impossible to prove. The markets Atmel and Microchip (just to name two) target are different so you can't compare on a chip sales basis. Atmel's chips are more recent so they're going to have market penetration issues besides, and the hobby market is violently polarized to their preferred products to the exclusion of intelligent discussion. Popularity also has absolutely nothing to do with a device's benefits or problems. I'm not trying to say PIC's aren't great for hobby users and don't have a wide user base. But the raw architectural benefits the AVR's core offers to a hobby user make it better overall buy. I got interested in micro controllers with no knowledge of any architecture and coming from no previous usage of any such devices, I spent about a month looking at what was out there 8051 AVR PIC. I discounted Freescale and a lot of others simply because the user base on the net for the chips isn't large enough, but after all the reading and research from no knowledge, everything I read pointed to AVR for hobby use. Anyone that thinks AVR's don't have enough technical support or resources on the net has obviously not looked recently.
 
Sceadwian said:
Nigel, such a statement is blatantly impossible to prove. The markets Atmel and Microchip (just to name two) target are different so you can't compare on a chip sales basis.

What different markets do they target?, the AVR was a blatent attempt to grab some of MicroChips market, even down to copying a three letter name. I don't see how either is market specific?.

Atmel's chips are more recent so they're going to have market penetration issues besides, and the hobby market is violently polarized to their preferred products to the exclusion of intelligent discussion. Popularity also has absolutely nothing to do with a device's benefits or problems.

But it has an awful lot to do with sales figures, and in how profitable the products are - Atmel have to undercut MicroChip prices in order to try and compete. The sales figures speak for themselves.

I'm not trying to say PIC's aren't great for hobby users and don't have a wide user base. But the raw architectural benefits the AVR's core offers to a hobby user make it better overall buy.

Again, that's your personal opinion, and nothing else.

Anyone that thinks AVR's don't have enough technical support or resources on the net has obviously not looked recently.

'Enough' is a very personal opinion, depending on the individuals requirements - personally I would say the AVR has 'enough', but it's still far less than the PIC support.
 
nunotins14 said:
Hi all, I would like to know which microntroller to buy...
I have a PIC16F84A but its expensive, doesnt have PWM, doesnt have ADC, old, etc...

Also i have a problem with my PIC16F84A, whenever i try to use input(..) (CCS) my output LED flashes randomly, i can activate it with my finger etc...

ATMEL or PIC?

Well, i bought this PIC because I found a cheap homemade programmer...

So, my "needs" are, easy interface, PWM, ADC, homemade programmer, possibility of use C code instead of ASM, many samples on the net etc, before I bought PIC16F84A i searched google for it and i found 300k results, I tried with other ones and only found around 80k...



Thank you all ;)



EDIT:

Ok, i read the "Newcomers, please read! (PIC regarded) Upd. 0xD" and i see that a good choice is 16F88, but i cant find an homemade programmer :/
Also that article is from 2005, I bet theres something better outt here

By the way, with my old PIC (16F84A) i use **broken link removed** both schematic and PicProg software

Hey ,
have you checked the PIC16F877A,it has all what you need and much more for only US$9. Its programmer can be easily built with a couple of transistors,resistors,capacitors and diodes.Also,a very easy to use C compiler is available,not only for this PIC but for all PIC family.Its free to download and use.You can check that on mikroelektronika website:www.mikroe.com
 
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