Microcontroller Development Kit for hobby project

I suggest you buy the TI ez430 USB-connected stick, which is $20, and use the remaining $80 to buy whatever switches and LEDs you require (you could acquire a very rich set of stuff for $80). An ANSI C compiler is included. You could have little better introduction for hobby projects; the MSP430F2013 has a rich feature set and an uncomplicated architecture.

Oops, typo:

should be:

Hi L: Thanks for your prompt reply. You are right (reference from your previous reply), I should have better introduction of my "hobby project".

Here is my VERY first project plan:

1) To develop a program which will output to a LED display board showing numbers one at a time (0 to 9).

Buy a single seven-segment LED display, roughly $1. Add it to the $20 kit, with seven resistors. Total cost, about $22.

Look at

start at ~$10

Their new F41x/F520/F530 devices are wide supply ( 2.5-5V ) operation, with high peformance ADCs

If you want LEDs mounted already, ( and something bigger all round..) try ZNEOCTK0100KIT for $49.99 from Mouser. Free C compiler without limits.

-jg

when is silabs going to switch over to an ARM processor, they have such great chips otherwise

There have been rumours of ARM devices, but there is more pressure for things like 5V operation, and better ADCs/DACs. ie I have products that need those features right now, I don't have products that _need_ an ARM core to work.

The 25-50MIPs of Silabs 8 bit cores is plenty.

If you want good ADCs + ARM, look at Analog Devices.

With 8 bit uC out-selling ARM devices over 20:1, there is plenty of scope for 8 bitters for the forseeable future.

-jg

If your brand new to it and electri=onics in general, can't go wrong with this:

TI ez430 - $20

LED display - $1

"So you Wanna Be an Embedded Engineer (Edwards)" - $39.95 Knowledge when you are done experimenting - Priceless!

:-)

You have two differing specifications.

VERY first project does not require USB. and

1) USB connectivity

So, do you want a "hobby project" that will allow USB some time in the future ?

All other spec's can be done with many off-the-shelf circuit boards, many different architectures. (PIC, 8051, AVR, ARM, MSP430)

I would suggest finding a cpu chip with a USB interface built in and learn that "family". Starting with a smaller chip, i.e. without USB.

When you are doing simple "0 to 9 displays", you can look at "1) USB connectivity".

Good Luck

donald

This can also mean "Connect via USB", and most of the lowest cost pathways these days, do exactly that. The Ez430, and SiLabs systems are USB_Stick type mini-development systems. The USB portion is essentially invisible to the designer: it provides the power, and the debug comms.

-jg

Ethernet instead of USB....

or

$99.00 for 32 bit ethernet attached hardware , RTOS TCP./IP stack and eclipse based development tools.

Paul (CTO Netburner)

Greetings,

How much hardware are you able to make yourself (schematics, pcb etc) ?

I ask because I was thinking about an AVR kit, but that needs a programmer that is easily made if you have the recources to manufacture such yourself.

/Race

You are very correct jg.

I guess the OP needs to chime in and let us know what he really wants.

donald

The good news is that there are a lot of good choices around and very few rotten/bad these days.

The AVR ICE-Cube at $40 from

solves both the device programmer and in-circuit emulation/debugging problems with AVR. Can (usually) bring up a new raw chip fresh out of the shipping tube with this tool. No need for a bootloader or other existing code in the chip.

While you are at ECROS spend another $20 on the Butterfly Carrier (which includes prototyping space to play in), and $20 on an AVR Butterfly from Digi-Key. The Butterfly is practical to prototype on, then move your final design to a more appropriate AVR. Is much easier to move code between different AVRs than between Microchip PICs.

An advantage of the AVR family is that there is a wide range of inexpensive parts in both SMT and DIP packages. Not all are available in multiple packages.

Another advantage is that avr-gcc works extremely well on the AVR. A professional grade compiler for free that is not limited to Windows hosts. Many use avr-gcc on Linux, FreeBSD, and Macintosh. WinAVR brings gcc (and other tools) to Windows.