Atmel JTAG ICE and STK500

Gentlemen, I am a newbie to microcontroller programming and seek your advice. I have a old and used but working ATMEGA32L processor board designed for some application. And I have a JTAG ICE from Atmel. I was given this board to learn about microcontroller. After searching the web, I found this STK500 which claims to be the tool for beginners. And I bought a book "embedded C programming and atmel avr" which gives some programs with blinking LEDs. My question: Being an absolute beginner to the world of embedded programming, should I go and buy the STK500 kit or can I understand with the JTAG ICE and the board I am having (it doesn't have any LEDs but I do have schematic of the board). Please advice what is good for a beginner so that I don't get frustrated but more interested in the beginning, and I can save time by learning towards right direction.

Thank you

Gopal

Reply to
Gopal
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Gopal,

I tell you what :-)

You send me the JTAG ice and I'll send you the STK500.

Phil :-)

Reply to
Phil W
[snip...snip...]

The STK500 is great for a "first board" since it

- brings all the ports out to easy to grab 0.1" headers

- has headers for on-board LEDs and momentary contact switches

- has an RS-232 lever shifter and standard 9-pin connector (in addition to the one for the programmer)

- has sockets to support all (AFAIK) DIP form-factor AVR devices and takes care of clock and power

- can parallel program devices that support it, which can save the day if the wrong fuse is blown and the chip won't talk serial programming

- and can also be used as an in-system programmer for devices on other boards

Still, most of the time I find the little AVRISP is easier to use since, even on a breadboard, it's much simpler to leave the chip in-circuit than to keep swapping it to a separate programmer.

Having the JTAG ICE device, you really don't gain much by having the STK500 that you can't do with a breadboard, power supply, and clock.

--
Rich Webb   Norfolk, VA
Reply to
Rich Webb

Thank you for your comments.

Gopal

Reply to
Gopal

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