I'm interested in learning about and programming embedded microcontrollers. I'm on a shoestring budget though. I'm looking at the Atmel AVR chips since there is a large user community for them.
In order to get my feet wet is it necessary to get the STK500 development board or can I get started with a basic AVR chip and a solderless breadboard? It seems to me that from a hardware perspective I should go the breadboard route since I'll need to learn how to hook things up. But from the software development standpoint I don't understand how I download code to the chip when using a breadboard. It sounds like if you have the STK500 and AVRstudio downloading code is a snap.
It sounds like with the breadboard route I could use the ATAVRISP to download my code but I didn't understand its tech sheet's explanation of the circuit needed.
(I know how to program in C and other high level languages, but electronics is where I'm starting from scratch.)
Thanks for any advice.