[Spec Me] Electronics Development Board (Micro Controller)

[Makhaira]

Evening OcUK!

Right, I miss my programming days, but I can't for the life of me come up with a project that's purely software based that I want to undertake. So, I'm looking at getting back in to making some electronics projects...

My degree is electronic engineering, I've done a fair bit of past programming on the Keil MCB900 (http://www.keil.com/c51/mcb900/). There are so many offerings out on the market that although I know what I'm after, it would take me a month of Sundays to research them all - that's where I'm hoping OcUK can speed things up!

Requirements:
- Program via USB
- Program in C
- Potential for interfacing with additional circuitry (i.e. more than just an LED output)
- Compiler that works on W7 64bit
- Replaceable chip (for the times when flashing goes wrong!)

Cheers guys.

 

[MikeHunt79]

I've heard good things about the Arduino... Check that out if you haven't already.

This VU meter uses one:

 

[nippynoo]

Check out the Microchip 18F4550. Lovely device, meets all your criteria. Development boards available with bootstrap loader.

 

[Spyhop]

Arduino is a beginner friendly repackaging of the Atmel AVR.

Really cool and has lots of momentum, but you might want to ditch their libraries and pokey IDE if you're an old hand.

 

[Makhaira]

Thanks guys, I'm very enticed by the open source nature of the software and hardware of the Arduino, it seems to have picked up a really impressive following. Currently doing my research at the moment, I need to set myself up with a lab again really, so next on the list is finding a second hand oscilloscope, since I can't really be without one if I'm going to be doing any sort of electronics.

 

[Tilluss]

http://www.netduino.com/ is another option if you wanted to go the c# route. It's very similar to arduino but uses the micro.net 4 library instead.

 

[Chaos]

The Chameleon might be worth a look -

http://www.xgamestation.com/view_product.php?id=51

 

[Dogbreath]

If you want to play with a grown up micro the STM32VLDISCOVERY board is £6.80+vat from Farnell.

This is 32 Bit ARM Cortex CPU with loads of useful peripherals (e.g. DMA, loads of timers, three USARTS, two I2C ports, two SPI ports, two 12 bit DACs, 12 bit ADC) and the board comes with a built in USB/JTAG programmer. The STM32 is supported by GCC if you want totally free tools, and the demo version of the Keil MDK-ARM tools are fully functional to a certain code size. It's a real bargain IMO, especially as you can use the on board programmer for programming other STM32 devices. It's form factor means it's designed to plug into a breadboard or into stripboard so adding external circuitry is easy enough.

 

[Thrash]

Another vote for the Arduino. I've built a few on stripboard, a couple of LED cubes and a temperature sensor using the platform. Nice friendly environment and plenty of information out there on interfacing and projects.

 

[Makhaira]

If you want to play with a grown up micro the STM32VLDISCOVERY board is £6.80+vat from Farnell.

This is 32 Bit ARM Cortex CPU with loads of useful peripherals (e.g. DMA, loads of timers, three USARTS, two I2C ports, two SPI ports, two 12 bit DACs, 12 bit ADC) and the board comes with a built in USB/JTAG programmer. The STM32 is supported by GCC if you want totally free tools, and the demo version of the Keil MDK-ARM tools are fully functional to a certain code size. It's a real bargain IMO, especially as you can use the on board programmer for programming other STM32 devices. It's form factor means it's designed to plug into a breadboard or into stripboard so adding external circuitry is easy enough.

That looks stunning, thanks. Researching this now, but seems an utter bargain for the price. It'll be either this or the Arduino I think.

 

[Dfhaii]

The STM32 is definitely the one I'd go for, I'm currently using a few for a project at work and they're pretty powerful chips!

 

[Makhaira]

The STM32 is definitely the one I'd go for, I'm currently using a few for a project at work and they're pretty powerful chips!

The pin headers along the edge of the board - are they 0.1" pitch? I'll make a little interface daughterboard for it I think so I'm not continually attaching and removing things to the actual dev board.

 

[Shmo]

Dumb question here, but with that STM32 is it possible to grab data from a FIFO and send it to a PC using the USB connection? If not, what would be required to make that happen?

Sorry for hijack!

 

[BullBoyShoes]

Another vote for the STM32!

The usb connection on the discovery board is not available as a UART for your application as its used for programming and debugging. You could use one of the UARTs instead and link it to something like an FTDI FT232R

 

[Shmo]

aaaah great thanks chief.