I recommend the AT90S8535 (or it's more recent replacement ATMEGA8535) as a
good starter micro.

It has 8kb of flash, 512bytes RAM and ROM, ADC, comparator, UART etc etc A
good middle of the range processor.

They're available from www.futurlec.com for cheap, I'd be surprised if
digikey didn't have them.

As for a programmer, if you want to get started quickly I'd say go for
BASCOM - AVR, the up to 2kb version is free, but it's BASIC after all.

For a 'real' compiler / programmer software I'd recommend AVR-GCC and
AVRDude (both available from www.avrfreaks.com). AVR dude is a command line
programmer, but AVRGCC includes programmer's notepad which can use AVRDude
and give you a nice menu based interface to download, erase, verify etc.
Best bit is all of the above programs are free and well supported.

For programming hardware, again a free solution is to build your own. Every
AVR can be programmed by a "Sample Programmer" which consists of 5 wires to
your parallel port, with optional current limiting resistors. AVRdude
supports this kind of programmer and is configurable enough that it doesn't
matter which lines you use on your parallel port.

-----Original Message-----
From: pic microcontroller discussion list [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU] On
Behalf Of Robert L Cochran
Sent: Friday, 16 April 2004 11:25 AM
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [PIC/AVR] PIC vs AVR (ATMEL)


Does the AVR Starter Kit include samples? I "applied" for one a year ago
with Atmel, and they sent me a nice information pamplet, but no samples. I
suppose I sounded like a poor kid in elementary school to whoever made that
decision.

Also, what is a good AVR to start with? I know, Byron Jeff and others will
advocate the high-end ones. which ones are those, and does Digi-Key have
them?

Finally, what's a good programmer for AVRs?

Thanks a lot

Bob

Herbert Graf wrote:

>>Has anyone ever considered moving from PIC to Atmel AVR's ? If so,
>>what are good reasons to move ?
>>
>>I am thinking that there's a few advantages in the development tools
>>available, but then I am making an uninformed statement... Anyone else
>>willing to shed an enlightended opinion?
>
>
>         I just received an AVR starter kit and have now looked over
> the AVR architecture. I've found that in many ways it's similar to
> PICs. I can't really see a direct reason for choosing one over the
> other so far, the AVR is a little nicer to deal with when it comes to
> banks, but it's got some annoyances too. TTYL
>
> ----------------------------------
> Herbert's PIC Stuff: http://repatch.dyndns.org:8383/pic_stuff/
>
> --
> http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
> mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu
>
>

--
Bob Cochran
Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
http://greenbeltcomputer.biz/

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu