On Dec 19, 2010, at 9:40 AM, V G wrote: =20 > On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 11:50 AM, John Chung wrote: >=20 >> Mike has hit the main points. It is easy to prototype and cheap as >> there are many variants in the market. At some level Arduino/Atmel >> does have very good C compiler support. It boils down to your needs. >>=20 >> One off prototyping, Arduino excels. But to some customware like >> Nikon IR controller, PIC wins hands down. PIC is easier to count the >> cycles. >>=20 >> I use ATMEL and PIC exchangeably. Still it does not end there. There are >> times when different MCUs are used due to existing system integration. P= IC >> is my choice for new products. Easy to get and the support is decent. >>=20 >=20 > True. But I'd rather not spend $30 for an Arduino when I can get my choic= e > of PIC for around $5 for a high end, or $2 for a low end, or Launchpad fo= r > $4.30. Without the Arduino support components and development platform, i= t's > just an ATMega328, which is just as easy/hard to get started as a PIC. > Besides, the PICKIT2 is incredibly awesome. All I need is the PICKIT2, a > PIC, some wires and I'm ready to go. > --=20 =20 >>>You are comparing apples to oranges. Yes, the ATmega chips are typically= more expensive than a comparable PIC, but they're often in the $3 - $5 ran= ge...a buck or three more, not 10 times more. =20 You can easily develop with a "full" Arduino board, and then use it to simp= ly program more chips that you are going to use in other projects. Installi= ng a ZIF DIP socket on the Arduino board makes it trivial. Your Arduino boa= rd is filling the same role (with the same order of expense) as a PICKIT2. = Just as with PIC chips, an ATmgea can be used in a project with very little= external hardware. =20 If you have the tools and knowledge to be productive with other systems, th= at's great. Don't turn your nose up at folks using Arduinos just because th= ey don't have to know assembler to use them. =20 >>>-Pete =20 Arduino has an interesting story behind it. Without getting into all the ba= ckground, Arduino is meant for anybody who wants to build an interactive pr= oject. Check out the http://www.processing.org/ website. Have a look at = the Exhinition link. There are so many cool projects that probably would no= t have happened if the creators of Processing and Arduino had not made prog= ramming so accessible to those with little esoteric knowledge. =20 Processing was a project for a course in university that was produced to al= low artists to express themselves with a computer. The Arduino IDE is based= on Processing and the two interact very easily, or so I read, and hope to = find out soon. BTW, I do have some electronics background from community co= llege so I am not just using it for artistic purposes and will be learning = PIC's and AVR's as well as Arduino. I have already used the BS2. =20 Arduino is a great avenue for all people who want to start using mcu's. It = lead me to investigate AVR's. =20 Bruce =20 --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .