I have been lurking for the past week or so, and just realized an
introduction is probably due.  I am primarily a software engineer but
I have dabbled with circuits since I was a child.  I got into
microcontrollers about five years or so ago when Parallax started
pushing the SX.  I purchased one of the development kits on a lark,
had quite a bit of fun with it, and eventually would up with an ICD-2
and an Olimex AVR programmer.  Due to time contraints, I put all of
that in a box on the shelf, and eventually wound up giving it to a
friend who expressed interest in it.

About two years ago I got involved in experimental rocketry and I am
at the point now where I make my rockets entirely from scratch.  The
one exception being avionics, and I am looking to build from scratch
there as well.  Thus my return to microcontrollers, but this time with
a specific project in mind.

I have decided to explore the MSP430 this time around, as TI seems to
be pushing them quite aggressively with (essentially) free development
hardware.  I was a little disappointed at the development software --
official support  Windows-only, and the path of mspgcc is questionable
at best -- but the architecture *is* quite nice and TI has provided me
with plenty of samples to work with.

I do recall that discussion of other micros was well-tolerated here
(given the appropriate tag, of course) and this list was by far the
best source of information when I was on it five years ago, so I
thought I would jump back on.  Already I recall many names from back
then, and I am already enjoying some of the [OT] traffic, a pleasant
change from so many lists.

I am sure to be bugging you with [EE] questions soon enough!

-p.
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