Arduino
|
View:
New views
3 Messages
—
Rating Filter:
Alert me
|
 |
Arduino
by William "Chops" Westfield
::
Rate this Message:
Anyone want to talk about Arduino? I've been playing with it a bit
recently, and I'm wondering just how much time I should invest in it... Arduino seems to be a microcontroller environment aimed at non-engineers, sorta like Parallax's Basic Stamp. There have been websites calling it a Stamp Replacement, in fact. The hardware is an ATmega8 or mega168 with USB or Serial interface, ISP connector, and a standardized layout of 13 "digital IO" pins and 6 "analog input" pins. The software consists of an IDE that works on top of (and vastly simplifies) gcc, some startup and library code (an environment apparently called "wiring"), and a bootloader. It runs on Macs, Windows, and linux. It's cute. All the HW and SW is open source. I think the concept of wrapping some user-friendly IDE and pre-processing around gcc is pretty close to brilliant, but then I don't really need it. There are other advantages and disadvantages: + Simplified SW IDE - not small; runtime+bootloader is approx 4k + moderately capable HW. + Standardized connector layout enables "shields." - connector layout is 'odd'; not "on-grid" -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist |
|
|
Re: Arduino
by Brian B. Riley
::
Rate this Message:
I bought a Sparkfun <http://www.sparkfun.com> Arduino board
(Atmega168, USB, $35 assembled, not a kit), they are quite nice, well made. Peter Anderson pointed me to Paul Badger's site <http:// www.moderndevice.com>. Paul has a very nice "Bare Bones Arduino" Atmega168 kit, with a good board and flexible configuration for $10-15 (depends on quantity) and quick service and modest S/H fees. Paul also sells the FTDI TTL-232R USB to TTL cable for $19 which brings out +5, GND, TxD, RxD, RTS, CTS) to a 6 pin .100 spaced socket header. The same cable from FTDI is $20 plus the usual much large S/H fee of big corporations. I am planning to buy a second one of these cables as I have already found a myriad of other uses for the first, far beyond my Arduinp investigations. I think the label of Arduino as a 'stamp replacement' is not without merit. Its a good stable platform with a reasonably peppy processor and capabilities. Its IDE is solid and accommodating for programmers with minimal hardware experience. With boards like Paul Badger's available I could buy 10 kits at $10 each for $100, which is the price of 2 Basic Stamps. Its a great platform for quick and dirty one-off or even 5-or-10-off projects. So far I am just dabbling, getting familiar with all it does. I got started with the Atmega168 in the Command Module add-on for the iRobot Create unit and have become increasingly impressed with the overall AVR community and wealth of resources. It has been particularly gratifying now since Arduino came with a ready made MacOSX IDE and I just got done working with a group at iRobot hammering out a clean GUI to put on top of OSXAVR for the iRobot Create Command Module work. Not having to reboot into Winders is helpful. (contrary to publicity Parallels Desktop virtualization does not handle USB very well at all.) --- cheers ... 73 de brian riley, n1bq , underhill center, vermont <http://web.mac.com/brianbr/> Tech Blog <http://www.wulfden.org/TheShoppe.shtml> Home of the K107 Serial LCD Controller Kit FT817 Power Conditioner Kit Tab Robot Laser Tag Kit MSP430 Chips and Connectors Propeller Robot Controller SX48 "Tech Board" Kit PICAXE chips, boards, and accessories On Jun 6, 2007, at 12:23 PM, William Chops Westfield wrote: > Anyone want to talk about Arduino? I've been playing with it a bit > recently, and I'm wondering just how much time I should invest in > it... > > Arduino seems to be a microcontroller environment aimed at > non-engineers, sorta like Parallax's Basic Stamp. There have been > websites calling it a Stamp Replacement, in fact. The hardware is an > ATmega8 or mega168 with USB or Serial interface, ISP connector, and a > standardized layout of 13 "digital IO" pins and 6 "analog input" pins. > The software consists of an IDE that works on top of (and vastly > simplifies) gcc, some startup and library code (an environment > apparently called "wiring"), and a bootloader. It runs on Macs, > Windows, and linux. > > It's cute. All the HW and SW is open source. I think the concept of > wrapping some user-friendly IDE and pre-processing around gcc is > pretty > close to brilliant, but then I don't really need it. There are other > advantages and disadvantages: > > + Simplified SW IDE > - not small; runtime+bootloader is approx 4k > + moderately capable HW. > + Standardized connector layout enables "shields." > - connector layout is 'odd'; not "on-grid" > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist |
|
|
Re: Wiring (in addition to Arduino)
by Jim Korman
::
Rate this Message:
Brian B. Riley wrote:
> I bought a Sparkfun <http://www.sparkfun.com> Arduino board > (Atmega168, USB, $35 assembled, not a kit), they are quite nice, > well made. > > Peter Anderson pointed me to Paul Badger's site <http:// > www.moderndevice.com>. Paul has a very nice "Bare Bones Arduino" > Atmega168 kit, with a good board and flexible configuration for > $10-15 (depends on quantity) and quick service and modest S/H fees. > > Paul also sells the FTDI TTL-232R USB to TTL cable for $19 which > brings out +5, GND, TxD, RxD, RTS, CTS) to a 6 pin .100 spaced socket > header. The same cable from FTDI is $20 plus the usual much large S/H > fee of big corporations. I am planning to buy a second one of these > cables as I have already found a myriad of other uses for the first, > far beyond my Arduinp investigations. > > I think the label of Arduino as a 'stamp replacement' is not > without merit. Its a good stable platform with a reasonably peppy > processor and capabilities. Its IDE is solid and accommodating for > programmers with minimal hardware experience. With boards like Paul > Badger's available I could buy 10 kits at $10 each for $100, which > is the price of 2 Basic Stamps. Its a great platform for quick and > dirty one-off or even 5-or-10-off projects. > > So far I am just dabbling, getting familiar with all it does. I got > started with the Atmega168 in the Command Module add-on for the > iRobot Create unit and have become increasingly impressed with the > overall AVR community and wealth of resources. > > It has been particularly gratifying now since Arduino came with a > ready made MacOSX IDE and I just got done working with a group at > iRobot hammering out a clean GUI to put on top of OSXAVR for the > iRobot Create Command Module work. Not having to reboot into Winders > is helpful. (contrary to publicity Parallels Desktop virtualization > does not handle USB very well at all.) > > > --- > cheers ... 73 de brian riley, n1bq , underhill center, vermont > <http://web.mac.com/brianbr/> Tech Blog > <http://www.wulfden.org/TheShoppe.shtml> > Home of the > K107 Serial LCD Controller Kit FT817 Power Conditioner Kit > Tab Robot Laser Tag Kit MSP430 Chips and Connectors > Propeller Robot Controller SX48 "Tech Board" Kit > PICAXE chips, boards, and accessories > > > On Jun 6, 2007, at 12:23 PM, William Chops Westfield wrote: > > >> Anyone want to talk about Arduino? I've been playing with it a bit >> recently, and I'm wondering just how much time I should invest in >> it... >> >> Arduino seems to be a microcontroller environment aimed at >> non-engineers, sorta like Parallax's Basic Stamp. There have been >> websites calling it a Stamp Replacement, in fact. The hardware is an >> ATmega8 or mega168 with USB or Serial interface, ISP connector, and a >> standardized layout of 13 "digital IO" pins and 6 "analog input" pins. >> The software consists of an IDE that works on top of (and vastly >> simplifies) gcc, some startup and library code (an environment >> apparently called "wiring"), and a bootloader. It runs on Macs, >> Windows, and linux. >> >> It's cute. All the HW and SW is open source. I think the concept of >> wrapping some user-friendly IDE and pre-processing around gcc is >> pretty >> close to brilliant, but then I don't really need it. There are other >> advantages and disadvantages: >> >> + Simplified SW IDE >> - not small; runtime+bootloader is approx 4k >> + moderately capable HW. >> + Standardized connector layout enables "shields." >> - connector layout is 'odd'; not "on-grid" >> -- >> http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive >> View/change your membership options at >> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist >> > > http://www.wiring.org.co/ http://maximumrobotics.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=28 which uses an ATmega128. I looked at the Arduino, but ended up with the Wiring board because of More I/O, memory, serial ports plus since I was only planning on one "test platform" I didn't want to limit myself too much. Jim -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist |
| Free Forum Powered by Nabble | Forum Help |