Re: Microcontrollers, USB and Linux
- From: Wolfgang Draxinger <wdraxinger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:46:34 +0100
Joost Leeuwesteijn wrote:
ARM or AVR(32) look nice but they all have QFP or similar
packages so that's not really an option. The Freescale Blackfin
controllers start at BGA packages. Even the Atmel 8051's with
USB are QFP packages. The starter-kits or experiment boards all
start at 40+ euros on pre-built rather large boards with extra
peripherals which make them unsuitable for real simple
experiments or applications (e.g. a simple switch controlled
via USB; which is <1 euro when using RS-232).
Most AVRs are also avaliable in as DIP - unfortunately not the
USB ones, but there's a solution for that problem: Ever heard of
the term "dead bug"? You glue the chip bottom up on a piece of
hole matrix PCB, in which you've soldered pins beforehand. Then
connect the QFP's pins with the board pins using thin laque
isolated wire.
I got a *large* stockpile of AVRs here, as they are a really nice
design, the ATMegas are also quite robust (both ESD and
electrically). So far I accidently roasted only one ATMega8,
with a surge coming from a powerfull DC motor, that also killed
the Power-MOSFETs and driver circuits - I had to replace half of
the semiconductors on the motor controller, but I also found
out, what went wrong and now this is probably the most robust
part of my current robot project:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kQi3aihMW_4
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BX-NKgbPIpk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y-I-BbvXA0A
You mentioned you want to use USB directly. The problem is, that
USB is a tedious interface, and honestly: Before going for that
you should familiarize with the architecture beforehand. RS232
is much easier to use AND a lot more reliable in my experience.
To develop software for the AVRs there's a large assortment of
tools running under Linux:
* avr-gcc, avr-lib make a nice C programming environment.
* avra <http://avra.sourceforce.net> is a assembler compatible to
Atmels original AVR assembler, with a few goodies added.
* UISP <http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/uisp> is the tool of
choice, if you want to flash/program your AVRs with the STK500
developer board (IMHO the 150 bucks for the STK500 are worth
every penny)
* PonyProg <http://www.lancos.com/ppwin95.html> is your tool of
choice if you want to flash/program your AVRs with a cheapo
parallel port adaptor. Works quite well, if the machine you use
for programing is running nothing else, when using PonyProg.
Disabling dynamic CPU clock adjustment (power management)
while programming highly recommended. Start ponyprog with
nice -19
Wolfgang Draxinger
--
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- From: Joost Leeuwesteijn
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