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Re: gEDA-user: Design Lab Equipment

I second this motion! basic stamps have nice small simple boards, the drawback i have with them is I didn't want to learn another variant of basic.....

If you are familiar with C I'd suggest a microcontroller that is capable of being programmed in C, assembly can be tighter and cleaner, but that takes practice.

I am fond of the Atmel AVR series, and the GCC tool chain that goes along with it, it is also convient for OS X and Linux users, as the basic stamps native environment is windows.
yes they have compilers and such for linux, but the AVRs have better OS X support. With the GCC tool chain you have the ability to use both assembly and C

I have seen DJ Delorie using the R8C from Renasas, and I see that they are also using a GCC tool chain. They look like a nice part as well.

Happy researching
Steve

On Apr 3, 2007, at 7:49 AM, Dave McGuire wrote:

On Apr 3, 2007, at 9:29 AM, Felipe Balbi wrote: 
Hmm... Nice...

Actually, I'm Engineering studying... so.. that's my 4-year studying...
But, I want to get it started now... Wanna understand how to design
the correct interfaces... where to use capacitors, resistors,
inductors, etc... How to interface a PIC or 8051 with an LCD... How to
design a circuit to flash their memory... stuff like that...


I think there should be some techniques to make things a little easier... :-p

I will warn you, please listen...DO NOT expect to pick this up overnight, or even in a few weeks. There is a lot going on in those little components, and a lot of stuff to be aware of. I admire your desire to "dive in" and start doing things, but it's very important to be aware of one's own capabilities and select your projects accordingly. START SMALL...get a Basic Stamp and blink an LED, maybe make a low-frequency sine wave with a D/A converter, *then* move to a PIC or 8051 with an LCD.

Seriously...you will be much less frustrated, and you'll destroy fewer components, if you start small. Move quickly, but start small.

As others have suggested, Horowitz & Hill's "The Art of Electronics" is absolutely fantastic. You can also check out http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/, it is very well-done and will get you off to a good start. Don't be tempted to skip over things like Ohm's Law, etc., because you'll use it every day and it's important to understand the underlying concepts.

           -Dave

--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL




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