Hi Charles, I'm biased, but here goes. With regard to long term support it's hard to beat Microchip products. They still supply (or at least a pin equivalent) and support all their controller products. They built their business on support and low cost, reliable development tools. You are not forced to re-learn everything when you move to a new family either.
Robert G8RPI. ________________________________ From: Charles P. Steinmetz <[email protected]> To: TimeNuts <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, 25 May 2013, 21:09 Subject: [time-nuts] Follow-up question re: microcontroller families On another thread, Bob wrote: >If the objective is to complete a very simple, low powered project >and be done with it, go with the Arduino. If the objective is to >learn an empire, be very careful about which empire you pick. The >ARM boys are quickly gobbling up a lot of territory that once was >populated by a number of competing CPU's. Learning this stuff, and >getting good at it is a significant investment of time. I'm starting a new thread because I don't want to hijack the first one, which I'm hoping will continue to provide useful information about the broad continuum of available devices, from the "easy enough for a child to assemble and program" to the "need to learn machine language." My question here is more pointed: If one is going to learn a new system today for timing and other measurement/control projects, which "empire" is likely the best one to choose? Of course, much depends on "what do you want to do with it?" So, perhaps, the ultimate answer will be several families, each for a class of applications. But on the other hand, some families may have a range of models that fulfill a wide range of applications. Also, my personal approach does not require squeezing each project into the most minimal hardware possible -- as long as the added expense isn't huge, I'm fine with using more resources than necessary for smaller tasks if it means my investment in learning the system (and in programming tools) is leveraged more broadly. Also, my personal needs generally do not run to battery or other low-power systems, so low power drain is not of great importance to me. Some of the more systemic (less application-oriented) factors would be, which system is more versatile? Which has the most useful PC cards (or development kits) available that do not require the user to start with a bare chip? Which is likely to be around and supported longer? Which is easier to program? For which is one likely to find more programs to study and pirate, more libraries, etc.? Which is easier to outfit with removable memory (USB drives, memory cards, etc.)? Which has better and faster ADCs and DACs? I'm sure there are lots of other factors worth considering, as well. There may be good resources already available that address these issues. If so, pointers would be appreciated. Any books people recommend to get a feel for applying and programming these devices? Much appreciated, Charles _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
