Home Development Kit and Example SW Project.

Hi,

I am currently looking to advance my embedded development skills and would
like to develop some software at home...

Can anybody suggest a development kit that I could use for home
development - Such as a microprocessor with peripheral support such as a
UART, RAM, possibly FLASH etc...  I would also like the device to program
the microprocessor.  Preferably it would support C/C++ and be fairly cheap.

That leads on to my next question - Any ideas what software I could develop?
Something interesting that I could use at home - Possibly with mobile
phones??

Thank you.

Dan.

"Dan" <danielwatkinslearn@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:40459132$1@baen1673807.greenlnk.net...
> Hi,
>
> I am currently looking to advance my embedded development skills and would
> like to develop some software at home...
>
> Can anybody suggest a development kit that I could use for home
> development - Such as a microprocessor with peripheral support such as a
> UART, RAM, possibly FLASH etc...  I would also like the device to program
> the microprocessor.  Preferably it would support C/C++ and be fairly
cheap.
>

Have a look at Texas Instruments MSP430 series. I recently started using
them for hobby projects and for about $20 you'r up and running since the
complete development environment is free (mspgcc, mspgdb etc.) Olimex.com
has some starter kits and header boards plus a very low price JTAG
programmer.

Henrik

"Dan" <danielwatkinslearn@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:40459132$1@baen1673807.greenlnk.net...
> Hi,
>
> I am currently looking to advance my embedded development skills and would
> like to develop some software at home...
>
> Can anybody suggest a development kit that I could use for home
> development - Such as a microprocessor with peripheral support such as a
> UART, RAM, possibly FLASH etc...  I would also like the device to program
> the microprocessor.  Preferably it would support C/C++ and be fairly
cheap.
>
> That leads on to my next question - Any ideas what software I could
develop?
> Something interesting that I could use at home - Possibly with mobile
> phones??
>
> Thank you.
>
> Dan.

Dontronics (Don is frequently - and sometimes justly - accused of blowing
his own horn in this group) has some excellent and cheap kits for the AVR,
which I'd recommend as a good beginners processor with versions with all the
stuff you'd like - except C++ and you'll soon change your mind about that on
a limited memory processor.

Check out www.dontronics.com.

Cheers,
Alf


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"Dan" <danielwatkinslearn@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<40459132$1@baen1673807.greenlnk.net>...
> Hi,
> 
> I am currently looking to advance my embedded development skills and would
> like to develop some software at home...
> 
> Can anybody suggest a development kit that I could use for home
> development - Such as a microprocessor with peripheral support such as a
> UART, RAM, possibly FLASH etc...  I would also like the device to program
> the microprocessor.  Preferably it would support C/C++ and be fairly cheap.
 
http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com   (kits from $139)
http://www.zworld.com
http://www.imaginetools.com          ($99 dollar kit)

Dan wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I am currently looking to advance my embedded development skills and would
>like to develop some software at home...
>
>Can anybody suggest a development kit that I could use for home
>development - Such as a microprocessor with peripheral support such as a
>UART, RAM, possibly FLASH etc...  I would also like the device to program
>the microprocessor.  Preferably it would support C/C++ and be fairly cheap.

My current project involves a Zilog Z8 Encore and I'm doing initial
development using their evaluation kit (P/N Z8F08200100KIT).  This
includes a board, wall wart, "smart" cable to download code from a
serial port, and CD with docs, assembler/compiler, and an IDE.  The
board includes a ZF0822 (includes GPIO, flash controller, four 10-bit
ADCs, UART, I2C and SPI controllers, and two counter/timers), a MAX3222
driving a serial port, three LEDs, two pushbutton switches (one is
reset), and a prototyping area.

The price from DigiKey and Mouser for all of this is a rediculously low
$40 and all I needed to get up and running a demo program was a serial
cable!  This has got to be the best value of its kind I have ever seen!
Check it out: http://www.zilog.com/products/partdetails.asp?id=Z8F08200100KIT

>That leads on to my next question - Any ideas what software I could develop?
>Something interesting that I could use at home - Possibly with mobile
>phones??

Connect a thermistor to one of the ADCs and code a thermometer.  Drive a
relay with a GPIO line and you've got a thermostat.  Write a serial
interface and it's a programmable thermostat.  There are enough real
world problems to solve in there to keep you busy for a while yet it's
not so tough that you'll never get there.

>Thank you.

You're welcome.

>Dan.

BTW, I'm no Zilog shill.  I'm just amazed at this thing's bang/buck ratio.

-- 
========================================================================
          Michael Kesti            |  "And like, one and one don't make
                                   |   two, one and one make one."
          mkesti@gv.net            |          - The Who, Bargain