[dorkbotpdx-blabber] AVR Philosophy

[dave madden]

"ddd" == Donald Delmar Davis <ddelmardavis at gmail.com> writes:

 ddd> How did you wind up starting with [the ATmega406] as an introduction?

I've wanted to build a nixie wristwatch for a while now, but my first
attempt (based on an LPC2102) didn't go very far.  It was my first
self-designed uC PCB, first SMD board, etc, and I made too many mistakes
for it to even be a useful learning experience.  (I chose the NXP
because I'd been hacking successfully on an LPC2148 prototyping board,
and had a pretty good handle on the software side.)

So, fast forward a few months, and I've had success with two SMD uC
boards using Luminary parts.  In addition, I built a test boost
converter on the LPC2148 prototyping board and got 40V out of a tiny,
hand-wound inductor and the 3.3v supply, so I start eyeing the nixie
tubes again.

The Luminary parts are great, easy to use, but no RTC, and probably not
so good on battery power.  The LPC is also kinda old, and I still
haven't gotten one working on my own terms.  I've looked at PICs a
couple of times, but the architecture is wack and it doesn't look like
GCC can handle it.

So I poke around the Atmel site, and (eventually) figure out which chips
are low-power and have an RTC.  It never occurred to me that they
wouldn't have a UART.  But the 12-bit A/D would be useful for
controlling the DC-DC converter and reading the 3-axis accelerometer,
the RTC works at really low current, and there are (probably) _just_
enough GPIOs to do what I want.  Viola, the ATmega406 is the chip for
me.

d.