[dorkbotpdx-blabber] AVR Philosophy

[Donald Delmar Davis]

So almost all of the megas have a rtc susbsystem and at least a 6x  
10bit adc and at least 2 serial devices (usart/spi/i2c) and most of  
the megas and tinys have a -v (low power) derivative.
Mebby atmel needs to fix its sight navigation. Its still a weird part  
to wind up with.


On Apr 2, 2009, at 1:45 PM, Dan Strother wrote:

> If you don't mind only 10 bits of ADC resolution (albeit at ~8x the
> conversion rate), you may be better served by something from Atmel's
> "PicoPower" line: http://atmel.com/products/AVR/default_picopower.asp
> . These are basically just lower power versions of the mainstream
> parts ( < 1uA to run an RTC in sleep mode). Most of them have a much
> more conventional set of peripherals (including UARTs, except on the
> ATtinys...).
>
> - Dan S.
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 11:56 AM, dave madden <dorkbot at mersenne.com>  
> wrote:
>> "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.
>>
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