<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">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. <div>Mebby atmel needs to fix its sight navigation. Its still a weird part to wind up with. </div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Apr 2, 2009, at 1:45 PM, Dan Strother wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>If you don't mind only 10 bits of ADC resolution (albeit at ~8x the<br>conversion rate), you may be better served by something from Atmel's<br>"PicoPower" line: <a href="http://atmel.com/products/AVR/default_picopower.asp">http://atmel.com/products/AVR/default_picopower.asp</a><br>. These are basically just lower power versions of the mainstream<br>parts ( < 1uA to run an RTC in sleep mode). Most of them have a much<br>more conventional set of peripherals (including UARTs, except on the<br>ATtinys...).<br><br>- Dan S.<br><br><br>On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 11:56 AM, dave madden <<a href="mailto:dorkbot@mersenne.com">dorkbot@mersenne.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote type="cite">"ddd" == Donald Delmar Davis <ddelmardavis at gmail.com> writes:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"> ddd> How did you wind up starting with [the ATmega406] as an introduction?<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">I've wanted to build a nixie wristwatch for a while now, but my first<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">attempt (based on an LPC2102) didn't go very far. It was my first<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">self-designed uC PCB, first SMD board, etc, and I made too many mistakes<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">for it to even be a useful learning experience. (I chose the NXP<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">because I'd been hacking successfully on an LPC2148 prototyping board,<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">and had a pretty good handle on the software side.)<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">So, fast forward a few months, and I've had success with two SMD uC<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">boards using Luminary parts. In addition, I built a test boost<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">converter on the LPC2148 prototyping board and got 40V out of a tiny,<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">hand-wound inductor and the 3.3v supply, so I start eyeing the nixie<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">tubes again.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">The Luminary parts are great, easy to use, but no RTC, and probably not<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">so good on battery power. The LPC is also kinda old, and I still<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">haven't gotten one working on my own terms. I've looked at PICs a<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">couple of times, but the architecture is wack and it doesn't look like<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">GCC can handle it.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">So I poke around the Atmel site, and (eventually) figure out which chips<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">are low-power and have an RTC. It never occurred to me that they<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">wouldn't have a UART. But the 12-bit A/D would be useful for<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">controlling the DC-DC converter and reading the 3-axis accelerometer,<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">the RTC works at really low current, and there are (probably) _just_<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">enough GPIOs to do what I want. Viola, the ATmega406 is the chip for<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">me.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">d.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">_______________________________________________<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">dorkbotpdx-blabber mailing list<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><a href="mailto:dorkbotpdx-blabber@dorkbot.org">dorkbotpdx-blabber@dorkbot.org</a><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><a href="http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/dorkbotpdx-blabber">http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/dorkbotpdx-blabber</a><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote>_______________________________________________<br>dorkbotpdx-blabber mailing list<br><a href="mailto:dorkbotpdx-blabber@dorkbot.org">dorkbotpdx-blabber@dorkbot.org</a><br><a href="http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/dorkbotpdx-blabber">http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/dorkbotpdx-blabber</a><br></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>