[sdiy] how you got started with your current µC? (was: Re: Most common ICs)

[Jason Tribbeck]

I can't remember how I started with PICs, but previously I'd been
developing on ARMs since our school got the Acorn Archimedes (I learnt ARM
basics by using the BBC BASIC "HELP [" command, which told you the ARM
assembly semantics).

PIC programming in C is easy - they've got free compilers you can download
which integrates with the MPLAB-X suite (all of which are cross-platform;
used it initially on MacOS X, and now under Windows [Linux is also
supported]). The best optimisations are from the paid-for compilers (as you
would expect), but it's good enough for what I need. I've not done too much
work in PIC assembly since the very early days (when I didn't have a
compiler), but ISTR some of the assembly instructions meant I had to think
a bit backwards ("bit test skip if clear springs" to mind - I would
normally think of "bit test branch if set").

I've now got the MPLAB ICD3 for programming (having started with the
various PICKITs, but found PICKIT3 didn't work with Windows 8 [I believe it
may do now]).

However, I am seriously considering switching to STM32F based on the
discussions here (I've also used Atmel AT91SAM7S in a board; it was okay,
but the toolchain was a bit fiddly to use on MacOS X at the time, and the
OCD debugger was a bit flaky at times). The only downside that I can tell
is that they don't have any 5V variants (although their pins are 5V
tolerant); that in itself isn't too much of a problem (since almost all of
my larger projects are in 3.3V), but I do use 5V for smaller projects. I'm
going to start by either buying one of the dev kits (probably the Olimex
one based on the STM32F107), or making a breakout baord, and seeing if I
can make my own programmer (since the project I've got in mind involves a
kind of self-programming facility).

I tried the LPC2148, but couldn't get to grips with it.

On Sun, 20 Sep 2015 at 09:07 Thomas Strathmann <thomas at pdp7.org> wrote:

> On 19/09/15 23:46, Michael Zacherl wrote:
> > did you people start with a typical dev-board of PIC/AVR/STM32/... ?
>
> Yes and no. I started on 8-bit AVR with a custom dev board that some
> local folks had done. They provided the PCB and some documentation and
> you provided the rest. I remember helping get a toolchain running on
> GNU/Linux which included porting the software for the boad's more or
> less proprietary (in terms of pin-layout) parallel port programmer from
> DOS to Linux. Today I use much the same toolchain (avr-gcc) on Mac OS X
> with a stock USB programmer. Before the AVR I had some experience with a
> small dev board for the 68HC11 that I had bought fully assembled from a
> web shop. I still have a STM32F4 Discovery board in a drawer which I
> only used in so far as I bothered to get the complete toolchain running
> on Mac OS X and writing a small test program to exercise the on-board
> DAC. Never used a PIC in my life so far. Probably because when I got
> into microcontrollers AVRs where still the new kids on the block and I
> prefer C over plain assembly. BTW, how is the situation of using C on
> PICs (or dsPICs for that matter)?
>
>         Thomas
>
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