[sdiy] Microcontrollers, development environments and hardware programmer recommendations.

[Richie Burnett]

dsPIC isn't too steep a learning curve if you've come from programming PICs in assembly language. It's like a more advanced PIC with 16-bit data path. It has a pretty good DSP core built in too, which is useful for synth stuff. You can get started for very cheap with just MPLAB and a Microstick II kit, that lets you program and debug via USB.

They're available in some through-hole packages for prototyping as well as surface mount options for production. I use dsPICs for a lot of commercial projects. They're not without their quirks but they meet a market need for a low-cost microcontroller with peripherals and a very decent chunk of DSP power thrown in.

-Richie, 

Sent from my Xperia SP on O2

---- Ben Riggs wrote ----

>It’s been at least a 10 year hiatus in which i’ve given away/lost my hardware/software capability to program micro controllers, of which i’m sure are redundant anyways. but now i’ve got some project ideas that i would like to implement and i’m not sure how to go about getting the capability back. In the past i used PIC12 PIC16 & PIC18 micro controllers, so it would be handy to stick with the PIC platform because thats where i’m experienced, but i’m open to other platform recommendations if more suitable.
>
>I started to look but became quickly overwhelmed.
>
>what I’m looking for as far as recommendations go is based on:
>1. I travel a lot (8 months of the year living out of a suitcase/ working out of a pelican toolbox) and travel with a current model MacBook (with the single USB-C port). I noticed that MPLAB IDE X runs on mac which is good. what other development environments do?
>2. a hardware programmer, portability is key. USB and port powered preferable.
>3. are PICs old tech now? is it better to move on and learn something new? what are the options?
>
>any input and recommendations are appreciated.
>
>Cheers,
>Ben.
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