AVR-Chat

At 09:45 PM 3/28/2005, Graham Davies wrote:


>--- In AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com, Dave VanHorn <dvanhorn@d...> wrote:
>
> > I have some of the Olimex units,
> > they are just as good as the Atmel
> > ones apparently. :)
>
>Well, I originally invented the AVR ICE-Cube because I was totally
>disgusted with the poor quality of the Olimex JTAG ICE I bought. I
>think some problems may now have been solved, such as the procedure for
>loading in the Atmel software and operation below 4.5 volts, but I
>doubt that the PCB layout has been improved and that was very bad.

I haven't looked inside, but my entire use of the Olimex units so far has 
been at 3V.

>On the other hand, my personal circumstances have changed so that I
>don't need the income from ECROS Technology any more. I'm only in it
>now out of loyalty to the AVR community and it's increasingly hard to
>find the time to make, test and ship ICE-Cubes. If Brian wanted to put
>a JTAG interface on a MAVRIC I would give him the ICE-Cube design,
>including the bootloader (which isn't as straightforward as people like
>to think). If I were Brian, though, I would "stick to my knitting" if I
>knew my customers could pick up a JTAG interface for less than forty
>bucks.

I see that point as well.

When the Jtag was $300, it was hard to justify having two, but yet you 
should NEVER have only one of any critical equipment like that.   At $40, 
it's easy for me to buy a few, so that if one takes a hit, I'm still 
operational.

When you have one or less running around, the idea of having it built into 
the systems makes sense.