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Microcontroller Programming

PostPosted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 6:42 pm
by SilverToast
Does anyone program avr or pic microcontrollers?
What projects have you made with the microcontroller? How did you get started on programming microcontrollers?

Re: Microcontroller Programming

PostPosted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 9:12 pm
by shooraijin
What are you planning to do with it? The PIC is probably easier to program, but the AVR is arguably more flexible; see http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/picvsavr.html

You might be better served by something like a BASIC Stamp or an Arduino for a first project; they're a lot easier to get started with.

Re: Microcontroller Programming

PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 9:00 am
by SilverToast
Thanks for the link!

I'm planning to make a robot that launches light weight objects like a ping pong ball or tennis ball at a certain angle using a spring and servos. I hope I can make/use an external program to calculate something like at what inital velocity do I need to launch the ball to get it at this position using this angle. It would take a while for me to do this.

I actually started with an arduino uno, but I got bored with the Arduino IDE. I already knew some C++ before I got an arduino so I thought I would move up from Arduino libraries to AVR. I use the linux AVR-GCC toolchain now to code and upload to the arduino uno through its bootloader.
Right now I'm just learning AVR basics.

I'll have to try pic's soon and other avr's.

Re: Microcontroller Programming

PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 5:53 pm
by shooraijin
If you're used to AVR, then just stick with that. What you're looking to do is well within the capabilities of either architecture, and I think AVR will give you room to grow.