EEVblog #448 - AVR Dragon can program both PIC and Atmega? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Matter45
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 16, 2017, 09:55:53 am
content: Hi there!Im just starting out in exploring the world of microcontrollers! YAY!I have a project which I currently use the raspberry pi zero for, the project uses all the GPIO's. Been working on this project for 2 years, massive learning curve.Now I want to get into Microcontrollers. The question is, which direction do i go if I want to be able to program Microchip microcontrollers AND Atmel microcontrollers?They seem to be the market leaders....Specifically, it seems the AVR Dragon can work with Atmel Studio 7 & MPLAB X? If this is the case, why would i buy a PicKit3? it also looks like PicKit 4 never came out....Thanks in advance!

author: Hideki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2017, 10:19:02 am
content: Too bad you didn't notice it, but that episode was an april fools joke.Microchip now owns Atmel (not a joke), but I don't know if they have managed to combine any of their development tools yet.

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2017, 11:35:29 am
content: If you are new then you should stay simple...With AVR you can just use the Arduino eco-system, IDE, bootloader etc to get started. Once your program is started you can ignore all the wiring gunk and go bare metal and explore the various hardware functions. If you want lots of UARTS look at the ArdunioMEGA.For PIC then checkout the Curiosity boards e.g. PIC24F athttp://www.microchip.com/promo/curiosity,that board has a 'Pickit on board'There are also many other devices that might be more interesting to you... eg.https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/which the more modern versions having some top notch DMA functionality.Don't get me wrong... I live PIC... but the Arduino eco-system is pretty amazing.

author: dan3460
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2017, 02:33:34 pm
content: Dave, in one of his youtube episodes, vouchered to keep options open and select the chip that fits the best for the project you are working on. I would say that you should try both microship and atmel. Chips are inexpensive enough to burn trough a few of them. A very inexpensive way to start with avr is to buy a USBISP programmer from ebay, you'll spend $3 or $4 on it. I have been using this for a while and I will be buying an Atmel ICE to be able to debug right on the chip.I cannot give much advice on PICs as my first batch are in the mail and I will be exploring them soon.Good luck

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2017, 02:46:21 pm
content: Quote from: dan3460 on February 16, 2017, 02:33:34 pm+1

author: Matter45
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 17, 2017, 02:21:11 am
content: Thanks guys for the heads up, i never read the comments on that video! How embarrassing...I love MPLAB X over Studio 7, but the Atmel chips seem to fit my needs better.Because of EEVblog #448, i was hoping to be able to have both worlds. But i guess thats the beauty of the April fools video, if it was true, pigs would fly.I new Microchip bought Atmel over a year ago, so I was hoping there was a united solution for both Microchip and Atmel chips, looks like its still to early to tell.Can anyone recommend a device to program Atmel chips?And it looks like the PicKit3 is the way to go for Microchip. But PicKit3 scares me because of EEVblog #841, or are these issues resolved (blog is from January 2016)? Is there anything better out there for the same price?

author: eugenenine
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2017, 02:28:37 am
content: Just starting on AVR myself, after messing with pic and arduino, I threw together one of thesehttps://learn.adafruit.com/arduino-tips-tricks-and-techniques/arduinoispI've downloaded avrdude since Atmel studio is windows only.

author: picandmix
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2017, 09:31:38 am
content: This guy was recently looking to sell his AVR Dragon board, at the price its better than messing with smaller or diy programmers.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/(fs)-atmel-avr-dragon/For the Pic chips, your can also buy the pickt3 clone boards quiet cheaply from the Far East or even build your own Pickit2, though that does not do all the latest pic chips

author: fki82
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2017, 07:49:45 pm
content: If you have to order a new one, the basic version of the ATMEL ICE is almost the same price like the Dragon.The Atmel ICE can also debug ARM based Atmel CPUs. The Dragon works only with ATMEGAs.It's also ATMELs current debug hardware, so the chances are much better it will have longer support.