Looking for a nice little Starter Kit for AVRs. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: expertmax
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2013, 11:01:24 pm
content: Hi guys,I'm just crazy about AVRs now, I love to program them, they are easy to understand and manipulate. At the moment I'm using a very basic breadboard with an AVR and a USBTinyISP v3 bought from ebay.Now I want to know if you know any good starter kits or small dev boards for under 150$, either on ebay or anywhere else.Thanks.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2013, 03:12:15 am
content: Arduino? $150 will buy you an Uno (holds 28pin ATmega328P, 168, 88, 8, etc), a MEGA (ATmega2560; the biggest AVR you can get), A leonard or Teensy2 (native USB) and a Sanguino-like board (m1284, m644a 40-pin DIP chips.) Even if you buy genuine versions rather than clones.You can throw away the IDE if you don't like it; they're still pretty nice "starter-kit" boards.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2013, 03:19:14 am
content: You also don't need to use Arduino code on a Arduino board. Since its just an AVR you can code it properlywithout the arduino libraries/IDE.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 06, 2013, 08:23:52 am
content: STK500 would be my alternative recommendation (if you can find it). It's getting slightly old (has a serial port, but works fine with USB-RS232 in my experience), but it's a professional dev board made by Atmel. It supports most AVR DIP chips. It can do in system programming, high voltage programming (useful if you screw up the fuses or want to use the reset pin as I/O), and has a variable clock source, variable power supply voltage and variable ADC reference supply. Not so useful if you're into Xmega or SMT parts that are not available in DIP (eg. USB ATmega), though.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 06, 2013, 12:08:43 pm
content: Olimex do a few nice header and development boards for AVR.https://www.olimex.com/Products/AVR/Development/https://www.olimex.com/Products/AVR/Header/

author: N TYPE
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2013, 01:41:03 pm
content: STK-500 are still available new from atmel for $79http://www.atmel.com/tools/stk500.aspx

author: Kremmen
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2013, 05:52:28 pm
content: And of course there is the STK600 as well. The advantage is that it supports all Atmel processors using the satellite adapter system. That of course is the drawback as well as you need the right socket and adapter satellites for each specific chip. Still, the combination of STK600 plus a JTAG-ICE II or 3 lets you develop and debug for any Atmel chis with relative ease, That and Atmel Studio certainly beats the pants off most other kits. Can't be done inside $150 though.

author: expertmax
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 12, 2013, 03:12:03 pm
content: The STK600 seems like a very nice board, it has EVERYTHING ! But at 199$, it's quite expensive... for a beginner ! I am wondering if a STK500 will do the job for any beginner... Plus the lack of a USB port doesn't scare me at all.I also want on my very early Christmas wishlist a logic analyzer for under 99$ which has great software.Then I guess it's up to me to make a move, STK500 or STK600, and a good logic analyzer.Geez I won't have any more money left to buy something for the wife hehe... Who said a smile is worth a lot ?

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 12, 2013, 03:47:13 pm
content: Last time I checked the STK600 was $200 without any of the routing / socket cards (it might come with one ATmega soldered on a socket card). Expect to pay another $100 or so for a DIP socket card and a set of routing cards that covers most DIP ICs (similar to the STK500). The main advantage of the STK600 is that it supports newer Xmega and AVR32 devices. In my opinion the extra money is better spent elsewhere, like on a logic analyzer or debugger (neither of these boards contains an in-circuit debugger for some reason).

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 12, 2013, 04:12:23 pm
content: It is sort of cheating but get some free samples from Atmel. I've gotten so far:(All in DIP)2 Atmega 328p1 Attiny451 Attiny851 Atmega321 Atmega1285 Attiny2313I also own an Arduino Uno and one of those cheap chinese Atmega8 programmers.Another thing and yeah I know it isn't an AVR but you might also spend $10 and get a TI MSP430 Launchpad.Yeah it isn't an AVR but it a similarly designed inexpensive product. If you've used Arduino before you can install Energia which is a port of the Arduino environment to that platform.

author: Dave
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 12, 2013, 05:35:24 pm
content: Quote from: westfw on August 06, 2013, 03:12:15 am'tArduino probably isn't the best choice. You'd be better off with a board which has pins marked as Pxn (port and pin number) instead of some arduino library references. This is just my opinion, but I would hate to need a chart just to see which pin is which.

author: Phroon
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2013, 12:15:07 am
content: I'm a big fan of Evil Mad Scientist'sATmegaXX8 Mini Dev Kits.