Cheap Micro Controller

[XxionxX]

I am interested in microcontrollers as a field, but I want to know if this kit would be a good way to learn C++ as well. TI is touting it as a great way to get started and is paring it with some videos and a PDF workbook. At $4.30 it's a steal of a learning opportunity even if I have to learn C to use it. What do you guys think of it? Is there a better way to learn how to program microcontrollers?

 

[darfgarf]

bloody hell, for that price, get 1000 and cluster them

 

[vadsamoht]

I am interested in microcontrollers as a field, but I want to know if this kit would be a good way to learn C++ as well. TI is touting it as a great way to get started and is paring it with some videos and a PDF workbook. At $4.30 it's a steal of a learning opportunity even if I have to learn C to use it. What do you guys think of it? Is there a better way to learn how to program microcontrollers?

No idea, but I'm sure getting some.

 

[Asiyura]

Rage… I don't own a Visa neither a MasterCard so I won't be able to get this kit

I love to thinker with microcontrollers but I guess I'll stick with the good old PIC.


I think it's a good way to learn how to use microcontrollers, mainly because it's cheap and it contains everything you need to get started. Even an emulation tool!

 

[dreamer]

I have one, but haven't played with it yet (just moved in to my new place).


But, I'm thinking of doing some home-automation. Like controlling the window-blinds with some servos or stepper motors


First thing though is to hook it up to this HD44780 LCD I have and play a bit with coding for it (complete C++ newb here).


@ gfrancisdev: with "clustering" do you mean you want to make a project like this? http://hackaday.com/2011/02/13/launchpad-midi-synth/

 

[WizardStan]

One hundred 16mhz processors isn't anything like a single 1.6Ghz processor


You're going to need a very specific use case if you expect clustering to work here.


However, microcontrollers are a lot of fun. I've still got a drawer full of PICs from Microcontroller, mostly from the 18F family but also some 24F eproms and I think 12F with the built in RF transmitter/receiver that I never quite figured out how to use.


Good times.

 

[Asiyura]

Great, I've found someone that agreed to "lend" his VISA, gonna make my order tomorrow!


It always amaze me that those tiny chips pack so much power. (moreover when you know that most of the chip is there to have pins large enough to be solderable by humans)


I mean it's got a 16bits, 8MHz, RISC processor with 128KB of RAM and it's got 10 I/O lines…


I'll have to buy a bunch of capacitor, resistor and LED to have fun with that little computer (probably gonna get the capacitive add-on)

 

[vadsamoht]

One hundred 16mhz processors isn't anything like a single 1.6Ghz processor


You're going to need a very specific use case if you expect clustering to work here.

Does awesomeness count as a use-case?

 

[XxionxX]

I'm glad everyone likes this! I didn't know that it would be so popular! :lol:

 

[levi1123]

I might consider looking into this... I went to highschool for electro-mechanical dabbled in everything from electrical wiring to some logic gates to repairing washers and dryers etc.

 

[vadsamoht]

I'm glad everyone likes this! I didn't know that it would be so popular! :lol:

I'm actually only pretending to like it... I just want to be like you!

 

[Asiyura]

I'm glad everyone likes this! I didn't know that it would be so popular! :lol:

On the forum for a "homebrew" console, it had to have a few people interested.


I'm already trying to find a good project around the MSP430…


The chording keyboard I wanted to make long ago isn't really useful on pandora, so I have to find something else.


If you have any suggestions, share

 

[chris_r]

While I think learning C++ is very good and I think learning microcontrollers is very good, I wouldn't recommend you learn them both together. If you try to learn them both at the same time you're going to be causing yourself all sorts of headaches so I think you may be much better off learning C++ first and then applying it to microcontrollers. If you want to learn C++ then you should do it on on your computer first where you can easily debug otherwise you'll give yourself more headaches.


I'm not sure what the C++ support on the MSP430 is like but most microcontrollers seem to provide more support for C due to their limited resources, so maybe you should consider learning C instead.


If you're only just starting programming or microcontrollers (I don't know what sort of experience you have) then may I recommend you start with the PIC or AVR microcontrollers instead of the MSP430 for the simple fact that they both have reasons to make them more attractive to beginners. The AVR has great community support and the PIC has datasheets that are written thoroughly enough that a beginner should be able to understand them.


I'm sure a lot of people would also recommend the arduino which is an AVR dev board and set of C functions because if you really want to learn as opposed to just tinkering then you probably don't want to build up a dependence on the arduino functions instead of learning to manually control the hardware registers yourself.

 

[panik]

I fully agree with everything Chris said. I'd like to add that the MSP430 is very cheap, but there's no official Linux-support. The IDE is Windows-only (at the moment). You might not care about that, though.


Also, AVR-suite on the Pandora (shameless plug).


Carry on... B)

 

[Asiyura]

Okay, my doorbell broke (heavy rains + broken plastic box FTW), so I missed the delivery of the Launchpad.


But I have the "capacitive touch boosterpack", it looks great

EDIT: I think the missing linux IDE is a temporary problem. Because the softwares (compiler and debugger for C or assembler) are already available as command line tools. All that's missing is integrating those in a nice GUI. The steps to get the launchpad working with linux from hack a day.

 

[Austin25]

I've always used an Arduino, but those are much cheaper...

 

[Asiyura]

Annnd here comes my Launchpad!

Since I soldered the connectors for the Boosterpack with my craptastic 1978 soldering station

The soldering job I've done is awful… but it works.


As soon as I'll get a new soldering station, I'll have redo it

I didn't even try to solder the CMS quartz (there is an internal oscillator, but less accurate in the µC).

 

[dreamer]

^ hmm, my launchpad came pre-assembled

 

[Asiyura]

Me too, excepted the crystal oscillator and the connectors for the boosterpack.

(those two, circled in blue)


Good news, I'm now able to "make install" source code on osX with a makefile and it loads the .elf into the µcontroller

(now I have to learn how to create makefiles… I'm lazy, I always used an IDE to compile source code

)

 

[Asiyura]

Who could have guessed?

I'm making tutorials about MSP430 for a bunch of people on a french forum