winterhunter
New Member
Dear All,
I'm quite new to the microcontroller world (though I have been playing around with a C-Control Unit - a 68HC12 loaded with a BASIC interpreter and a very unstable "OS").
I would like to now build a SCADA system to control things around my home (HVAC, alarm, etc.), and after looking around a bit, I'm seriously considering either a dsPIC30F or an ARM 7 core (probably an LPC21XX or AT9SAM). The main issue behind my choice is scalability of the system, which I plan on implementing using a preemptive task/thread scheduler or a small RTOS (eCOS, FreeRTOS, or others). Each new function that I will later add will simply be a new task/thread in the system.
Two µcontrollers that seem to be very well supported and have enough RAM are the dsPIC30F and the ARM7.
I have now a couple of questions regarding the tools that are available for the ARM processors :
+ Are there any free or cheap IDEs?
+ What about compilers/simulators/debuggers?
+ Is I use the JTAG interface, is it well supported by the available debuggers?
+ All these aforementioned programs, do they run on Windows? Linux?
+ I came across two providers that sell affordable development boards : OLIMEX and MIKROELECTRONIKA? Do you recommend them? Do you know of others (preferably inside the EU)?
Of course, any other ideas/comments/suggestions are very much welcome!
Thanks a lot.
Kind regards,
Gonzalo MEZA
I'm quite new to the microcontroller world (though I have been playing around with a C-Control Unit - a 68HC12 loaded with a BASIC interpreter and a very unstable "OS").
I would like to now build a SCADA system to control things around my home (HVAC, alarm, etc.), and after looking around a bit, I'm seriously considering either a dsPIC30F or an ARM 7 core (probably an LPC21XX or AT9SAM). The main issue behind my choice is scalability of the system, which I plan on implementing using a preemptive task/thread scheduler or a small RTOS (eCOS, FreeRTOS, or others). Each new function that I will later add will simply be a new task/thread in the system.
Two µcontrollers that seem to be very well supported and have enough RAM are the dsPIC30F and the ARM7.
I have now a couple of questions regarding the tools that are available for the ARM processors :
+ Are there any free or cheap IDEs?
+ What about compilers/simulators/debuggers?
+ Is I use the JTAG interface, is it well supported by the available debuggers?
+ All these aforementioned programs, do they run on Windows? Linux?
+ I came across two providers that sell affordable development boards : OLIMEX and MIKROELECTRONIKA? Do you recommend them? Do you know of others (preferably inside the EU)?
Of course, any other ideas/comments/suggestions are very much welcome!
Thanks a lot.
Kind regards,
Gonzalo MEZA