Which microcontroller do I want to learn?

I would not use the arduino as a teaching platform if I expected the students to learn uC programming or hardware. But if I were teaching an art or other non technical class where the arduino is just a means to an end it is perfect. That is they key to the arduino, it allows people to do some uC stuff without know much about uC's. It is an enabler for a fairly large segment of people. This is cool and not wrong.

Regarding the rep rap printer. While I am not 100% sure why the switched to the arduino I do not see it as an indication of professionals using the arduino for a development platform. If this was a packaged system instead of a open source kit chances are you would see a custom board with a uC on it.

Just my thinking but I think I got it right.

Exactly! The REP RAP and similar open source machines are a perfect example of where an easy to use beginner or "hobby" module is a great choice.

I'm not anti-Arduino because it's a great idea and has its place.

But the OP suggested he is ok with actual electronics construction, and also he specified "the computer isn't hidden under layers of abstraction." and "so that I could hand-solder a circuit for the uC to connect it to".

To my mind that seems directly aimed at using a micro itself, in the owner's own electronics projects. Of course some feedback from RichardCavell himself would be helpful.

Hi guys,

Mr RB has suggested some feedback from me.

I'm thinking that I want to pick up 8-bit AVR. AVR has many different models, with a wide range of connectivity.

I definitely want to be able to build my own circuits by hand. I think this means that I want DIP chips, that use sockets. I can connect them to input devices such as switches and output devices such as LEDs.

I've been thinking of buying an STK600 with the DIP socket thingy, a few atTiny45s, and a couple of atMega328Ps, since they're the one used by Arduino. My first few projects could take place in the STK600 and eventually I can create my own little Veroboard circuits using DIP sockets. I'll use AVR studio on my Windows desktop PC, and program in C. Does that sound good?

Richard

It sounds like you are on the right track. If your goal is to become a ATMEL programmer ignore the rest of this post.

This is really a wonderful time to be studying the existing architectures. It might make some sense to look at microchip which has at least 3 different architectures and other manufactures such as intel, motorola/cold fire, Hitachi, TI, Zilog etc etc.

Do not make the mistake that learning the assembly/machine language for a chip is the same as learning the architectures. What you are looking for is how the CPU work rather then memorizing each of the instructions.

If you want to look at a very good architectures take some time to look over the PDP11 first. It has a very orthogonal instruction set. With just a hand full of opcodes it provided all the expected functionality and more. Understanding it will help you better understand and judge some processors that followed it.

Richardcavell said:

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I'm thinking that I want to pick up 8-bit AVR. AVR has many different models, with a wide range of connectivity.
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Hi Richard, it's good to hear more about what you are after. Keep in mind that the PIC and AVR are the two big names and both have a lot of good support tools and a huge user base with lots of free downloadable code examples etc.

The PIC is possibly more popular on this forum, and is my choice but you should not be too influenced by other people's personal choices.

One thing you should look into is the direction your choice will lead. For instance with the PIC you can start on the 8bit 16F devices, and your C compiler should also work on the bulk of the small cheap 12F devices, and likewise will work on the faster and more powerful 18F devices. These are all technically "8bit PICs" but the main point is that most compilers and dev boards will support all of these so you have a lot of options for future chip choices in any project you might make.

I'm not familiar enough with the AVR chips to say anything about them, but you should check that your initial programmer, compiler and dev setup will cater to a decent range of their chips, from the very small and cheap to at least some of the Mega chips.

I also suggest if you are buying a small module with ZIF to do the programming to either get one that will program many different packages, or get one that has a ICSP connector so you can program other chips via an external lead, this ensures you can work with many chips and packages.

Also if going with a cheap module instead of a a full featured dev board, you should consider getting a plug in breadboard or similar and seeing if the outputs on your module can plug into the breadboard so you can easily work with things like text and graphic LCDs, memory chips and other handy modules.

Depending on the price of your module with ZIF socket you might want to look at the MikroE dev boards (like in my first post above) at about $140, which might not be a lot of money to upgrade but which will probably be many times greater in function.