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Selecting the right microcontroller kit may seem like a daunting challenge, mainly because there are hundreds of kits to choose from. Here’s a list of the best and worst microcontroller kits to help you guide your way!

Microcontroller PIC

These 8 bit microcontrollers are by far the simplest and cheapest microcontrollers available. Being 8 bits, these microcontrollers aren’t very good at floating point arithmetic, but are good at many other tasks. You can even build an El Cheapo Programmer for these microcontrollers for a couple dollars, which is very cheap. Use these microcontrollers if you have a fairly simple project, and you don’t mind programming in assembly language. There is a C compile available, but that costs money. You can buy a microcontroller and make a programmer for less than twenty dollars.

Microcontroller PIC32

These microcontrollers are simply awesome. PIC32 microcontrollers have every interface you can imagine, including CAN, I2C, SPI, RS-232, and more. As a bonus, there are usually plenty of I/O pins to satisfy even the most complicated projects. Of course, being 32 bit helps out with floating point arithmetic.

MAKE Controller Kit

The MAKE controller kit is a decent microcontroller with plenty of I/O pins. The controller kit makes it easier to get access to all the pins on the chip by using easy access terminals. Many other microcontroller kits make it much more difficult to gain access to all the pins. The cost is about $110.

Thames & Kosmos

This microcontroller kit is for kids age 12 and up. Most websites sell these kits for $150, but I’ve found some websites which sell the kits for as low as $120. These kits are pretty expensive for what you get, but this is definitely the most kid friendly kit around. I would not recommend buying this kit if you a professional engineer.

BASIC Stamp Kit

Okay, I have to be honest about this one. In my opinion, the BASIC stamp kits aren’t very good. Stamps are very small, very simple microcontrollers, and you use the BASIC language to program them. Sure, they’re easy to program. Unfortunately, these microcontrollers seriously lack in features. If you’re doing a project which requires many I/O pins, or communicates over a bus protocol like I2C, I wouldn’t recommend a BASIC stamp kit. These kits are usually cheaper, but sometimes it’s better to pay a little more and get a decent microcontroller kit.

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Originally, this website was dedicated to methods for saving money in your every day life. While I still post those types of articles, I will also start posting a series of technical articles.

This article is about whether or not you can use GPIO pins, or general purpose input / output pins in order to communicate on an I2C bus. The answer is yes! For electronic hobby projects, I2C is an excellent bus protocol to use due to simplicity, ease of debugging, and extremely low cost of bus components. Another great feature of the I2C bus is that there is no minimum speed the bus has to operate at. Simply put, this means that it doesn’t matter how slow you send a message on the bus. This makes it extremely easy to debug, and usually doesn’t even require an oscilloscope to fully debug any problems you might have with the bus. There are two wires of importance in I2C. These wires are the clock and data wires. In order to use GPIO to communicate on the I2C bus, you will need to have exactly two GPIO pins dedicated to I2C. Please note that if you are doing more complicated tasks involving multiple bus masters, then you may need to use additional GPIO pins, but the vast majority of projects only require one bus master, presumably some sort of microcontroller or microprocessor.

The next common question that comes up is how to write the software to communicate with the I2C bus via GPIO. There are two ways to do this, assuming whatever microcontroller your using doesn’t have a built in I2C module (which is why you would want to use GPIO in the first place). The first method is called bit banging. Simply put, the software writes data to the GPIO pins one pin at a time, delays for a short period of time, and then proceeds to write the next piece of data and so on. Often, empty for loops are used in order to create delay between changing the GPIO pins. This is because I2C generally needs to operate below 400 kb/s, and most microcontrollers operate at several megahertz. Therefore, it is important to set the for loop to count to a high number so that the bus isn’t too fast. It is also important not to change the data and the clock pins at the same time because this may create timing issues. Instead, change the clock pin, delay, change the data pin (if necessary), delay, and so on.

The disadvantages of bit banging are that while the processor is communicating on the I2C bus, the microcontroller can’t do anything else. This is because the processor is busy executing empty for loops to intentionally delay the I2C signals. However, if you communicate on the I2C bus for only short periods of time, this con may be more than acceptable for your project.

Another technique is more complicated. First of all, if you don’t have an operating system running on your microcontroller, your only option will be to use a bit banging technique. However, high power microprocessors often have a reduced version of Linux which is loaded onto them. To communicate with I2C, you may create semaphores or threads, which are executed repeatedly on a timer. This is generally a better approach than bit banging because it allows the processor to schedule other tasks in between changing or reading the GPIO pins. However, this is only useful if you have an operating system with a scheduler. If you are unsure whether or not you have an operating system, chances are you do not have one. In either case, bit banging is the simplest approach to use I2C with GPIO pins.

Posted under Technology

If you ever wanted to do a project involving microcontrollers, the first thing you need is a microcontroller, and programmer. Many commercial PIC programmers exist. These programmers cost anywhere from 25 to 250 dollars depending on how many different PICs are supported and how greedy the manufacturer is. In my other article, I gave a great review for the Microchip PIC32 starter kit, which includes the chip, programmer, and debugger. Best of all, it connects to your computer via a USB port, which is excellent since all modern computer have USB. The PIC32 starter kit only costs 50 dollars, which is more than reasonable.

However, there is a cheaper alternative if you are truly trying to save money on your hobby project. The cheapest way to get a PIC programmer is to make one yourself! The design is called El Cheapo, mainly because all the components together cost less than 10 dollars. Luckily, El Cheapo is extremely easy to make. Schematics of the programmer may be found by their original creator here.

What does this programmer look like? Here are some pictures I’ve taken of my El Cheapo programmer which I built.

Unfortunately, the El Cheapo programmer connects to your computer via an LP-25 printer port, which many computers do not have because it is now obsolete. If you’re thinking about building a PIC programmer yourself, be sure that you have a printer port on your computer. Otherwise, it’s best just to get a starter kit from Microchip which has a USB connection.

Posted under Saving Money