what microcontrollers can I program just for fun?

[lotharamious]

I want to do some microcontroller programming just for fun. At the time I don't really have any cool ideas for projects, I was wondering if there are any PICs out there that have only the hardware cost (programming software is free/very cheap).

To date, I've programmed Atmel AVR 8-bit PICs like the ATMega16 and derivatives to make some pretty basic RS-232c type communication. I wouldn't mind using Atmel stuff again because the RISC instruction set was nice to work with, but I used expensive software like AVR Studio and CodeVisionAVR, and would like to not have to purchase said software.

Any recommendations for PICs and/or cool project ideas?

Thanks!

 

[tfinch2]

I'm interested in this question as well.

 

[utmark]

Some quick project ideas that came to mind (from my experiences):
Interface to an LCD screen, Use an IR Sensor to receive remote controller signals, Make a thermometer, Interface to Solid State Relays to act as an on/off switch for AC electronics or lights etc., Control a stepper motor, Control servos, Implement a CAN network, Make primitive sounds to a PC speaker, Wetness/Rain detector, Motion detector with sonar, SPI communication. Extras such as LCD screen can be bought from online electronics catalogs (sometimes radioshack) or found in old electronics (think old cell phones). If you can find a data sheet on it, you can probably make it work.

As far as 8-bit micro's go, I'm biased towards Silicon Labs's MCU offering. Their IDE is free (Silicon Labs IDE - http://www.silabs.com/mcudownloads)) and $25 can get you their toolstick dev kit (USB programmer and 8-bit micro smaller than a credit card). I think all of their parts have analog input and output, which makes things more fun, and with the example code, and datasheet, learning is easy. Some toolsticks can also be battery powered for your hand held enjoyment. See http://www.silabs.com/toolstick

I've also had success with TI's MSP430 and Freescale's 6812. Never used Atmel or PIC... Currently playing with ARM and TI DSPs - DSP's are a whole other kind of fun, but they tend to get pricey (> $100) unless you can convince somebody to give it to you for free (school project) - you never know until you ask.

Hope that helps. Ask me if you have any questions.

 

[reverend boltron]

You might want to check out Bob Blick's "Propeller Clock" which uses persistence of vision to show the time, like all those IKEA clocks do now.

That guy has tons of projects, though they're all very old now, but for a while he was on the cutting edge of portable MP3 players.

I'd also go with the PIC 16F84 family or something around that. The programmers aren't that hard to build and you can buy them for like $2 too.

You might want to look into projects that use pin 39 of the IDE cable for cool activity meters. You can use that to trigger the PIC for a cool effect when the hard drive is being accessed, or the CD-ROM is being used too.

You can have LEDs spin one way normally, and then when there is activity, have them spin another way.

There's more than LEDs though, and you can probably get pretty creative on your own. Those are just a few fun projects for eye candy.

 

[Modelworks]

The pic is a nice chip line overall.
Only issue I have with it is the cost of the compilers.
The really good ones like CCS are in the 500.00 range.
http://ccsinfo.com/

If you don't mind working in pure assembly then the microchip ide is all you will need and its free.
http://picprojects.org.uk/projects/picprojects.htm - has a good list of some very useful projects.

I've used pics for everything from IR remotes to pc voltage reading and fan controllers and really like the chips.
Just wish microchip would release the c compiler for free.

For free there is SDCC but its not as good as the ccs compiler.
http://sdcc.sourceforge.net/

Also microchip is very good about free samples.
I think last time I checked they would send up to 6 chips out for free.
Just need to request them on the site.
http://sample.microchip.com/De....aspx?testCookies=true

 

[phisrow]

You might want to give the Arduino project a look. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino It is a bit higher level, in the conceptual sense, than your basic bare microcontroller; but people have done some cool stuff with it. High end boards are a touch pricey, but software and board designs are all free, and designs and kits for barebones boards are easy to come by.

If you want to continue playing with straight AVR chips, AVRDUDE and avr-gcc are free software tools that would be of use.