I've recently gotten into microcontroller projects as a hobby, so I thought I'd get a perpetual PIC/AVR/MSP430/Z80/etc. thread going for anyone else that wants to learn and/or share.

Currently, I'm playing with TI's new value line development/protoyping system, the MSP430 Launchpad, and so far it's been pretty decent. It's without a doubt $4.30 well spent. TI will send you a couple extra chips if you request them through the samples page, so it makes for a very inexpensive way to do simple projects. Much cheaper than PICaxe or Arduino for projects that don't really need that kind of horsepower.

My latest venture was getting an MSP430G2231 to drive a 74HC595 shift register. This is the first step in a larger project, Conway's game of life on a 16x16 LED matrix. I'm actually more scared of trying to etch the PCB for all those lines than anything else.

Links to hardware:
http://www.ti.com/ww/en/mcu/valueline/index.shtml?DCMP=Value_Line&HQS=Other+OT+430value
http://www.nxp.com/documents/data_sheet/74HC_HCT595.pdf

I posted my code and a brief example on TI's Launchpad Wiki.
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP430_Launchpad_Shift_Register

9/19/2010 11:33:04 AM

I searched this section recently and found it to be near devoid of any real discussions like this. Best chance is to head over to SparkFun's forums where you'll be right at home.

9/19/2010 12:29:24 PM

My senior design was centered around an msp430fx449. I am a fan. What dev tools are you using? I used crossworks compiler and would recommend it for sure. I have also build a couple projects using the Arduino. I would recommend getting your pcb done professionally after you have done all the prototyping.

9/20/2010 12:05:52 AM

Anyone here ever done any IR stuff with microcontrollers?

9/20/2010 12:26:24 AM

^^Presently, I'm using IAR Embedded Workbench. The free version restrictions are higher than the capability of the Launchpad's MCU, so you don't run into any limitations. Once you get it set up, it's unbelievably easy to use. The debugger capabilities are very nice, and I imagine will come in handy once the data structures get more complex.

The first MCU proto system I used was the Arduino, but I wanted something that got a little closer to the chip, so I got I PIC programmer and a couple 16F and 18F chips. I've yet to actually use those, since all my tinkering has been with the MSP lately.

As for the board in the final project, I'll probably use SparkFun's BatchPCB, where I'll be looking at about $20-$30 for the board, including setup charges. The more I look at the cad for just an 8x8 matrix, I don't think a hand-etched board can reliably recreate small enough traces.

9/20/2010 10:36:24 AM

We did some IR stuff with one of them robots for a ECE class, had to like find walls and obsticals.

We used a basicx stamp. Which was pretty all around sweet.

9/20/2010 10:40:03 AM

^ ha

i meant in the context of IO, like remote controls etc...

9/20/2010 10:50:49 AM

TI article on decoding signals with an MSP430
http://focus.ti.com/lit/an/slaa134/slaa134.pdf
Code and examples using a PIC:
http://users.telenet.be/davshomepage/
Good info on RC5 protocol:
http://www.freescale.com/files/microcontrollers/doc/app_note/AN3402.pdf

Now that I'm looking at some of this stuff, I bet you could easily make some kind of pocket sized bluetooth IR blaster that hooked up to an iPhone or android app. Universal cell phone remote.

9/21/2010 11:29:47 AM

These are great and all, but when will they start riding the 64-bit wave of the future?

9/21/2010 11:48:58 AM

i kind of wish i could get back into microcontroller programming. i worked on a project a couple of years ago and enjoyed it a lot more than i thought i would. i learned a lot and the end product ended up working amazingly well. here, you can laugh at my noob questions in a thread i made back then:

message_topic.aspx?topic=500391

[Edited on September 21, 2010 at 6:52 PM. Reason : noob]

9/21/2010 6:52:39 PM

ive been (as in almost two years ago) using a dsPIC for robot stuff. C compiler, and has computation balls for all the math. i currently have a robot limb with working IK, trajectory for stepping, and some basic i/o to make it do stuff. all from scratch. it'll be a hexapod someday. well actually, probably never.

9/21/2010 9:37:44 PM

We used a 68HC11 microcontroller in my mechatronics class; they are cheap and durable. I used a 8051 for my senior design class; it had a ton of features but was pricy. I think the development board we used cost around $200.

9/21/2010 9:58:24 PM

You guys have some pretty heavy duty stuff there. I'm excited over just getting an 8x8 matrix to draw sprites. I spent a couple hours last night working out and breadboarding the circuit, and maybe half an hour figuring out how to drive it properly, but I can now drive an 8x8 pixel display. I'm hoping that going from 1Mhz to 16Mhz, I can refresh fast enough to eliminate the flicker.

9/22/2010 10:10:53 AM

(Past the edit timer)

Ultimately, I plan to drive four of these in a 2x2 grid of modules, using a 16-bit shift register and a TLC5940 LED Driver(http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tlc5940.html). After seeing this, I'm thinking point-to-point wiring may be the way to go versus trying to design and get a custom board fabbed. He's doing three of these matrices with MAX drivers, and it seems like it would be fairly painless to wire them the way he did.
http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Matrix.html

Thoughts?

[Edited on September 22, 2010 at 10:47 AM. Reason : .]

9/22/2010 10:45:41 AM

thats the kind of thing you show your gf and she turns around and walks away.

9/22/2010 10:55:17 PM

Just got one of these. More platforms = more fun?

http://hackaday.com/2010/10/12/arm-prototyping-on-the-cheap-with-stm32-discovery/

Also been soldering on that matrix driver board, and am down to the last few point-to-point connections. Pain. In. The. Ass. But it will be awesome when it's done.

10/18/2010 2:47:41 PM