I got signed-up for samples from Atmel by simply filling out their form on the Atmel site. I found that they have EEproms, and most of the micro-controller chips available.
I am looking for interesting things to try such as the ATTiny line of chips. Possibly the SAM chips but, I am not sure if SAM chips are available or if I could figure out how to use those.
What EEprom, memory, or micro-controller do you think you would try if you got to choose?
Yes it is available! We need to figure out if we can get a PCB made that would work with that! 4 versions of the ATmega128RFA1.
IC AVR MCU 2.4GHZ XCEIVER 64QFN
2 ATF1508ASV-15AU100 IC CPLD 128 MACRO 15NS 100TQFP
2 ATF1508AS-7AX100 IC CPLD 7NS 100TQFP
I have not configured them yet but I have an idea for two projects with CPLDs and I am going to use these.
Are those basically huge I/O expander chips?
Well, they could be. They are programmable logic with a complexity between older PAL/GAL and newer FPGA chips. So you can design them to be whatever you want, within some limitations, within a certain number of gates. If you wanted them to be shift registers they could certainly do that, or ALUs, or decode/encode logic. My idea is to make them counters that monitor one or more rotary encoders so the microcontroller does not have to and to have multiple channels. But I will probably not get to it for several weeks, I am busy finishing up several projects right now.
I made a part request today of 4 chips. I answered all questions as truthfully as possible. I did not claim to be a business, and even stated I was going to use the chips for hobby use\development.
I will follow up as results come in.
Chips ordered,
Atmega 2560 ...... curious if I can solder this one.
Atmega 1284 SMT .... I want to try 20Mhz and I have one PCB left over to solder this to.
ATtiny 84 ..... I have never used this one before.
ATmega128RFA1, IC AVR MCU 2.4GHZ XCEIVER 64QFN .........WIFy chip, I hope I can make this work, it would be awesome!
cyclegadget:
I made a part request today of 4 chips. I answered all questions as truthfully as possible. I did not claim to be a business, and even stated I was going to use the chips for hobby use\development.
I will follow up as results come in.
Chips ordered,
Atmega 2560 ...... curious if I can solder this one.
Atmega 1284 SMT .... I want to try 20Mhz and I have one PCB left over to solder this to.
ATtiny 84 ..... I have never used this one before.
ATmega128RFA1, IC AVR MCU 2.4GHZ XCEIVER 64QFN .........WIFy chip, I hope I can make this work, it would be awesome!
Anyone can solder an ATMega2560 if you go ahead and buy one of the Schmartboard adapters. Too bad they cost $10 each. I posted about it here and most everyone has a better idea than spend $10 but it does work, it worked for me just fine:
2 ATF1508ASV-15AU100 IC CPLD 128 MACRO 15NS 100TQFP
2 ATF1508AS-7AX100 IC CPLD 7NS 100TQFP
I looked into the chips you mentioned, I think they are interesting but, well above my ability at this point. I hope to here how you do with the chips and what it takes to work with them.
This one so that I can implement or atleast experiment with Zigbee protocol and 802.15.4 Ipv6 6LowPan standard, I'm basically looking to develop very small internet connected object's that also save a lot of power and Ipv6 does the same and much more like a lot of addressing capacity.
I found a Sparkfun evaluation board that has Eagle files! I think the board could use a SD card slot for starters but, it is nice that there is a footprint already made for the chip!
I received all my chips around Sept.28th, all neatly packed in their silver bags. Free shipping and it took about a week to get to my house.
Last night, I got the ATtiny84 to run the "blink" and "fade" examples using the MIT code and Arduino as ISP! The 84 is a neat little chip! Only extra components I used for the two sketches were a resistor and LED! Talk about minimal Arduino!
My other chips will need boards for them which, I hope to come up with for fall projects and experimentation.
Conclusion, Atmel made me very happy by providing me with the samples with a minimum amount of hassle.