There are much more powerful CPUs that Atmel makes, including such beasties as the ATmega1281 series. For the surface-mount Arduino BT, the difference in prices on Digi-Key between the ATmega168 and the ATmega1281 are basically $0.61. (Granted, it looks like you have to buy quantities in the 100s to order the DIP packaging, but still.)
Not that I'm saying the Arduinos are crap: far from it. I'm loving messing around with them. I'm learning all kinds of stuff and the Arduinos have inspired me to pick up a set of devkits from Atmel.
Still, it was pretty funny when I learned that the onboard processor for the WT11 on the Arduino BT were more powerful, with more flash RAM, than the Atmel controller on them.
Love all the devices regardless folks. Cool stuff.
Not that I'm saying the Arduinos are crap: far from it.
Very far from it, in fact, so far from it I think this is the first time I've ever seen the words "crap" and "arduino" in the same sentence.
I went through a lot of micro's before finding Arduino, I have a stack of them gathering dust in the office.
Arduino's something people start with, from receipt of Arduino, installation of the IDE and programming a LED sequence, can be done in well under an hour by a complete newbie.
Once people have max'd out their Arduino's, then some go on to build shields or create variations of Arduino to expand its capabilities.
So its important to understand the product life cycle before drawing any conclusions about the Arduino based on its obvious specifications, its a great device, and some people go on to make fortunes because of what the Arduino has given them the ability to accomplish without the need to fund impossibly expensive custom controller solutions.
The power of Arduino is in the programs people create for it to execute, and because of the IDE's ease of use, its potential is limited only by the imagination of ordinary folk, so its shelf life is practically indefinable. And thats not something many micro's can boast.
the ATmega1281 series. For the surface-mount Arduino BT, the difference in prices on Digi-Key between the ATmega168 and the ATmega1281 are basically $0.61. (Granted, it looks like you have to buy quantities in the 100s to order the DIP packaging, but still.)
Huh? The 1281 is about $9.50 (100s at digikey), compared to $2.39 for 168. And the 1281 doesn't seem to have a DIP package. Were you looking at some other chip?
I don't see a 1280 in DIP, but there's no reason Arduino's bigger brother has to use a DIP MCU. The whole board can be used as a controller easily enough, so I don't see why the Arduino team should limit themselves that way.
sanguino does look pretty nice, I've been keeping it in mind. The part that impressed me is that it seems fully compatible with the Arduino software, just with the IO lines going higher.
A 1280 based board could easily have 60 IO lines and will have much more memory than the sanguino.
i haven't done any of my own code yet on my sanguinos, but i did upload some test sketches it came with under "examples:sanguino-testers", works perfectly out of the box.
Can you clarify? The 1280 and 1281 are 64 and 100 pin surface mount chips. Do you mean the ATMega 128?
David
The ATMEGA128 is also a surface mount chip. If you look at the most recent developments, all of them are based on SMD chips. To avoid whole development board replacements in case of fried atmegas, the only option is to separate the whole system in smaller boards... FTDI in one board (you can use ethernet, bluetooth, xbee, etc) and name it the communication board, and then the atmega with the headers in another board named the main board. In case of failure, you can just replace the main board.
Have you seen a 100 pin DIP package lately? Well, ever for that matter! So you do a break-out board, like http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=36 which takes up most of the Arduino board area! And you still have to put some pin strips, say $3 worth on it, oh, and you have to get the ATmega128/1280 or whatever onto the board.
Of course there are many ways to remove SMD devices, and soldering them isn't difficult - this: http://chipquik.com/store/prod_smd1.htm is one way to get the chips off.
The simple reality is this, if we want newer chips we are going to have to go to SMD packages. Basic 'duinos using things like the ATmega168, ATmega328P and the Sanquino using the ATmega644P will serve one market segment. Other users will want bigger engines and they will need to be happy using TQFP and the likes.
But then I would also ask, if you take a little care in handling your chips and interfacing, how many chips do you "fritz" anyway? I only get dead chips when I put them in backwards, and I have even done that with SMTs. Apart from that? I cannot remember the last one.
sanguino does look pretty nice, I've been keeping it in mind. The part that impressed me is that it seems fully compatible with the Arduino software, just with the IO lines going higher.
A 1280 based board could easily have 60 IO lines and will have much more memory than the sanguino.
Update on my sanguinos. I've started experimenting with my own code now. Once you setup the core per the website's instructions the arduino code is the same as you said. digitalWrite(0, low) writes a low to digital pin 0. One difference though is if you use direct port access such as "PORTB = PORTB | 1" you'll want to check the datasheet. The port registers, etc, don't map to the same pins as the ATMEGA168.
We're working on a board based on the ATmega1280. It should be ready in the next couple of months.
Hi,
I'm working with Meshnetics's Zigbit and want to port the Arduino software to the atmega1281 that's in it. How should I do ? From what I understand, I basically have to remap the pins from the cores/ directory, but some directions would be appreciated.
The result could be a Arduino mini with 802.15.4 and/or zigbee support in a real small package, for less than $25.
Regards,
Charles
(yes, I'm new to the forum, and yes, I will introduce myself later)
