LED strips

Other Hardware 3rd Party Boards
1

Hello there!

I'm about to start a new job in company that is making illuminated advertising and furniture components with LED lighting. So far they were using PIC16f(something). The problem is that I don't like PIC microcontrollers, they are harder to program compared to Atmel's products.

I want to replace the PIC microcontroller with some Atmel. I successfully programed Attiny45 with my Arduino Uno. I'm asking if it is possible to program some other Atmel microcontroller (with more pins) with the Arduino? And can you help me choose some Atmel microcontroller to replace the PIC. It needs to be with atleast 8 digital I/O. It just needs to make some light effects (to make the strips blink in different patterns).

Sorry for my English.

2

The UNO contains a ATmega328. Would that chip not be suitable?

You already know how many I/O pins it has (well, actually it has a couple more on the SMD version). And you can prototype using the UNO/ Nano/ Pro Mini.

3

The extras are analog inputs only tho.

You might look at ATTiny 24/44/84 or Attiny 2313 for more IO than 25/45/85, but less then Atmega 48/48/168/328.

4

CrossRoads:
The extras are analog inputs only tho.

I was just being completely pedantic - in case anyone else might be.

However, inputs as they say, are inputs and if you need analog inputs at all, you can use those and leave others free as digital I/O.

5

Most of those LED strips use SPI, so they only need about 3 data lines, MOSI, SCK, SS.

6

Paul _B, I can use the Arduino'с chip but it is more expensive than the Attiny series. The LED strip controller must be as cheap as possible.

The chips that CrossRoads suggested are great, I think. I'm starting my new job tomorrow, and I'll check the exact PIC microcontroller then.

I have one more question. Is there any other Arduino IDE like IDE that can program PIC microcontrollers?

7

There is Pinguino, but I'm not sure how much attention its gotten recently.

8

Stan_be:
I have one more question. Is there any other Arduino IDE like IDE that can program PIC microcontrollers?

MPIDE
UECIDE

9

These IDEs are for arduino and chipKit. I'm asking about IDE that can make .hex files for pic16fxxx(for example). Is it possible with these IDEs you mentioned?

10

Stan_be:
These IDEs are for arduino and chipKit. I'm asking about IDE that can make .hex files for pic16fxxx(for example). Is it possible with these IDEs you mentioned?

Hmm, I do not recall seeing any mention of specific models of PIC like the pic16f series in your request but AFAIK the IDE's do not support them. The Pinguino IDE supports the pic18f series but I had always programmed pic's in assembler using the microchip IDE.