[time-nuts] Follow-up question re: microcontroller families

Charles P. Steinmetz charles_steinmetz at lavabit.com
Tue May 28 15:25:13 EDT 2013


I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has 
contributed so much wisdom on this and the other two microcontroller 
threads.  The last time I personally designed with uCs was 25+ years 
ago.  Much has changed, and you have given me lots to think about!

Of course, there was no unanimity in the suggestions, but everyone 
did a very nice job of telling it as they see it, without any 
religious fervor.  I also appreciate the in-depth discussion of 
development environments and operating systems, as well as hardware 
capabilities.

Ultimately, it seems likely that I will end up choosing two or three 
uCs to learn, maybe from the same family, maybe not.  It probably 
makes the most sense to start at the bottom, with an anticipatory eye 
toward which midrange uC I will take up next.  I expect it will be 
quite some time before I need a third part ("very fancy" uC).  At 
this point, I seem to be favoring parts with flash that support an 
RTOS, can be removed from the development board and installed into 
the system board, and have a good, low-cost development platform (so, 
I appear to have narrowed it down to only several thousand different parts...).

Again, thank you all for your comments.  I am still at the foothills 
of the learning curve, but I know much, much more than I did a week ago.

Finally, please do not take this message as a sign to abandon these 
threads, if there is more worthwhile to say.

Thanks again to all,

Charles









More information about the time-nuts mailing list