Fifty cent microcontroller

[Simon Quellen Field]

If you don't like John's surface mount PIC suggestion, you can get a 14 pin DIP

microcontroller that is easier to solder, and fits in your solderless breadboard

for development and debugging. It is a 16 bit chip, running at 16 megahertz,

which is overkill for your application, but the nice part is that the development

system for it costs $4.30, and comes with two chips, plugs into a USB port, and

is very easy to use. I bought five of the development systems last week, and

even with shipping I was only out $25.

And, sometimes having a bunch of extra pins is nice for things like debugging,

extra 10 bit A/D converter pins, maybe a cheap display, or whatever.

Oh, and the chip itself has an integrated temperature sensor, and a calibrated

internal oscillator, so you can save some more on external parts.

But it is 11 cents over budget at $0.61 in single unit quantities.

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On Sun, Apr 22, 2012 at 12:40 PM, John Griessen <jo...@industromatic.com> wrote:

On 04/22/2012 02:16 PM, Andreas Sturm wrote:

A microchip for 0.5$ ??? Where do you get it from? China? US?

US   http://search.digikey.com/us/en/products/PIC10F204T-I%2FOT/PIC10F204T-I%2FOTCT-ND/718268

A relaise, that can stand 1A is not as cheap as you said, at least in my country. I looked for the cheapest components.

Use FETs.  They handle that level of power if switched quickly by the 50 cent micro and cost $0.25.

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[John Griessen]

On 04/22/2012 06:30 PM, Simon Quellen Field wrote:
> But it is 11 cents over budget at $0.61 in single unit quantities.

Is that the price even in the large DIP package? Wow! What a deal.
and low low power too. (I use MSP430s in a sensor network product)

John

[Marc Dusseiller]

good morning my dear amateur biologists....

we have been developing some workshop ideas around the attiny13 and attiny85. call it a 2$ microchip.

and i have been specifically working on some simple pcbs for it, also with the aim to be used in diybio labs, add temperature sensors, control relais, light and stuff.

see some first info here:

http://wiki.sgmk-ssam.ch/index.php/Hands_On_AVR

luckily the folks over at MIT hitech / lotech also have been working on it, and made a library, so one can programm these little 8pin DIL chips using the arduino 1.0 language and framework:

http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=1695

good luck and one or two burning incubators shouldnt be the worst that can happen....

best,

marc

[Simon Quellen Field]

I love the ATTiny85. If you buy 100 at a time, they are only 72 cents each.

Like the MSP430, they are available in PDIP form so you can use a solderless

breadboard, and they also have the internal oscillator so you don't need a crystal.

Another advantage for small boards is the 8 pin form factor, although that makes

an 8 input A/D converter impossible.

The reason I might suggest the MSP430 for your application, however, is the cost

of getting started. The STK500 you would want to program the ATTiny85 is $82.16

instead of the $4.30 for the equivalent for the MSP430.

The fact that the MSP430 is ultra low power, is a 16 bit processor, and has more

input and output pins is not an issue for your design. But the ATTiny85 might have

a lot more free software examples for you to use, since it has been around longer.

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[Neal Singer]

You don't need an STK500 to program an ATtiny85 (or any AVR, for that
matter)--an AVRISP Mk. II ($30 from digi-key) or even an arduino are
able flash them with your code.

n

[John Griessen]

On 04/23/2012 11:02 AM, Simon Quellen Field wrote:
> I love the ATTiny85 <http://search.digikey.com/us/en/products/ATTINY85-20PU/ATTINY85-20PU-ND/735469>. If you buy 100 at a time,

[Simon Quellen Field]

Did you have a question or a comment?

All I see is the quote.

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[Simon Quellen Field]

By the way, I really do recommend buying microcontrollers 100 at a time.

They take up little room, and you always have one ready when an idea hits

you. And, of course, if you are selling cheap incubators, it just makes sense.

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[Jonathan BISSON]

Simon Quellen Field <sfi...@scitoys.com> writes:
> The reason I might suggest the MSP430 for your application, however, is the
> cost
> of getting started. The

> STK500<http://search.digikey.com/us/en/cat/programmers-development-systems/general-embedded-dev-boards-and-kits-mcu-dsp-fpga-cpld/2621773?k=stk500>you

> would want to program the ATTiny85 is $82.16

You can program them with an arduino or this kind of cards too:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11801

But MSP430 may be better for your application (low-power, performance,
I/O)…