[chbot] Small Micros with I2C bus

[Michael Pearce]

Main difference is the peripherals, a core is a core it moves data and
adds data.... I switched between Atmel, 8051, 6800 and PIC fairly
easily when I needed in past jobs.
These days I do a  lot of porting from everyone else's micros to a
PIC, for complicated programs (written in 'C') usually takes 2 or 3 of
us a day... then working with customer to verify on their hardware
probably takes a week. Assembly is usually a re-write from scratch.

Also a side note... Atmel and others are currently in court over their
<=8 pin Micro-controllers  - in breach of a patent about external pin
count vs internal data path width
Also applies to 16bit micros in packages <= 16 pins and 32bit Micros
<=32 pins etc.
Two possible results: 1. they have to withdrawl the parts... 2. they
have to pay a lot of money, increasing the price of the parts.

As far as parts go, it will generally be cheaper to purchase from overseas.
For example local stores sell PIC12F6xx parts for over NZ$6 each
Microchip Direct is around US$2 each (NZ$2.45 ea)
This applies to many places, and if you can buy enough then shipping
is easily offset by the lower prices
Also with Digikey - sometimes it is cheaper to buy in US$ and pay the
extra shipping, as they have fixed prices for their NZ catalog which
do not change with the exchange rate.
Just notes from past experience....

Before I moved to the US I was thinking about setting up a component
ordering collective, especially since I was buying a lot of parts from
overseas.

Mike

On Sat, Apr 23, 2011 at 8:07 AM, Paul Davey <plmdvy at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 1:43 AM, jimmy allen <jimmy1248 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I was planning on getting a few AVRs from overseas(enough to make
>> shipping worth while)
>> The ATtiny45 seems to have I2C.
>> So if you are interested just let me know.
>>
>> Jimmy
>>
>>
>> On 4/22/11, Michael Pearce <mike at kiwacan.co.nz> wrote:
>>> If you want the smallest package then you might have to switch to a
>>> Microchip PIC the PIC12F1840 and PIC12F1822 are 8 pin devices with
>>> hardware I2C peripheral... about as small as you will get until they
>>> release a PIC10F (6 pin) with one.
>>>
>>> You can sample or buy from http://www.microchipdirect.com  (Cheapest)
>>> Should also be available from Digikey, Farnell (Now Element14), RS, Mouser,
>>> etc.
>>> SICOM might be able to order them in for you as well.. but will of
>>> coarse add their 100%+ margin.
>>>
>>> I am of course bias toward the PIC... especially since I now work for
>>> Microchip in Arizona.
>>>
>>> Mike
>
> <snip>
>
> I forgot about that, I would be interested in that thanks jimmy.
>
> I have a PIC ICSP programmer but I have not really done enough
> programming with PICs to be comfortable using them.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chchrobotics mailing list Chchrobotics at lists.linuxnut.co.nz
> http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/chchrobotics
> Mail Archives: http://lists.ourshack.com/pipermail/chchrobotics/
> Web site: http://kiwibots.org
> Meeting Time and Location uncertain while Science Alive is out of action.
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line to reflect new content.
>