KludgeGuru’s EEBlog

I finally decided which programmer/debugger to go with.  It is the AVR JTAGICE mkII clone made by www.avrvi.com.  I ordered it from an E-Bay store; which is in the United States.  It ended up costing $160 with shipping which was more then I wanted to spend but after much debate I decided that I didn’t want to be limited the micro controller devices I can use.  I also would like to play with one of the 32-bit Atmel devices in the future and wanted a programmer that would support it.

Here are some pictures from the kit:

The box with Chinese writing

AVR JTAGICE mkII Clone

Interface Connectors & Switch

AVRVI CD-ROM

USB Cable

Spare 10pin IDC Cable

10pin ISP Cable

6pin ISP Cable

Octopus Cable

I don’t know how it works yet…I actually don’t have any microprocessors to test it with.  I have an Atmel Butterfly board coming but it hasn’t arrived yet.

To see a list of other AVR programmer/debuggers check out my AVR Programmer/Debugger post.

EDIT:  See my review here:  AVR JTAGICE mkII clone – Review

There are a lot of microcontroller options out there.  I’ve only used a couple families of microcontrollers, PIC from www.microchip.com and a basic stamp from www.parallax.com.  PIC works great for my projects at work but for my home projects I think I want to try something different.  I would also like to have experience with a different microcontroller to add to my skill set.

I’ve come up with a short list of requirements for my home hobby MCU family.

• Low cost development tools.  I’m not rich so I need to find a MCU family that has low cost or free development tools.  I could use the PIC development tools that I use at work but as I mentioned before I want to try something different.
• Cheap or Free C Compiler.  I don’t want to program in Assembly.
• Low cost in-circuit debugger.  My code never works the first time so I need to be able to step through the code to find out what I did wrong.
• Through-hole DIP packages.  I would like the MCUs to be available in through-hole packages so I can easily make prototype boards without having to layout a PCB, cause that costs money.
• Inexpensive development board so I can tinker with a circuit that is pre-built.
• The actual chips need to be inexpensive and widely available so I don’t have to order them from an exotic vendor and wait weeks for delivery.
• On board peripherals such as USART, USB, I2C, Timers, A/D Converters and Pulse Width Modulators.

Looking back at my list, the main factor seems to be cost.

After much searching and reading about the different MCUs available today it seems as if the Microchip PIC and the Atmel AVR are the top two for hobbyists.  They both seem to meet most of my above requirements but the Atmel AVRs seem to have more free development tools such as compilers.

I found this great guide to different types of microcontroller families for beginners written by somebody named Sam.

Beginners Guide to Microcontrollers

So my choice for a microcontroller family for my home projects is the Atmel AVR.

I have a coworker that really gets into the Halloween Spirit.  He really decks out his house and being an Electronic Engineer he does some really cool things.  One thing he has is when the kids ring the door bell two ghouls raise up from the sides with their arms out stretched towards the kids.  Then a lid of a coffin behind them starts to bang and then open.  Another ghouls raises up out of the coffin again with his arms outstretched towards the kids.  Then the front door opens with a creeek and a fourth ghoul zooms down the stairs into the door way.  It looks really cool and he has really neat sound effects with stobe lights and a couple jacob ladders.

I showed my wife the video and she said “Why can’t you do something like that?”  I’ve always wanted to get more into Halloween but I’ve never really been inspired.  Another thing my coworker has is a guy that pops out of a garbage can and talks to the kids like one of those talking trees you may have seen in the mall.  This really got me thinking and I started doing some searching online and found alot of people do talking skulls.  So I decided a talking skull would make a good first edition to my Halloween Decorations.

I found a ton of information online from people who have done this.  One of my favorite videos I’ve seen is made by a guy named Frosty Don at www.halloweenforum.com.

I need to do something different though.  I like the idea of having it interactive so the kids can talk to it instead of just a pre-recorded script.  So I’ve come up with the idea of controlling the 3-axis skull with a Playstation 2 controller.  The playstation 2 controller has two analog sticks that I think will work pretty well to control the skull.

I will also need a circuit that will change my voice into server movements.  www.scary-terry.com has a neat audio servo driver that will do this.  I will probably build the circuit myself so I can tweak it how I want.

My voice isn’t very scary so another thing I will need is a voice changer circuit so when I talk into the microphone my voice will be changed into a scary monster voice.  I’ve found a voice modulator chip that looks as if it will work great.  I’ll have to see if I can get my hands on one to try it out.  It is made by Holtek the part number is HT8950.

Well that’s my basic idea for the 3-Axis Talking Skull project.  There will be more to come.