where should I be looking? Microcontroller/processor / Electronic hobby

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David Manegold's Avatar (by Gravatar)David Manegold posted on
October 21, 2008, 1:03 pm
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Hello, I'm looking to expand on my interests in robotics and I'm looking for
some help getting started finding places to read up and get some preliminary
purchases.  I have a very light background from undergrad in robotic
naviagation.  (We used a Rabbit BL2600 processor with A/D stuff, etc)  But
I'm looking at trying to set up my own hobby bench and I'm stuck finding the
right microprocessor or microcontroller to buy.  Bassically 3 questions

1) Where are the good blogs/ websites / magizines to read up on robotics and
control?

2) Does anyone have any recommendations for good boards to start with.  I'm
looking for something general purpose that has a couple of A/D ports, and
isn't enormous, and that also doesn't consume TOO much power.  Something
that can be used to do basic control on the bench, but could also be
incorporated into small on-board robotic navigation stuff later. (My only
experience thusfar is on the Rabbit BL 2600) Needs to be programmed in
either C or C++.

3) Are there any surplus stores for other electronic stuff - waveform
generators / Oscilloscopes/ etc? I'd like to get some basic (used) cheap
stuff to get going.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks - David




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Rich Webb's Avatar (by Gravatar)Rich Webb posted on
October 21, 2008, 2:09 pm
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Re: where should I be looking? Microcontroller/processor / Electronic hobby

On Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:03:13 -0400, "David Manegold"


"Circuit Cellar" and "Nuts & Volts" and the companion magazine "Servo"
http://www.circuitcellar.com/
http://www.nutsvolts.com/
http://www.servomagazine.com/


Sparkfun is a good place to start for general dev boards. There are lots
of others out there, of course, but they have a pretty representative
selection of most flavors at good prices. The boards are listed under
their "Development Tools" category.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php

My own preference is for Atmel AVRs as 8-bitters, TI's MSP430s for 16s,
and NXP's LCP2000-series ARM7 32-bits, depending on how much umph is
needed.

I generally use Imagecraft's compilers for all of these. Good value and
quality and, since I also use the compilers professionally, no
complications about L/GPL licensing. http://www.imagecraft.com/


Mostly new:
http://www.web-tronics.com/
http://www.tequipment.net/
http://www.saelig.com/

New and refurbished:
http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/
http://www.testequipmentconnection.com/
http://www.globaltestsupply.com/

--
Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA

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David Manegold's Avatar (by Gravatar)David Manegold posted on
October 22, 2008, 10:31 am
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Re: where should I be looking? Microcontroller/processor / Electronic hobby

Thanks Rich - this is great help
   -David



Too_Many_Tools's Avatar (by Gravatar)Too_Many_Tools posted on
October 23, 2008, 11:34 pm
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Re: where should I be looking? Microcontroller/processor / Electronic hobby


.com/

Any suggestions for surplus parts...mechanical and electronic?

Thanks

Rich Webb's Avatar (by Gravatar)Rich Webb posted on
October 24, 2008, 8:36 am
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Re: where should I be looking? Microcontroller/processor / Electronic hobby

On Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:34:02 -0700 (PDT), Too_Many_Tools

Sure; these are the ones that I've used but there are many others.
Not necessarily surplus, a few are hobby/enthusiast targeted and others
carry specialized tools, parts, or equipment that may be of interest or
hard to find.

http://www.allelectronics.com/
http://www.bgmicro.com/
http://www.web-tronics.com/
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/
http://www.futurlec.com/index.shtml
http://www.hobbyengineering.com/
http://www.howardelectronics.com/
http://www.mcmaster.com/
http://www.micromark.com/
http://www.mpja.com/
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/
http://www.saelig.com/
http://www.solarbotics.com/
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php
http://www.starkelectronic.com/
http://www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/
http://www.surplusshed.com/
http://www.usdigital.com/

Have fun!

--
Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA

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Don McKenzie's Avatar (by Gravatar)Don McKenzie posted on
October 21, 2008, 4:08 pm
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Re: where should I be looking? Microcontroller/processor / Electronic hobby



A bit dated now, but this should help:
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/dontronics-newbies-start-here.html

Cheers Don...



--
Don McKenzie

Site Map:            http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap
E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/email

http://www.dontronics-shop.com/super4-usb-relay-module.html
http://www.wizard-from-oz.com  1000's of electronic items

John F. Eldredge's Avatar (by Gravatar)John F. Eldredge posted on
October 27, 2008, 9:53 pm
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Re: where should I be looking? Microcontroller/processor / Electronic hobby



One line of controller boards to look into are the various Arduino and
Freeduino boards.  I recently bought a batch of Bare Bones Boards from
the Modern Device Company, http://www.moderndevice.com/ , although I have
been too busy to have time to assemble them as yet.  The Bare Bones Board
is based on the Atmega168 processor, with the following specifications:


They are available for as low as $10 each in quantity.  As far as the
test equipment is concerned, a friend of mine who has a small computer
consulting business bought quite a bit of used test equipment on EBay
recently, for about 10% of what the original cost would have been.  
Apparently, a failed dot-com was being liquidated.

--
John F. Eldredge -- john@jfeldredge.com
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

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