| ??? 01/23/06 13:32 Read: times |
#108080 - starting Responding to: ???'s previous message |
Alexander Finch said:
I'm a student who has taken a project that's possibly overly ambitious. Then the first thing to do is to discuss this with your tutors! What course are you studying? What level are you at? What is the project? The first problem is I can't find it for sale, no one seems to stock the 8051/2. I'm guessing that they're known differently by retailers - is this right? Is there a popular model of either I can look up (I'm in the UK, but anything would help)? These days, "8051" is used rather generically as a name for the architecture - so yes, individual manufacturers will have their own names for their specific products based on this architecture! What is your budget? The Silicon Labs development boards are about 100 quid from Farnell - that should give you everything you need. Alternatively, there's the Keil MCB900 for about fifty quid from Hitex in Warwick. Maxim/Dallas will give you 1 or 2 samples free. There's often stuff on ebay... Secondly, when I get one, how do I interface it with my PC to download a program to it? That will depend on what chip you get, and what tools you use with it... I previous assumed you got a programming board, burnt the program, then stuck it into the application. That would've have been the standard procedure 10-15 years ago. These days, you load the program directly into the chip in-situ. One thing I hear is that some models come with RS232 support. I take it this means I can solder my microcontroller onto the final PCB and build myself an RS232 interface directly onto my application? Yes! |
