Adafruit's Trinket
learn.adafruit.com
Adafruit's Trinket
1–10 of 46 posts
Re: Adafruit's Trinket
#2While I like the Arduino movement very much, I don't see what's so special about this.
It's a breakout board for an ATTiny, with some vreg and an usb port on board. So what?
Re: Adafruit's Trinket
#3While I like the Arduino movement very much, I don't see what's so special about this. It's a breakout board for an ATTiny, with some vreg and an usb port on board. So what?
One obvious advantage is that it's cheap enough to use as-is. One of the things that keeps me from caring much about Arduino is that it's too expensive to use for anything but experimentation: if I'm building more than a one-off, I'll always do a custom PCB.
For reasonable volumes that's still probably the best approach, but at $8 a pop this is perfect for throwing together some quick project.
By way of analogy: to me, an Arduino is a breadboard. If I use one at all, it's to play with a first concept, and certainly not for any kind of permanent use. If that's true, then this is kind of like solderable perfboard: not optimal, but good enough for many things.
Re: Adafruit's Trinket
#4Or for $10, you could get the TI MSP430 LaunchPad [1]. You can then pop off the DIP chip and mount it however you want. It is nice since the chips themselves are about $1 or so each (depending on which one you get).
Re: Adafruit's Trinket
#5Looks somewhat inspired by the teensy 2.0 (mini USB -- not micro!, bootloader button). This has a lower price point and an ATTiny instead of atmega32u4. I have a few teensys and find them to be really practical.
Does the ATTiny implement USB or is it bit-banged?
Re: Adafruit's Trinket
#6While I like the Arduino movement very much, I don't see what's so special about this. It's a breakout board for an ATTiny, with some vreg and an usb port on board. So what?
It's attractive because of the convenience it provides.
Re: Adafruit's Trinket
#7Many people don't find this exciting. But I am excited indeed. You know why? Because to program an Atmel Microcontroller, you need a 'programmer' whose selection itself is fairly confusing for newbies (USB/Serial/etc) and costs as much as $20 for a good one. This one instead is just plug and play, and that's awesome :)
Re: Adafruit's Trinket
#8Or for $10, you could get the TI MSP430 LaunchPad [1]. You can then pop off the DIP chip and mount it however you want. It is nice since the chips themselves are about $1 or so each (depending on which one you get). [1] http://www.ti.com/ww/en/launchpad/msp430_head.html
Looks like it's a software implementation [1].
[1] https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Trinket-Gemma-Bootloade...
Re: Adafruit's Trinket
#9While I like the Arduino movement very much, I don't see what's so special about this. It's a breakout board for an ATTiny, with some vreg and an usb port on board. So what?
$8 for an Arduino compatible microcontroller with a battle-tested PCB, all pre-assembled is an amazing deal.
Sure, you could breadboard your own for cheaper, but you wouldn't be saving a whole lot in the scheme of things.
Re: Adafruit's Trinket
#10Or for $10, you could get the TI MSP430 LaunchPad [1]. You can then pop off the DIP chip and mount it however you want. It is nice since the chips themselves are about $1 or so each (depending on which one you get). [1] http://www.ti.com/ww/en/launchpad/msp430_head.html
My experience with the launchpad has been mixed. The chips are definitely aimed at the low power, low requirements side of things; I had a project where the MSP430g2231's inability to clock from an external high-frequency crystal was a dealbreaker. There's also a wider breadth of hobbyist software targeting the AVR.
If you're a hobbyist, it's definitely not worth saving a few bucks if you're only making a few of them and you account for the value of your time. YMMV.