ARMing a Breadboard – Everyone Should Program an ARM • Hacker News Board

Re: ARMing a Breadboard – Everyone Should Program an ARM

#21

Post by togusa » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 3:21 PM UTC

MissingGear wrote: post #14

An an electronics hobbyist wannabe, may I please have the links for parts / assembling the 5v to 3.3v circuit needed to power this thing ?

If you've got a breadboard, just grab one of these and plug it into it.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/MB102-Breadboard-Power-Supply...

Re: ARMing a Breadboard – Everyone Should Program an ARM

#22

Post by togusa » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 3:23 PM UTC

ju-st wrote: post #19

You can buy Arduinos on Aliexpress for USD1.80[1] and there are no comparable offers for ARM boards. [1] aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-Nano-3-0-Controller-Board-Compatible-with-Arduino-Nano-CH340-USB-Driver/2021663360.html

I bought 5 Arduino Uno R3 clones for $2.39 a piece off AliExpress and they were pretty good apart from shitty soldering on the headers.

They fill the "can't be bothered to read the 500 page long datasheet" niche for me nicely. I remember having to get along with datasheets and simple programmers and writing PIC assembly back in the 1990s and I'm glad that time is gone.

Re: ARMing a Breadboard – Everyone Should Program an ARM

#23

Post by togusa » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 3:28 PM UTC

ajross wrote: post #7

snarfy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't have the cable, an arduino uno also works as a usb to serial adapter. https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoToBreadboard To make 3.3V out of 5V you can use a voltage regulator.

If you want to do anything even semi-reliable with this thing you'll want a regulator on the board anyway. Wall warts are notoriously noisy.

This. New switch mode ones are crappy, really crappy!

I have a stash of old linear ones that aren't fortunately. Worth their weight in gold.

Re: ARMing a Breadboard – Everyone Should Program an ARM

#24

Post by nascentmind » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 3:28 PM UTC

There are very good TI Cortex M3 and M4 Tiva Launchpad boards (for $12.99) and for the ultra low power applications the MSP432 cortex M4 launchpad boards (for $12.99) with very good documentation and support.

Re: ARMing a Breadboard – Everyone Should Program an ARM

#25

Post by kefka » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 3:33 PM UTC

ju-st wrote: post #19

You can buy Arduinos on Aliexpress for USD1.80[1] and there are no comparable offers for ARM boards. [1] aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-Nano-3-0-Controller-Board-Compatible-with-Arduino-Nano-CH340-USB-Driver/2021663360.html

That's not true. They are just hidden.

Stm8, $1.28 http://m.aliexpress.com/item/32351992629.html

Stm32, $3.06 http://m.aliexpress.com/item/1568685935.html

Edit: my phone did a stupid.

Re: ARMing a Breadboard – Everyone Should Program an ARM

#26

Post by analog31 » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 3:36 PM UTC

But perhaps the largest hurdle is that most of the chips are surface mount devices.

This used to be a deterrent for me, but these days I just whip out my ExpressPCB and make a breakout board for the part that I'm interested in playing with. The price is really manageable. Typically my breakout board includes a few basic goodies such as decoupling caps, and a 3.3 V regulator.

But I appreciate the simplicity of being able to just breadboard something.

One reason that this works so well is the chip has a built-in serial bootloader.

That's a nice touch.

Re: ARMing a Breadboard – Everyone Should Program an ARM

#27

Post by the-dude » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 3:37 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #13

I too am often surprised at how often people reach for an Atmel 8 bit AVR chip rather than an ARM. It is a testament to the momentum that Atmel built, the avr-freaks community and the amazing cost effectiveness of it all. But now we're seeing ARM chips with built in clocks, and fewer base components required and I think the end of that AVR dominance is on the horizon. And that is why Dialog is buying Atmel[1]. Gettin…

With a development board: yes. But if you want to do hack something on a breadboard or make your own PCB it is really convenient to have THD ( through hole device ).

The ARM used in the article is the only TDH available AFAIK.

Re: ARMing a Breadboard – Everyone Should Program an ARM

#28

Post by d9fb698e010974b » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 3:38 PM UTC

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #10

If you're interested in low-level code (assembly, JITs, Forth, etc.), note that official documentation for the ARM ISA has considerable encumbrance. It's not like most architectures where you just go to the manufacturer's website and download a PDF of the programming manual; ARM makes you register an account and agree to a rather restrictive clickwrap license (something to the effect of "you're only allowed to use th…

That shouldn't encumber most people though. How many people who don't already know that have the skills to seriously compete with ARM? Probably none.

Re: ARMing a Breadboard – Everyone Should Program an ARM

#29

Post by vvanders » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 3:43 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #13

I too am often surprised at how often people reach for an Atmel 8 bit AVR chip rather than an ARM. It is a testament to the momentum that Atmel built, the avr-freaks community and the amazing cost effectiveness of it all. But now we're seeing ARM chips with built in clocks, and fewer base components required and I think the end of that AVR dominance is on the horizon. And that is why Dialog is buying Atmel[1]. Gettin…

Avr devtools are also fantastic since they licensed the Visual Studio shell.

Re: ARMing a Breadboard – Everyone Should Program an ARM

#30

Post by d9fb698e010974b » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 3:44 PM UTC

This is really cool. One cautionary thing though. I think that because of breadboard capacitance if you try any sort of high frequency stuff on the breadboard (like >= 10MHz) you'll get all sorts of weird effects. (This is just a breadboard problem that occurs at high frequencies, not an ARM problem).

I'm just an amateur in this area, so if someone who is more knowledgeable could confirm or deny with I wrote above that would be great.