AVR-Chat

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave McLaughlin" <dave_mclaughlin@nerdshack.com>
To: <AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 3:19 AM
Subject: RE: [AVR-Chat] magazine


> Hi Brian,
>
>
>
> I started off with the PIC myself. I chose it because I could buy a cheap
> starter kit and start programming it easily. I then started using it in my
> work place and we purchased an ICE for it. For hobby use I was finding
> debugging a major issue without the ICE and I started to look around for
> something else. We had been using the National Semi COP8 and that had a
> cheap emulator but the cost of the compiler put me off of it. I then
> discovered the AT902313 and I found that I could by a cheapish emulator, 
> the
> ICE200 and it could be used with the larger IC's like the 8515 at the 
> time.
> I then progressed to the Mega devices and bought the JTAG ICE and then
> finally the JTAG ICE Mk II and have never looked back. If you use the AVR
> devices without the ICE, then you will not want to do debugging without 
> one
> after you have. I know a lot of guys who programme without and put in 
> things
> like toggling IO pins to show position of code but when you want to check
> the value of a variable and don't have a STDIO to print to, you will soon
> see what I mean. What I am trying to say is that the AVR has some 
> excellent
> priced emulation tools that cover more devices than the PIC does.

That's not actually true. The $35 PICkit 2 programs and debugs all Microchip 
devcies except the PIC32.

Leon