AVR-Chat

At 12:00 AM 1/13/2004 -0500, Andromeda_at_Mindspring.com wrote:

>Hello,
>    Are crystal oscillators as simple to use as crystals with loading caps?  I am having a devil of a time matching crystals with the right loading capacitors, and I thought switching to crystal oscillators might make this part of my life easier.
> 
>I ordered crystals from Digi-Key that say 20pf load, and when I hooked one up with a 20pf load on each pin, it simply didn't work.
> 
>Do you think crystal oscillators might solve this problem?

Have a look here, and see what you think.
http://www.dvanhorn.org/Micros/All/Crystals.php

I see no reason you should have problems if you use proper xtals, caps, and circuit layout. 

Somewhere I have the circuit I pulled out of a canned oscillator.
Two NPN transistors, and a few R's and C's. 
No magic. :)