AVR-Chat

Hi,

A newbie to this forum, I am starting a project that uses the
ATmega3290 and was hoping this group might have some posting about
using this micro-controller. But a quick search of the messages found
only two hits and both were about library upgrades to include the
3290. New to this family, are there other forum more specific for 3290
developers?

I checked the Atmel web site and didn't find a developer's forum.
Google searches have been disappointed too. I did find
www.avrfreaks.net and though interesting, I'm not sure about them.  In
contrast, the TI MSP430 group is active and has been fairly helpful in
my past projects.

I reviewed the ATmega3290 datasheet and it looks to be an impressive
chip. The large RAM, FLASH and the EEPROM storage look promising. But
my experience has been that an active development community often
helps with obscure features, which is why I'm here.

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

At 09:37 PM 5/09/2008, you wrote:
>New to this family, are there other forum more specific for 3290
>developers?

What would be that different to this chip from other Atmel chip
that would warrant a forum just for it? For instance from the well
used Mega169?

>I did find www.avrfreaks.net and though interesting, I'm not sure 
>about them.  In
>contrast, the TI MSP430 group is active and has been fairly helpful in
>my past projects.

Unfortunately a lot of THEM are here too, so you are starting off on the wrong
foot. :-)

I don't think there would have been too many people that are prepared
to do THEIR OWN WORK and RESEARCH that have not been helped on the
avrfreaks.net forum. I have been there for almost 9 years now.

>But my experience has been that an active development community often
>helps with obscure features, which is why I'm here.

I don't see ANY "obscure features" with that chip, even though I never used
it or it's predecessor the Mega169.

Regards

John Samperi

********************************************************
Ampertronics Pty. Ltd.
11 Brokenwood Place Baulkham Hills, NSW 2153 AUSTRALIA
Tel. (02) 9674-6495       Fax (02) 9674-8745
Website  http://www.ampertronics.com.au
*Electronic Design * Custom Products * Contract Assembly
********************************************************

Ditto with respect to both AVRFreaks and the Mega3290.

I did find the forum name to be a bit of a hurdle to get over, with  
overtones of hackerdom an all. But there are both hobby people and  
professional engineers there. It gets slightly wild at times (compiler  
wars, c vs asm vs anything obscure you can think of).

I have done some with MSP430 in past lives. I found it a LOT harder to  
deal with than the AVRs. They also did a bit more (more timer modes,  
more interrupt options, etc). In the end, however, that stuff made it  
harder to understand rather than more useful, for me.

Another factor is that there is a LOT of commonality between the AVR  
devices. Even between the Megas and the Tinys. There is SOME break in  
that with the new "XMegas" (any day, now, for almost a year). There  
are also the AVR32s which are a major break from the Megas and fall  
somewhere between Mega and ARM in functionality. There has been some  
evolution, with things like pin toggling on new devices. But that  
stuff is not hard to deal with.

Best wishes and welcome aboard,
Jim Wagner
Oregon Research Electronics

On Sep 5, 2008, at 3:45 PM, John Samperi wrote:

> At 09:37 PM 5/09/2008, you wrote:
> >New to this family, are there other forum more specific for 3290
> >developers?
>
> What would be that different to this chip from other Atmel chip
> that would warrant a forum just for it? For instance from the well
> used Mega169?
>
> >I did find www.avrfreaks.net and though interesting, I'm not sure
> >about them. In
> >contrast, the TI MSP430 group is active and has been fairly helpful  
> in
> >my past projects.
>
> Unfortunately a lot of THEM are here too, so you are starting off on  
> the wrong
> foot. :-)
>
> I don't think there would have been too many people that are prepared
> to do THEIR OWN WORK and RESEARCH that have not been helped on the
> avrfreaks.net forum. I have been there for almost 9 years now.
>
> >But my experience has been that an active development community often
> >helps with obscure features, which is why I'm here.
>
> I don't see ANY "obscure features" with that chip, even though I  
> never used
> it or it's predecessor the Mega169.
>
> Regards
>
> John Samperi
>
> ********************************************************
> Ampertronics Pty. Ltd.
> 11 Brokenwood Place Baulkham Hills, NSW 2153 AUSTRALIA
> Tel. (02) 9674-6495 Fax (02) 9674-8745
> Website http://www.ampertronics.com.au
> *Electronic Design * Custom Products * Contract Assembly
> ********************************************************
>
>
> 



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