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Embedded and Microcontrollers
Embedded Forum Microcontroller Bargains
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  • Replies 23 replies
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  • msp430g
  • msp430
Related

Microcontroller Bargains

shabaz
shabaz over 3 years ago

If anyone is on the hunt for affordable microcontrollers in stock : ) Despite the component shortages, there's some extremely low-priced microcontrollers still available, if one is not so choosy on package style.

For instance, MSP430G2212 parts are just 59 pence currently. It's only got 2kbyte Flash memory and 256 bytes of RAM, but that's still useful for a lot of things. The development environment, CCS, is stable, and coding for it is quite nice (although as mentioned, the amount of Flash and RAM could be an issue depending on what you want to do with it). The DIP package is large, but not all circuits require being compact.

image

To program it, one very cheap option is to purchase a MSP-EXP430G2ET Launchpad board, and use that to program the chip, however that's out of stock. The board has a 20-pin DIP socket so it’s easy to plug in the chip, program it, and then insert the chip intoyour circuit.


Another option is to buy an MSP430 programmer. The programmer needs to support 2-wire JTAG, also known as Spy-Bi-Wire or SBW, or 4-wire JTAG. A ‘BSL’ programmer is often cheaper but won’t work for this chip. A suitable programmer is MSP-FET. The older model MSP-FET430UIF will also work, and there are low-cost clones of the MSP-FET430UIF on AliExpress, which claim to support SBW, but I have not tried them. 

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  • Andrew J
    Andrew J over 3 years ago in reply to shabaz +5
    These little projects you put together are really good learning tutorials. Useful and not too simple, but not at all complex either. Or expensive!
  • Andrew J
    Andrew J over 3 years ago +3
    Ironic that the chip is in stock but the programmer isn’t! Good point to highlight though as it would be very frustrating to design for a part in stock to find you now have to wait a year to program it…
  • genebren
    genebren over 3 years ago in reply to shabaz +2
    Hi Shabaz, There are some of the ATtiny1604, ATtiny1616 and ATtiny816 parts in stock at Newark. Good that you bought the Atmel-ICE as this is required by the new parts. I had an older Atmel-ICE that…
Parents
  • BigG
    BigG over 3 years ago

    often overlooked... EFM8's from Silicon Labs...

    This one has 2kB flash and 256B of RAM and cheaper still...

    https://uk.farnell.com/silicon-labs/efm8bb10f2i-a-qfn20/mcu-8bit-25mhz-qfn-20/dp/3605195

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  • shabaz
    shabaz over 3 years ago in reply to BigG

    Good find! 

    So far these ones are all a very similar bargain price : ) sub-60-pence, and good availability at least for prototyping:

    MSP430G2212

    EFM8BB10F2I-A-QFN20

    ATtiny414

    The ATtiny has twice the Flash (4kbte instead of 2kbyte), but minimum order of 100 - not insurmountable, so I think it's worth being on the list : ) 

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  • BigG
    BigG over 3 years ago in reply to shabaz

    Here's another Silabs sub-60-pence option:

    Has a pretty good spec too (16kByte Flash, 1280Byte RAM @50MHz):

    EFM8BB51F16G-C-TSSOP20

    BUT... I think I found a winner (if +10 or +100 quantities are used for comparison as well)...

    uk.farnell.com/.../2908849

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  • shabaz
    shabaz over 3 years ago in reply to BigG

    That's great value-for-money, especially in the 100 quantity. I really like the ex-Motorola/Freescale (now NXP) microcontrollers.

    That's definitely the best value-for-money so far : ) Nice specification, and decent TSSOP package for prototyping.

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  • BigG
    BigG over 3 years ago in reply to shabaz

    Indeed. The only downside, from what I can make out, is the IDE required for firmware development. It looks like for NXP S08 MCU's you need the CodeWarrior IDE, which is only available on Windows OS.

    Looking at it more holistically I think Silabs MCU's might be my preferred option as your can use Simplicity Studio on Linux or Windows, etc. Although understanding the 8051 architecture and the software code syntax can be tricky compared to MSP430G22 or ATtiny.

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  • shabaz
    shabaz over 3 years ago in reply to BigG

    Ahh.. I'd forgotten it requires CodeWarrior! It's a decent IDE and compiler, but it's not fully free (I don't know the code size restriction). I guess it's off the list!  

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  • WestfW
    WestfW over 3 years ago in reply to shabaz

    I believe that "codewarrior for microcontrollers" free editions have "effectively unlimited" code size restrictions (32k or 64k) when used with the HC08/S08/RS08 chips (although that info is difficult to pin down.  https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/950-00087.pdf perhaps?)
    Unlimited ASM, too.

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  • shabaz
    shabaz over 3 years ago in reply to WestfW

    Ah, brilliant! It's back in the game! : ) 

    I have a few S08 microcontrollers (MC9S08JS16CWJ) in the junk box (I bought them to make a debugger but the requirement went away) so I will download Code Warrior sometime.

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  • shabaz
    shabaz over 3 years ago in reply to WestfW

    I downloaded CW6.3 today, and found it won't install on Windows 11/x64, so I tried CW11.1 and it installed and ran fine. As part of its documentation, it confirms what you mentioned, that it's fine for 64kbyte C permanently, and unlimited assembler, screenshot below. That's awesome, there are quite a few different '08 microcontrollers in stock, and they are all supported by CodeWarrior.

    image

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  • shabaz
    shabaz over 3 years ago in reply to WestfW

    I downloaded CW6.3 today, and found it won't install on Windows 11/x64, so I tried CW11.1 and it installed and ran fine. As part of its documentation, it confirms what you mentioned, that it's fine for 64kbyte C permanently, and unlimited assembler, screenshot below. That's awesome, there are quite a few different '08 microcontrollers in stock, and they are all supported by CodeWarrior.

    image

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