Best microcontroller for small hobby projects

Best microcontroller for small hobby projects.

In this article, we’ll talk about the Best microcontroller for small hobby projects.

For quick projects, I would like to use inexpensive development boards that have expansion capability.

One board I like is Microchip’s 8-bit Curiosity Development Board, which has a PIC16F1619 processor. It is in a 20-pin DIP socket; you can replace it with any number of other 8-bit PIC16 processors. The development board is only $20 from microchipDIRECT.

The board has the following features:

• Push-button.
• Potentiometer.
• Reset button.
• M Touch button.
• Four LEDs.
• MikroBUS header (not populated), 486 Click Boards available.
• RN4020 Bluetooth module footprint (not populated).
• Integrated programming interfaces via USB; no external programmer needed.

The PIC16F1619 is an interesting processor, and has some features which are not found in other 8-bit microcontrollers:

• Four Configurable Logic Cells.
• Complementary Waveform Generator.
• Two Capture/Compare/PWM modules.
• Two Signal Measurement Timers (24-bit timer/counter with Prescaler).
• Angular timer.
• Three 8-Bit Timers.
• Math accelerator with PID controller.
• Cyclic Redundancy Check.
• Multiple serial communications: EUSART, SPI, I2C.

Lots of fun stuff to play with. It also has 1 KB of RAM and 8K 14-bit words (14 KB) of program storage.

The board is confirmed by Microchip’s free IDE (MPLAB X) and compiler (XC8).

But If you want to consider a more a fordable option 

I personally recommend PIC (microcontrollers made by MicroChip) and Arduino (SBCs — single-board computers made by a handful of different manufacturers containing microcontrollers from ATMEL and others). The main difference between PIC and Arduino is that PICs are typically purchased as chips and built into a variety of embedded applications, while Arduino is typically purchased as built SBCs. Some manufacturers provide SBCs based on PIC, but not many, and I know of no PIC SBC in the price range of Arduino.

I like the PIC 16F684.  It’s a low-end basic microcontroller in a 14pin DIP that I can purchase anywhere for less than $2. I’ve used a variety of Arduino boards, many of them under $10 (both Arduino Trinket & Arduino UNO), where for less than the price of the assembled Arduino, I would have a hard time assembling the PIC onto a PC board.

When I’m designing custom hardware, I think of PIC. When I’m building one of something, I think of Arduino. Where SBC cost is the design primacy, I think Arduino.

 

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