AVR or PIC to start programming Microcontroller? [closed]

Answer 1

My first experience with microcontrollers was with an OOPic-R. It allowed me to make simple robotic experiments without worrying too much about the code. The object oriented programming flow makes everything work fast and is easy to program.

Recently, I tried another variety of PIC's, the dirt cheap PICAXE. The included programming interface is a breeze to work with. Also, to physically interface the PICAXE, you only need an RS-232 port to program it and two pins on the chip (no need to do level shifting). I've embedded the PICAXE in very small containers (SMD and DIP chips available) and it has worked quite well.

I have no experience with programming microcontrollers in assembly. If you want to try that, the AVR might be more suitable because of it's bigger user community.

As far as I know, the cheapest way to program an AVR using ATMEL's tools is the ATMEL AVR ISP mkII for 35$. You can find third-party programmers for 10-15$.

Answer 2

Some people commented on the strange (and C unfriendly) architecture of the PIC micro. This is true of the smaller PICs, but the 16 bit chips (PIC24F, dsPIC30, etc) have very clear architectures that work very well with C.

The PIC24F line has the ability to assign pins to functions (timers, A/D, serial I/O) on the fly, making it a bit easier to design with. The MPLAB environment for debugging and development is quite nice.

Answer 3

I would make my choice based on availability of a C cross-compiler. In the past, that would make AVR the choice. I'm not sure what the status is now.

I've programmed a PIC in assembler, and it was not much fun. C is much nicer in many ways.

Answer 4

I would say that i fount the 8051 microcontroller the most easiest and Atmel has come up with microcontrollers with so many inbuilt functions .... but still people are more preferably using the AVR's... my hand would go up with the 8051 family ( if found comfortable ) else the AVR's ...

Answer 5

Today AVR and PIC are probably the most common microcontrollers among hobbyists. Both have a very wide range of device variants and both can be used to achieve similar results.

For a beginner I would suggest AVR due to various reasons:

• AVR family (tiny, mega) is coherent and easy to understand. The architecture is powerful and modern, and is especially suitable for C compilers. AVRs can of course be programmed in assembly too.

• Due to its C-friendly architecture, there are quality C compilers available, both commercial and free. The ubiquitous GCC is ported to AVR and called avr-gcc.

• For getting started all you really need is a handful of basic components, the AVR chip itself and a breadboard. Even the programming cable between PC and AVR can be built essentially for free (a so called wiggler). However, several commercial development kits are available, most notably Atmel's own STK500. A commercial development kit is more expensive way for getting started, but doesn't require practically any prior knowledge about electronics. Some development kits contain for example LCD displays so it's easy to get interesting stuff done.

• It has a rich hobbyist community.

PIC is notorious for its peculiar architecture. Many love PIC for this, some hate it. AVR is more straightforward and doesn't seem to cause as much extreme and polar opinions.

Both AVR and PIC are used in many serious commercial applications. However, they are not the only options of course. My personal favorite microcontroller for both hobby and commercial work is Silicon Laboratories' C8051 family, most notably C8051F530. There is an excellent free C compiler and assembler for the C8051 family called SDCC.

Summary: There are lots of options, but please don't let that overwhelm you. Just pick one and start learning with it. Microcontrollers are, really, surprisingly easy to master once you just decide to get going!

Answer 6

I/we chose PIC mostly because there is more peripheral hardware for the same price. And more importantly, you can't even find comparable AVRs. I did choose one of the legacy free versions though (started with PIC18, migrated to dspic33)

The IDE is free, the (C) compiler is free in the student version (that disables optimization after the first month). Entry level programmers are fairly cheap too. If you have heaps of interrupts, counters and timers, there is a chance you won't need optimization at all. A programmer straight from Microchip is $30.

Note that the above remarks about AVR catering more to HLL development are slightly outdated unless you really go for the legacy architectures like PIC12 and 16.

One typically programs the more modern PIC18 (8-bit) and the 16-bit architectures (24F,30F and dspic33 which are based on the same principal core) in C. The 16-bitters even use GCC. There are also MIPS based 32-bitters now, but they rival more with ARM in the audio/video processing scene. Strangely enough, the modern ones are often cheaper than the old ones. Probably they are produced on in a more modern process that has higher yields.

Another note: meanwhile Microchip/PIC bought Atmel/AVR, but I assume that for the first few years that won't affect the productlines much.

I'm really looking forward to the 60MIPs ethernet enabled 16-bitter that is going to be released this summer (afaik streetprice just above EUR 10)