I mostly use the Microchip PIC processor.
I started with a Warp-13
programmer from
Newfound Electronics. It is
no longer available but they are still making firmware updates for it.
I have since moved to Microchip's Picstart
Plus Programmer.
I started with the PIC because Microchip's excellent development
environment for it is free.
When my projects got more involved I added C language to the IDE with the free
version
of the B Knudsen Data cc5x
compiler. Eventually I exceeded the capability of the free version
and registered it. It is well worth the money.
I use Cadsoft's Eagle for schematic drawing
and board layout. The freeware version will
do a board up to 3.2" x 4.0". A hobbyist
license is available for $125 dollars. It is the best
board layout program I have used and it even has an autorouter that does a pretty
good job.
They have a download section with additional scripts, projects, documentation
and parts
libraries.
For reference only, here are the CAM,
and DRU files for Eagle that I use when
I send boards
to PCB Fab Express. It took me a
while to figure them out. I am not providing support for them
but they may help someone so I am sticking them here.
Projects
I have built a few fun projects. Here are photos of one that I took from handwired
prototype
all the way to production quality boards.
Details and my other aviation projects are on the flying page.
Cylon pumpkin
I was working on another project on halloween when it came time to carve the
pumpkins.
I like the new battlestar galactica show on sci-fi and I looked at the pile
of LEDs on my desk
and thought about doing a tribute to the original series. I whipped up a PIC
powered LED
sequencer in a few minutes on a breadboard and carved the pumpkin. It turned
out pretty nice.
Here is an MPG movie of the pumpkin running. It is 13MB.
