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Low end MCU Selection

christoph-tackChristoph Tack wrote 10/13/2019 at 08:56 • 3 min read • Like

Requirement

The Arduino support seriously limits the choices.  8MHz on a 1V8 AVR-architecture is out of spec.  Higher supply voltages are needed, which imply the addition of a boost converter when powering with two AA-batteries.

Using AVRISPmkII on Linux requires a rules-file for udev:

SUBSYSTEM!="usb_device", ACTION!="add", GOTO="avrisp_end"

# Atmel Corp.JTAG ICE mkII
ATTRS{idVendor}==”03eb”, ATTRS{idProduct}==”2103″, MODE:=”660″, GROUP:=”dialout”

# Atmel Corp. AVRISP mkII
ATTRS{idVendor}==”03eb”, ATTRS{idProduct}==”2104″, MODE:=”660″, GROUP:=”dialout”

# Atmel Corp. Dragon
ATTRS{idVendor}==”03eb”, ATTRS{idProduct}==”2107″, MODE:=”660″, GROUP:=”dialout”

LABEL=”avrisp_end”

Save this file as /etc/udev/rules.d/60-avrisp.rules

Choices

Bare bone MCU

The smallest/cheapest MCU that PlatformIO supports is the ATtiny24A/44A/84A family.  They can be had for €0.80 to €0.90 a piece.  SOIC-14 will be the preferable package.

This can be used with PlatformIO.  See here for a demo-setup.

The ATtiny441 and ATtiny841 are pin-compatible parts with some extra features such as two USARTS (HardwareSerial ports).

Arduino Pro Mini 328 - 3.3V/8MHz

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