The Arduino platform may suffer with SMD chips

[Chuckt]

Because there is a shortage of chips, some Arduino boards are now using a surface mounted chip instead of through the hole chip. The beauty of the original design was that you could replace the chip. Unless this is a partial or temporary move, you better be good at soldering surface mounted chips or pay for a whole new development board.

I'm not really sure how this will effect Arduino users. I'm sure that they aren't all happy about it.

Atmel, like all electronics components manufacturers, is gradually phasing out through-hole parts because they are more expensive to manufacture, and because surface-mount parts are cheaper and easier to assemble using robotic assembly. It makes hobbyists’ lives more difficult, because these parts are harder to assemble by hand, but it is a reality we all have to face.

http://arduino.cc/blog/2011/01/08/ardui ... #more-1826

[brad]

That's unfortunate. Ardunio's must be getting pretty popular then!

Have you used them yourself?

[Chuckt]

I haven't used Arduino myself. I'm tempted to buy one but I'm holding off. What is really attractive are the low prices, tutorials and the social surrounding the platform.

I would like to get microcontrollers into my son's computer class when he is older. The MSP430 is cheap enough that most parents wouldn't say "no" but the Arduino looks easier but I'm not sure every parent would non-grudgingly want to spend the money on an Arduino but they might on a really bare bones board (RBBB). Simple is only better when working with schools because if they only get a half hour then they don't have time for 300 page manuals so it would have to be broken down into simple tutorials. I think a class called "Sensors" might be perfect for the MSP430. The only problem is that I looked around on math night and I didn't see any USB connectors on the front of the computers

There is a free C compiler for the Atmel line and it is called WinAVR GCC. The Atmel 1284p has a lot of flash memory and can hold a large C file. I've heard the Tiny85 can hold a pretty good size C file.

By the way, my MSP430 on a thumb stick (development board) shipped and I received it yesterday.

[brad]

How did your USB stick go?

I ordered mine a few weeks ago and it hasn't arrived yet...

But I guess I can't complain about free!

[Chuckt]

I received mine in a big box. It is basically a DVD case that holds the development stick. I haven't done anything with it yet.

You will get an email when it is shipping.

[brad]

I might have to open a new forum for the ti products - maybe put up some basic tutorials etc...