Arduinos are great for getting started, they're easy to use, relatively cheap and you can find a tonne of information, ideas and support online. For most people, however, there comes a time when they feel they have outgrown the Arduino's capabilities, or want something a bit more flexible, or they just want to build their own circuits from scratch. Moving away from an Arduino into the big bad world of "proper" micros can be a bit daunting, so I've collected a kind of (work in progress) top ten list of the things you need to consider when moving away from the Arduino.
What brand of microcontroller?
The Confusing Bit
Any search online about "which microcontroller should I start with" will give you about a thousand different chips brands, chip types and about twice as many differing opinions. Where on earth do you start?
The Skinny
It doesn't matter - just pick one that looks appealing to you and get on with it!
Thats it?
Kind of... you can narrow down your search a bit. The most popular micros are Atmel's or PICs. There are other brands (i.e. TI make some pretty cheap "dev boards") but these are the ones where you will find the most online support and experience. The Arduino has an Atmel chip inside it, so many people start there, but I personally chose PIC to start with because ... well, I don't really remember to be honest!
Anything else to read?
Lady Ada Smackdown (PIC vs AVR)
Hmmm... just use google I guess.
Which microcontroller?
The Confusing Bit
OK, you've chosen which brand of microcontroller you would like to use, now to choose which particular chip! So you visit the manufacturers home page and there's a hundred thousand different parts! Where do you start?
The Skinny
Again, it almost doesn't matter - just pick one that looks appealing to you and get on with it!
Thats it?
Again, kind of... there are certainly some chips that are better than others. If you've chosen Atmel then its probably worth having a look at the ATmega328 which is inside the Arduino Uno. If you are looking at a PIC, then something like the PIC16F628A is a great starting point as it has an internal oscillator (see below for what that means!) making it dead easy to hook up.
If you know a bit more about what you are doing, then there are online part selectors which let you put in some parameters and it lists the chips that match. See the links below.
Another viable option is to check out your favourite electronics store and find out what they have in stock. Check out the features of the chip online and if you are happy, just buy it!
Anything else to read?
ATmega328 web page
PIC16F628A web page
Microchip Product Selector
Eeeek, your datasheet is huge!
The Confusing Bit
You've chosen your chip, put your hard earned down and its arrived in the mail. Time to jump online and work out to use the silly thing! You browse to the product home page and click on the "datasheet" link. Up pops a 300 page document written by a electrical engineer with a PhD in confusing the lights out of you. What the hell, was that really necessary?
The Skinny
The short answer is yes... (almost) everything you will ever need is in this document. Read it, print it out, sleep with it under your pillow and you'll be fine.
Thats it?
Not really. In reality, there are only a few things that are really important in a datasheet - you really need to know
- what registers (see below) the device has and what the different bits do
- how to configure the device
- what features to turn on or off
- what to connect to which pins
- how much power to put into the device
Thats all well and good, but where do you find these mysterious things. Well, er... glad you asked. The best way to find these things is to ... (drum roll) read the datasheet!
Anything else to read?
ATmega328 web page
PIC16F628A web page
Do I need a development board?
The Confusing Bit
Egad, there are more options! I'm ready to go, should I get a development board, with buttons, LCDs etc, or should I just use a breadboard?
The Skinny
No, it is not compulsory to have a dev board.
Thats it?
Well this one is really up to you. The cheapest and most flexible way is to buy the individual components from someone like mouser, digikey or farnell and breadboard a circuit. If you build on a breadboard (or even your own custom PCB) there is the added advantage of being able to learn more about the hardware at the same time. You can always use google to find sample circuits (or open source dev boards) and build those yourself.
Its quite a bit more expensive, but possible simpler and faster to buy a prebuilt development board from someone like Olimex, Mikro Elektroinica, ebay, etc. You can select a board with the features you want to learn and the hardware part is all built for you. Many people would say that you aren't getting the full learning experience by doing this and I would tend to agree!
Anything else to read?
Google is your friend
Do I need to make my own PCB?
The Confusing Bit
With the Arduino I only have to plug things in to the pin headers, or into a shield. With another microcontroller, do I have to make my own PCB?
The Skinny
No, it is not really compulsory to have your own PCB made.
Thats it?
This is a similar answer to the previous question, and it depends on your application. If you use through-hole components, then you will be able to use a breadboard to build a working circuit. If you want something more permanent, then veroboard or perfboard is a good option.
Of course, I like nothing more than to have a custom made PCB fitting perfectly into the enclosure I designed for it. Here you can either make your own (plenty of tutorials about that on the internet - I use acetate sheets, a laminator for toner transfer and ammonium persulphate but there are tonnes of other/better methods around) or get someone like Seeedstudio, iTead Studio, pcb cart etc to make you a couple of prototypes.
Anything else to read?
Google is your friend