Anyone hankering for a cheap, easy, and contemporary electronics project?
From time to time I notice a contigent of AI folks expressing an interest in doing some hobby work with electronics. Homebrew RF is kind of passe, and working with little micro-controllers has usually required a parallel port and some kind of $200 (at least) programmer.
TI, on the other hand, sells a $20 USB-dongle that contains a detachable MSP430 microcontroller, as well as a few interface pins. The MSP430 is a 16bit RISC chip that's quite good.
Oh yeah, there's also a contest. If you enter, the cost of the dongle becomes $15, and if you submit your project details by October 2nd, you get a chance to win one of three Samsung DLP TVs. (hint, the promo code is "DESIGNMSP430")
The downside is that you'll probably need Windows to interface with the dongle, but hell, I figured I'd pass on the details. I just bought mine.
http://www.designmsp430.com
TI, on the other hand, sells a $20 USB-dongle that contains a detachable MSP430 microcontroller, as well as a few interface pins. The MSP430 is a 16bit RISC chip that's quite good.
Oh yeah, there's also a contest. If you enter, the cost of the dongle becomes $15, and if you submit your project details by October 2nd, you get a chance to win one of three Samsung DLP TVs. (hint, the promo code is "DESIGNMSP430")
The downside is that you'll probably need Windows to interface with the dongle, but hell, I figured I'd pass on the details. I just bought mine.
http://www.designmsp430.com
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