Microcontrollers and Mac

    Stuart
    Jan 12 2006 | 9:51 pm
    Please forgive the total amateurishness of this post, but I'm a total amateur.
    I've been browsing the Net, looking at some of those microprocessor development boards (Stamp and what have you) - all very thrilling stuff (to an amateur, at least) - and all for Windows.
    And cheap as they may be, I simply don't have room for yet another computer. Or the cash for another laptop, let alone enough laps.
    Can anyone steer me toward something for Macs ? I don't need anything hardcore - I'll be quite happy using the board to deal with midi and a four-row LCD display.
    Thank you,
    Stuart Grimshaw
    • Scott Fitzgerald
      Jan 12 2006 | 10:29 pm
      there's arduino : http://arduino.berlios.de/
      and i think there's a bs2 environment for the mac. http://physicalcomputing.co.za/bs2.html
      or you can program your pic/bx24/atmel etc through virtual pc and use a usb--serial interface.
    • Michael Egger
      Jan 15 2006 | 6:24 pm
      I had a great time with Murat n Konar's exellent MacBS2 BasicStamp programming app for the Macintosh - worked very well http://www.muratnkonar.com/otherstuff/macbs2/index.shtml
      you'll only need a Keyspan serial adaptor, no Virtual PC, no Development board.... integrated BasicStap reference, syntax highlighting, all very well done!
      if you're headed for more power, and more choice of mcu's for less cash - and if you don't fear the Terminal application - there's also an All-Mac-Way to program Atmel AVR Controllers in C, using open source tools. It was a bit of a headache to get it all running, but now works very well. We've documented it here: http://www.anyma.ch/research/articles/avronmac.html
      we write code in BBedit or Xcode, then compile it in the terminal and flash the processor from the terminal, using an Atmel STK500 development board... there's even ways to do it without a dev board, but we didn't have time to document it yet.
      feel free to contact me for more information...
      Michael