

Adafruit's Trinket - smk11
http://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-trinket/introduction

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blhack
I love this! The attiny85 has been my go-to chip for the last couple of years.
They're great.

They're really cheap, which makes them really easy to just put into things.
It's also a great way of getting people to think-outside-the-arduino.

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IgorPartola
Or for $10, you could get the TI MSP430 LaunchPad [1]. You can then pop off
the DIP chip and mount it however you want. It is nice since the chips
themselves are about $1 or so each (depending on which one you get).

[1]
[http://www.ti.com/ww/en/launchpad/msp430_head.html](http://www.ti.com/ww/en/launchpad/msp430_head.html)

~~~
phunge
My experience with the launchpad has been mixed. The chips are definitely
aimed at the low power, low requirements side of things; I had a project where
the MSP430g2231's inability to clock from an external high-frequency crystal
was a dealbreaker. There's also a wider breadth of hobbyist software targeting
the AVR.

If you're a hobbyist, it's definitely not worth saving a few bucks if you're
only making a few of them and you account for the value of your time. YMMV.

~~~
IgorPartola
I was under the impression that the newer chips are able to clock from an
external crystal. My 2553 certainly came with one, though I have had no need
to use it yet.

~~~
Kliment
That's the crystal for the slow clock, which runs at about 32kHz. You still
can't clock the main clock off it.

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phunge
Looks somewhat inspired by the teensy 2.0 (mini USB -- not micro!, bootloader
button). This has a lower price point and an ATTiny instead of atmega32u4. I
have a few teensys and find them to be really practical.

Does the ATTiny implement USB or is it bit-banged?

~~~
eksith
I think it does.

BTW, Teensy 3.0 just recently came out :
[http://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy3.html](http://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy3.html)

It's only slightly bigger than the 2.0, but you get 3 more PWM pins (10 total)
and 34 I/O and 3.3V out.

~~~
ricardobeat
Plus a 32-bit ARM processor @ 48mhz, and 128k flash.

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kken
It's very similar to the digispark and is riding on the tails of it. The only
major difference is in the pinout.

www.digistump.com

~~~
trebor
I own two digisparks, and I think the main improvements are the 3.3V/5V and
mounting holes. I'm still glad to see more devices filling this niche.

~~~
kken
I designed a very similar board. It's currently on order from OSH park. I'll
see how it turns out.

[http://oshpark.com/shared_projects/ltCSLIIB](http://oshpark.com/shared_projects/ltCSLIIB)

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slowdown
Many people don't find this exciting. But I am excited indeed. You know why?
Because to program an Atmel Microcontroller, you need a 'programmer' whose
selection itself is fairly confusing for newbies (USB/Serial/etc) and costs as
much as $20 for a good one. This one instead is just plug and play, and that's
awesome :)

~~~
duskwuff
The Arduino platform has already largely solved that, though. Almost all of
their products (besides a few "Pro" models which are TTL-serial only) have USB
ports on board.

~~~
chad_oliver
Yes, but (at least in New Zealand) they're more than the $20 threshold
mentioned above. So you're effectively buying a microcontroller plus a
programmer.

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jwatte
Why didn't they use the ATmega 8u2 with native USB? The small version is no
bigger than the chip on this trinket. Eating 3 kB for the tinyUSB stack is
annoying.

Also, they claim is has "hardware I2C" which is stretching the truth IMO. The
USI doesn't let you write a fully interrupt driven I2C slave, it is a polled
implementation leaving lots of support logic to software.

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tynan
For someone who knows nothing much about Arduinos, what are a few examples of
projects this would be good for?

~~~
Cyranix
Head over to [http://hackaday.com](http://hackaday.com) or
[http://makezine.com](http://makezine.com) and search for Arduino or ATMega or
microcontroller -- you should have a ton of hits describing various projects.

~~~
notgoodrobot
How similar is this to an Arduino?

~~~
Kliment
Runs same code, has less memory, storage, and I/O

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zxcvgm
The ATtiny series do not have USB capability, which is why they are cheaper.
The underlying bitbang implementation comes from V-USB [1], which is commonly
used to add USB capability in software. Another implementation which may be of
interest is LUFA [2].

[1]
[http://www.obdev.at/products/vusb/index.html](http://www.obdev.at/products/vusb/index.html)
[2]
[http://www.fourwalledcubicle.com/LUFA.php](http://www.fourwalledcubicle.com/LUFA.php)

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outside1234
This is probably an ignorant/newbie question but what are the connectivity
options available with a board like this? Can it do Zigbee or WiFi?

~~~
pjscott
This board is pretty minimalistic. It has five general-purpose I/O pins that
you can use to read and write logic-level signals (either 0V or your supply
voltage, usually either 3.3V or 5V). Three of those also have analog-to-
digital converters, so you can use them to measure voltages in that whole
range. Two of these pins have hardware for generating PWM signals, making them
useful for motor control. Three of these can be used for an SPI or I2C bus.

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BuildTheRobots
No one seems to have mentioned the Minimus[1] as an arduino compatible[2]
alternative -they we're costing us £3 and have a lot more GPIO pins to play
with[3]. The new version is powered by a ATMEGA 32U2 so it's got some grunt
(and lets you play USB too).

[1] [http://minimususb.com/](http://minimususb.com/) [2]
[https://github.com/pbrook/minimus-
arduino/](https://github.com/pbrook/minimus-arduino/) [3]
[https://github.com/pbrook/minimus-
arduino/wiki#pinouts](https://github.com/pbrook/minimus-arduino/wiki#pinouts)

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the-kenny
While I like the Arduino movement very much, I don't see what's so special
about this.

It's a breakout board for an ATTiny, with some vreg and an usb port on board.
So what?

~~~
kwantam
One obvious advantage is that it's cheap enough to use as-is. One of the
things that keeps me from caring much about Arduino is that it's too expensive
to use for anything but experimentation: if I'm building more than a one-off,
I'll always do a custom PCB.

For reasonable volumes that's still probably the best approach, but at $8 a
pop this is perfect for throwing together some quick project.

By way of analogy: to me, an Arduino is a breadboard. If I use one at all,
it's to play with a first concept, and certainly not for any kind of permanent
use. If that's true, then this is kind of like solderable perfboard: not
optimal, but good enough for many things.

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danboarder
Another option is the even smaller "open source hardware" Digispark with USB
on board, arduino enabled, supporting many shields (grove shields etc):
[http://www.crowdsupply.com/digistump/digispark-mini-usb-
ardu...](http://www.crowdsupply.com/digistump/digispark-mini-usb-arduino)

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danellis
I got excited about this thinking I could use it to quickly prototype
controlling a toaster oven over USB, but I'd have to add another software USB
implementation like the bootloader's.

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egfx
Can I use this to plug into my cars usb and take over the touch screen display
unit?

