From Arduino to my own designs

Development Boards MicroMod
1

I am very new to the AVR and Arduino, but I have quite a bit of software development experience, and even did some 8051 programming a decade or so back in assembly. I look at the Arduino as a development platform, but it’s too feature-packed (and expensive) for the majority of uses I have for a microcontroller.

I would like to know, what is the minimum infrastructure I need in order to use one of the AVR microcontrollers in my own designs?

I have not yet looked in to the AVR variants, or the different packaging types, but it appears AVR supports in circuit programming, which I am hoping is similar across the entire family, and a single programmer can be used for all of them. Is this the case?

If it is relevant to the process of getting binaries on to the AVR, I would like to use the Arduino platform for some initial development, and later write code directly for the AVR. I expect I will be using WinAVR, and probably the Code::Blocks development environment which I use for other code.

Thanks!

2

All you need is AVR Studio and a suitable programmer/debugger, such as the AVR Dragon ($50).

3

It looks from my investigations that I require only an ATMega (any kind), power supply, regulated using a 5V regulator, and a couple of capacitors? An external clock is not required.

These can be programmed in the completed circuit, or on a bread board, using the “Pocket AVR Programmer” (sku: PGM-09825), using binaries compiled using WinAVR. I assume AVR Studio could also be used to create binaries. This solution would not allow debugging, but it will get code on the micro.

Total cost, under $20, excluding the microcontroller.

Does that sound correct?