Comments on: Goodies from Wright Hobbies

By: Skater J

Skater J — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:03:12 +0000

Hi Leonard check out http://www.wrighthobbies.net or http://www.smileymicros.com which are 2 sites that i’ve found that offer beginner level AVR development kits and have great documentation to get you started. They are both quite affordable due to the free development software and compilers that can be found all over thanks to Atmel and the generous programmers involved with the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) which is a huge added bonus. http://www.avrfreaks.net has a bunch of info on AVRs if you haven’t been there yet. Hope this helps.

By: Leonard

Leonard — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:47:09 +0000

To all concerned:

(Looking for newer and versatile AVR development kit)

Hello, I am looking to get into embedded programming and some co-workers suggested the Atmel AVR. I am a beginner at this and am looking for a develeopment enviroment that, not only will be comfortable starting in, but will also be able to grow into the development boards capacity. I want to use it for robotics, motor drives, LCD, key pad, USB etc.

What I’m looking for is a all around versitile development kit. I’m hoping that you (Atmel represenative/contact) will be able to guide me in the right direction towards my decision for purchase so I can get started.

All your help & guidance regarding this matter is greatly appreciated.

By: Steven Moughan

Steven Moughan — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:10:59 +0000

Eddy, dont get me wrong, I wasnt giving out… More thinking out loud, I got some LCD’s and proto boards from them too :p

I forgot to take into consideration the tax situation between America and China, being in Ireland I dont generally encounter those problems that often…

By: Berni

Berni — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:27:58 +0000

Neather of that would work because these mini super caps can’t supply a large current. Commercially these things are used to keep memory and run clocks when the power falls out, since they are a lot more reliable than baterys.

This is why they are small they have a very large internal resistance, compared to the car audio caps for example who have it nearly 0

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:48:44 +0000

Okay I see what you mean, but not sure a screw gun would work because driving a screw requires constant torque and not sure youd make it through a screw(well you could but youd have little to now control of when to stop it accurately)
A better application in my mind would be a Nail Gun using a rail gun principle. One large shot through a coil, drive a nail. But thanks for the reply Dave, at least I can think of the right application for Farad+ capacitors.

By: dfowler

dfowler — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:14:58 +0000

Hey Daniel… How about a recharable screew gun that may only last 10 minutes but recharges in 2 seconds? Everytime I go to do job with my screw gun it needs a charge. I only need it for a few minutes of work but I have to wait an hour to charge it. Wouldnt it be nice to charge the gun in seconds for a quick job? Mabye a hybrid battery could be made, normal rechargable for the long haul work and ultracaps for the quick work. In fact this might be a great idea, it’s posible that the best battery in terms of charge life is not so good interms of peak current output. Use the weaker rechargable battery to charge the ultracap. Let the ultracap supply the high current needs of the device in burst.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:19:38 +0000

What do you do with a 1F Cap?, and how is it that it can be so small when the 1F caps for large car stereos are like two coke cans end to end? (build one mean taser I bet)

Yeah, I bought LCDS from you for me and some friends last night.

By: Eddy Wright

Eddy Wright — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:31:14 +0000

Hi Dave,

If you like the 1F super cap, I just received some 3.3F caps! They’re about the same size as a 220uF cap and I heard they are used as batteries in some Hotwheels electric cars.

Steven, I do have a small number of products from Sure Electronics, items that I thought were unique or interesting for electronic hobbyists – a couple of LCD displays and a couple of proto boards.

Daniel, the white text on blue background LCDs have a very nice look and are bright displays. They are slower to refresh than normal LCDs though.

And thank you for the kind words Skater J. I’m glad you have enjoyed working with us and I look forward to helping you again in the future.

By: Skater J

Skater J — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:42:22 +0000

I’ve had nothing but good experiences with Wright hobbies. They have great service and support for the beginner/intermediate electronics hobbiest and i was able to get all i needed for my robotic project from them.

I was able to implement their DevBoard-M32 on my tank threaded robot, as well as the FAN8200 H-bridge Chip. The FAN8200 was able to handle the stall current of my geared 6V toy motors with no issues. The low-dropout 5V regs came in handy too so i could get all the juice possible from my batteries.

In my travels i haven’t found a microcontroller development kit (besides the AVR Butterfly) that has been at a cheaper price. The other items probably can be found cheaper elsewhere but it’s great that you can find all the items you need to get a microntroller project off the ground (sometimes literally) all in one place.

By: dfowler

dfowler — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:10:00 +0000

Yes it looks like some of his items might be from Sure but watch out on the price compairisons, it cost a lot to get stuff shipped from China, especialy if you are purchasing in small volumes.