atmega8 Development kit (Unpacked)

ATMEGA8 Development Kit Photo. Click here for a full-sized image.


The good people at Protostack have donated a ATMEGA8 Development kit for me to review. It’s normal cost is  $14.55 U.S Dollars, which is about  £8.90. I’ve chosen to conduct this review from the perspective of a beginner hobbyist.

First Impressions

The kit arrived in perfect condition, less than a week after it was dispatched (quite impressive considering Protostack are based in Australia and I live in the UK.) It was also well packaged, with sealed anti-static bags used to protect the kits’ components. If my experience is anything to go buy you should not have any problems when buying from them.

What’s Included

A full list of the components comprising this kit and their specifications can be found here.

Putting It Together

Protostack provides a good assembly guide (in PDF format) on their site. My own experiences with soldering the main components onto the board can be found below :

Soldering the main components onto the board was a completely hassle free experience. The markings (Which you can see on the photo at the top of this article) on the board helped enormously, especially when soldering in the IC socket for the microcontroler as the orientation of the  notch on the IC socket and location of pin 1 were all clearly marked. Also, the well spaced, pre-tinned solder pads (see the photo below) made getting that perfect solder joint simplicity itself. Overall, I would think a novice would have no problems soldering this board together.

ATMEGA8 kit PCB (underside view.)

ATMEGA8 kit PCB (underside view.) Click here for a full-sized version.

[smartads]

Good Points

The included ATMEGA8-16PU Microcontroler should keep any beginner/intermediate user busy for ages. The copious amount of I/O ports as well as the built-in ADC means a good range of projects can be implemented with this kit.

Another point in this development boards favour is the inclusion of a Low Pass filter connected to the AVCC (Analogue VCC) pin to mitigate the effects of power supply noise when using the Analogue-To Digital converter. This wins the development board yet more beginner-friendly points as the user can spend more time tinkering with their latest project and less time chasing interference-related ADC errors! :-)

Another beginner-friendly feature I liked was the distinctive markings for the power rails on the board . This is one of this kits best features in my option (How many times have you ever got your Positive and Ground mixed up?) The inclusion of an on-board reset switch is also a welcome sight.

One final good feature I would like to mention is the inclusion of holes for spacers, meaning that you have the option of stacking more of these boards on top of each other. This should give you more than enough scope for the more ambitious ideas you might have for projects.

Criticisms

A marked space to solder in a voltage regulator (like a 7805, for example) would have been a welcome feature on the development board. While I can understand the need to dedicate as large a percentage of space as possible to prototyping, space for a Voltage Regulator could have been added without taking up too much room on the board

One other negative aspect of this kit, in my opinion, is the lack of an included programmer. While not including one does keep the cost down (which is always welcome if you’re a cash-strapped hobbyist!) I think that beginners, who may be reluctant to build their own programmer or may not know which one to choose would benefit from one being included, none-the-less.

The kit could have also benefit from the inclusion of a few other components (such as an LED, resistor and general purpose switch) so the user could get started as soon as the kit arrives in the mail. Again, I think this is a matter of cost saving on Protostacks’ part, which is understandable, but it would have been more convieient to include them.

The inclusion of PCB spacers would have been a good addition to this kit but none are included. Again, it would have been nice to include them in the kit  for the sake of convenience.

Conclusion

Overall, I would say that this development kit is a good quality and low cost all-rounder for the beginner hobbyist.  The negative aspects of the kit mentioned above are more than offset by the advantages it offers to the user, as well as Protostacks excellent service.  I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Protostack, or this development kit,  to anyone getting started in the world of electronics and Microcontrollers.

Related posts:

  1. New Development Board Offering from Protostack