8051 and development board selection ???

[wings_of_fire]

Hi ,

I recently have started learning c and will be starting doing some basic level experiments with 8051 micro controller. Initially while buying my first 8051 micro controller I just walked into an electronics shop and asked for an 8051 micro controller and the shop keeper without asking me a question did sell me one. Later I came to know that there are different types of 8051 available and there is some sort of compatibility with the development board and programmers associated with it. Currently I have 8051 with print P80C51A on it.

As a new comer in this field, how do I go about selecting the right 8051 micro controller and suitable development kit for it?

 

[klystron]

Take a look at the evaluation kits at https://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/pages/default.aspx

 

[wings_of_fire]

Its getting more complicated.
I googled datasheet for P80C51A and I am getting data sheet for P80C51. Where is the A dis appearing in the datasheet?
How come I have this micro controller with A at the end and no exact datasheet for the same product!!!
Why are things so freaking complicated?

Is there no straight forward guide to 8051 micro controller? How many types of 8051 are actually manufactured?

 

[jignesh doshi]

first of all please tell that what u want to experiment in 8051 microcontroller?????????

 

[wings_of_fire]

I am gonna start programming and using a micro controller. I do not have any specific task yet defined, but I would like to do already done 8051 practicals, so that its easy for me to understand the basic concept.The least power MC of 8051 is ok for me as a learner.
I got stuck when I wanted to buy a development board and programmer for the 8051. On some website they stated that the development board is only compatible with some atmel with some number of 8051 MC. That was when I got a hint that there are several types of 8051 available and until this time I was thinking 8051 is a single all purpose MC.

If you can tell me what kind of Development board and programmer I should buy, then that should solve my major problem.

 

[jignesh doshi]

hey...

i suggest u to develop ur own board on GPB or make its PCB using ATMEL's any 8051 based ic like AT89S51,AT89S51,AT89C52,AT89S52,AT89C55,AT89C55WD,etc..

Due to self development of any board ur hardware knowledge is also increase..

 

[tpetar]

I am gonna start programming and using a micro controller. I do not have any specific task yet defined, but I would like to do already done 8051 practicals, so that its easy for me to understand the basic concept.The least power MC of 8051 is ok for me as a learner.
I got stuck when I wanted to buy a development board and programmer for the 8051. On some website they stated that the development board is only compatible with some atmel with some number of 8051 MC. That was when I got a hint that there are several types of 8051 available and until this time I was thinking 8051 is a single all purpose MC.

If you can tell me what kind of Development board and programmer I should buy, then that should solve my major problem.

For DIY see this 89Sxx Development Board
https://www.electronics-lab.com/projects/mcu/011/index.html

If you need strong commercial dev board see this :

MikroElektronika 8051 Development Boards
https://www.mikroe.com/8051/development-boards/

**broken link removed**



Also on Internet you can find smaller dev boards for single or few uC for low cost. But make smart decision what you need. If you often working with different uCs pay attention on cababilities of that small dev board, or maybe is smarter decision to get some universal development board which can support PIC, dsPIC, AVR, 8051, ARM such as MikroE UNI-DS6 : https://www.mikroe.com/unids/.


My thinking is that is better to invest in good tools and good developing boards, and always have good tool next to you when you need it, rather than having a weak tool which have small and limited capabilities and always looking for an improvement and restructuring to get the job done. Among the rest, better is to have checked tool, that has been tested, than to have some DIY tool which work occasionally with some bug. :wink:

 

[wings_of_fire]

Don`t you think that developing a board at this stage will be a lengthy and time consuming affair for a novice like me who has not even finished learning c. I have never ever programmed a MC yet.

My idea with buying a development board is so that I can play with the 8051 application and learn it by doing some practicals.

- - - Updated - - -

Tpetar,
Thanks for the links. I am a newbie and really don`t want a complex board at this stage and as well as import it, but in the future I will buy something that the pro use.

I will take your point regarding good development board and good tools

 

[thannara123]

Do some projects with your (purchased) development kit .
then your question will be answered by you .:lol:

 

[tpetar]

that's the advantage of developer boards to make easy environment for learning, testing and developing, for both beginners and experts. You dont need to know to program in C or Assembler to use development board, you can use some existing code, learn from it, modify and watch whats happening. Dev boards ensures connections with all periferals including LCD, LEDs, switches, ADC, ..... on one nicely organised place, by contrast only think of the use of protoboard. Dev boards are good tool for learning some programming language for uCs.

 

[jignesh doshi]

i think u and tpetar both are right by ur thought but when i m learner i used my own board.

and from that i can understand the values of hardware problem as well as software problem.

in that case learner has suffered a lot but his or her knowledge must be increased.

so i suggest u to develop ur own board.

u cn know the value of hardware part from that.
u understand the real properties and features of different parts like resistor,capacitor,regulators,different ICs,etc...

 

[thannara123]

i think u and tpetar both are right by ur thought but when i m learner i used my own board.

and from that i can understand the values of hardware problem as well as software problem.

in that case learner has suffered a lot but his or her knowledge must be increased.

so i suggest u to develop ur own board.

u cn know the value of hardware part from that.
u understand the real properties and features of different parts like resistor,capacitor,regulators,different ICs,etc...

But he had already purchased one .
so he can use that

 

[jignesh doshi]

But he had already purchased one .
so he can use that

he had not purchased any development board.. he had purchased only MCs.

so he can think about my suggestion..

wt u say??????