SparkFun Forums

[bcr]

Which 32 bit MCU(s) are you using in your projects, and why? What do you like and not like?

Keep it factual and based on real design experience please.

I've spent several days comparing AVR32, PIC32, and STM32 on paper for (yet another) RC autopilot design. Leaning toward STM32 b/c of the larger SRAM, 12 bit DAC, 16 timers, and fully open Linux tools (such as openocd), but still undecided...

[gussy]

I am using the LPC2148 for a similar project to youself.
The reason I picked it was the learning curve moving from AVR's was pretty much non existent thanks to all the examples SFE provides.

The STM32 is looking pretty good though, the 90MIPS and 12bit ADC nearly won me over, but the learning curve would be a bit more for that one.

[signal7]

I can't really vote on this since I haven't (yet) used a 32bit micro for any of my projects. However, what I can say is that given the choices I would opt for the AVR32 without hesitation. The reason behind that being that I already own the JTAGICE mkII, so I would benefit from my previous investment. All of the other options would be more difficult for me to work with if we assume I'm not purchasing any further development tools.

It's like photographic equipment. Once you purchase into a particular manufacturer's system such as Canon, Nikon, or Pentax, it's usually in your best interest to avoid switching to a different manufacturer if you can avoid it.

[JasonDorie]

I'm using a Parallax Propeller chip for a quadcopter project. It's different from other MCUs in that it doesn't have inherent hardware support for things like A/D, UART, and so on - All the pins are digital I/O, but they provide a lot pre-made code objects for interacting with the outside world and emulating many peripherals with the hardware.

The real benefit for me is that there are 8 independent hardware cores, each of which can be running their own code. This makes doing things like running servos while reading remote input trivial, since you don't have to deal with interrupts. The cores will also generate video, which is very useful for debugging.

Jason

[static]

Not sure why stm32 are not as popular here

i tried atmel's ARM7 (sam7) and IMO STM32 is much more convenient and faster to boot. In general i like Cortexm3 much better than the old arm7

the other micro i use is Parallax Propeller and it's awesome, but for different kinds of projects than STM32 (i.e propeller is better for FPGA types of tasks, and has 16 32bit timers!)