Sunday, November 7, 2010

Thank god I don't blog to earn money, I'd be piss poor by now. Jokes apart, I really should stick to my threats and blog more.
Today for some reason or other, I feel like gushing on and on about various technical things that I do, tools that I use. Instead of overloading myself by writing about everything in one go, I'll start a step by step description of various tools that I use. Usually, as an electronics design engineer, involved in both analog as well as digital designs (no DSP for me, though) I require good schematic editing and PCB designing tools.
Since I ain't rich and have to pay for all the tools I use from my own pocket, my inclination is towards using good and free to use tools that provide open file formats (preferred not mandatory), frequent updates and those which are functionally stable for at least six months or more.
The tools that I have found invaluable till now are:
  • KiCAD : Schematic and PCB (Linux and Windows)
  • PCB : PCB design (Linux and Windows)
  • AVRGCC : C tool chain for AVR micro-controllers (Linux and Windows)
  • SDCC : C compiler for MCS-51 series micro-controllers (Linux and Windows)
  • SimAVR : AVR Simulator (Linux)
  • AVR Studio : AVR tools from Atmel (Windows)
  • MSPGCC : C tool chain for MSP430 family of controllers (Linux and Windows)
  • QCAD : A reasonably priced, well featured 2D CAD software (Linux and Windows)
  • Programmer's Notepad : Good IDE for small projects (Windows)
  • CodeBlocks : A full featured IDE for (everything?, Linux and Windows)
  • ASM51 : MCS-51 family assembler (DOS)
  • GAVRASM : AVR Assembler (Linux and Windows)
  • ASEM : MCS-51 Assembler (Linux)
  • OpenOffice Draw : I use it for drawing flowcharts
  • AVRDude and AVR-Burn-O-Mat : AVR ISP programming
  • Flashmagic : ISP software for NXP controllers (Windows only)
  • FLIP : ISP Software for Atmel controllers (Linux and Windows)
Well, the list above looks rather mis-arranged. I'll get down to it in a couple of days and arrange it based on functionality or Operating Systems. As of right now my intention is to provide a small article on each of these tools.
But since I am a terribly lazy person, don't hold your breath for me to publish these articles. I will definitely write them within upcoming two month's time. Till then feel free to email me with any problems that you might have run into, with these tools. If you have reached this blog, you probably know my email id. Its archis.bhave@gmail.com

Cyao people.
Soon.