I would like to start with Atmel AVR's, so I need some cheap development
board. Something like this:
http://www.futurlec.com/ATMEGA8535_Educational_Board.shtml, max 100 USD.
Do you have any recomendation?
Check over at
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/ or
http://www.olimex.com/dev/index.html. A lot depends on how much you need
or want in the way of a dev board or how much you have laying around the
workbench that you don't need to buy again. Note that Sparkfun resells
the Olimex boards; you may want to go directly to Olimex, of course.
There's this, for example:
<
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=29> which
doesn't include the AVR chip (pick your own) or in-system programmer
(pick your own).
Might also consider the STK500 (available from a variety of sources),
<
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=2735>
if you are using a PC with a real serial port. Buttons, switches, RS232,
sockets for all DIP AVRs, and it can be used as an in-system programmer
for a chip mounted on another board. Plus it is capable of doing
parallel programming of the AVRs, which could be useful if a chip's fuse
settings get totally dorked (usually by a new user) and it no longer
responds to the normal serial in-system protocol.
Atmel also has daughter/extender boards for the STK500 to permit working
with the surface-mount ATmega64 chips and up, as well as a little CAN
interface add-on, and others.
But, AFAIK, USB->serial dongles won't work; you need a real serial port.
