Microcontroller Programming

[SilverToast]

Does anyone program avr or pic microcontrollers?
What projects have you made with the microcontroller? How did you get started on programming microcontrollers?

[shooraijin]

What are you planning to do with it? The PIC is probably easier to program, but the AVR is arguably more flexible; see http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/picvsavr.html

You might be better served by something like a BASIC Stamp or an Arduino for a first project; they're a lot easier to get started with.

[SilverToast]

Thanks for the link!

I'm planning to make a robot that launches light weight objects like a ping pong ball or tennis ball at a certain angle using a spring and servos. I hope I can make/use an external program to calculate something like at what inital velocity do I need to launch the ball to get it at this position using this angle. It would take a while for me to do this.

I actually started with an arduino uno, but I got bored with the Arduino IDE. I already knew some C++ before I got an arduino so I thought I would move up from Arduino libraries to AVR. I use the linux AVR-GCC toolchain now to code and upload to the arduino uno through its bootloader.
Right now I'm just learning AVR basics.

I'll have to try pic's soon and other avr's.

[shooraijin]

If you're used to AVR, then just stick with that. What you're looking to do is well within the capabilities of either architecture, and I think AVR will give you room to grow.