Hi guys!
I'm trying to decide on what brand / architecture of chips I should be using. I plan on making a custom pcb for both of these projects, but it is always nice if there is a dev kit that I can use to start out with, but it is not necessary.
I'm working on two related keyboard projects.
1) A keyboard based off of a Lenovo T420 keyboard with usb and or Bluetooth interface
2) full custom mechanical keyboard with bluetooth or usb
plan on making a custom pcb for both of these projects, but it is always nice if there is a dev kit that I can use to start out with, but it is not necessary.
I have worked with pic for school and have a pic kit 3. I liked it ok, but it seemed a little bit of a pain to get all the registers configured correctly, but that may just have been part of the learning curve.
At work the mostly use arm MCU's which I am not directly involved with, but would like to learn about and possibly use GCC.
I am confident in being able to select the correct chip from a given family (peripherals etc.), but I'm not sure of what the "best" family is. I'm thinking of pic, atmel, or arm. (there may be others that I have missed).
I know pic has the pic kit and mplab which is free, but do the other families have free dev software? Are the In circuit programmers expensive?
I know there are firmware's in existence to do exactly what I want, but I want to write my own mainly just for the experience. (and of course I can always look at the others for inspiration if needed)
I know there is no silver bullet, but I would like to hear some opinions. I also would like something that is expandable to other things as well.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks!