The ATmega8a development kit is based on our 28 pin development board which is compatible with many of the Atmel AVR microcontrollers. In some ways the kit is similar to an Arduino but with loads more flexibly. This kit is an easy and low cost way to get started with microcontrollers.
Included in the kit is the development board, an Atmega8a microcontroller, external crystal with supporting capacitors, AVCC filter parts, a 10 pin ISP connector, Power supply parts and more. For a full list, please refer to the "What's Included" tab.
The Atmel Atmega8a microcontroller replaces the atmega8 which was discontinued in 2008. It is an 8-bit microcontroller with 8KB of flash, 1KB of RAM and 512 bytes of EEPROM. It has 23 I/O lines, 3 PWM channels and a 6 channel, 10-bit AD Converter. It sports dual 8-bit Timers each having separate prescalers and compare modes. Additionally it has a single 16-bit timer with a separate prescaler, compare and capture mode. I could go on but suffice to say, the Atmega8A is a feature packed and very versatile microcontroller.
The development board measures 5" x 3.7" (127 x 93.98mm) and conforms to the Protostack full size form factor. It has 6 mounting holes and can be stacked with other full and half size boards. It is made of quality 1.6mm FR4 substrate and uses 1oz per sqr foot copper. All holes are through plates and treated with lead-free HASL. The board includes The following areas:
- The 28-pin Microcontroller
- AVCC filter
- External crystal oscillator and supporting capacitors
- Pullup resistor (10KΩ)
- Reset switch
- 10 pin ISP connector (standard ICSP 10-pin pinout)
- 6 pin ISP connector (standard ICSP 6-pin pinout)
- Dual row area for IDC connectors, USB connectors or other dual row components
- Large prototyping area
- VCC power bus, and
- GND power bus.
The board supports many power supply configurations, including
- L7805 regulator with barrel connector
- L7805 regulator with polarised header
- L7805 regulator with terminal block
- LD1117 regulator with barrel connector
- LD1117 regulator with polarised header
- LD1117 regulator with terminal block
- Stacking header bringing power from another board in a multiboard stack
- Regulated power via barrel connector
- Regulated power via polarised header
- Regulated power via terminal block
- CR2032 Batter clip solder on the board
All of these options are covered in the User's Guide in section 4.6.
Being a through-hole kit it is suitable for beginners. Full assembly instructions are available from our library.
