If you want to get developing with the newer generations of ATtiny microcontrollers, this very affordable $6 TinyPower development board is a great choice! This board comes with an ATtiny1604, a user button, and a USB port. With some software libraries, you can create a software USB stack, allowing this tiny micro to communicate with just about anything!
Programming is done with UPDI, the successor to traditional Atmel SPI programming. It uses a single pin; you can use official programmers like the MPLAB Snap or the PicKit 4, but there are Arduino sketches to turn any Arduino into a UPDI programmer. Programming from a Raspberry Pi is another option.
When ordering, you can choose either a 5V or 3.3V regulator, depending on the application you’re planning on using it for. Either way, you get all the awesome peripherals in the newer ATtiny family — more timers, lots of serial interfaces, a 10-bit ADC with multiple internal voltage references, configurable logic blocks, and a powerful Event System. Altogether this makes for a spunky little chip that packs a lot of power into a small space!
Check out the TinyPower if you’re into AVR programming — the price is right and the features are plentiful! It’s so small, it can easily be used to retrofit into existing hardware and then add new features; it could easily fit inside handheld game consoles, appliances, and automotive projects. Your imagination is the only limit!
