Re: [avr-chat] Avrdude and JTAG / Dragon...

[Vincent Trouilliez]

On Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:23:27 -0500
"Graham Davies" <address@hidden> wrote:
> I think if this was a problem it would have surfaced (a pun?) by now.

That's not good enough an argument ;-)
Cars are crap and cause loads of problems... but people don't even
bother complaing because there is no way out, so they just keep buying
them ;-)

> The only component that is likely to take a hit (the inductor that filters 
> the 
> power supply) is, in fact, secured with epoxy.  The underside has an 
> insulating coating to avoid shorts with the target.  All around the edge, 
> where you grip it, is ground plane.  To my knowledge, nobody has ever zapped 
> an ICE-Cube.

This however is/are very good arguments, you even managed to convince
me !

> But, I'm not trying to persuade you, just inform you.  You absolutely must 
> go with what looks best to you.

Thanks for not putting too much pressure on me ;-)
And as I said, now that I (will soon) have my Dragon, I won't be in the
market for quite a few months probably anyway.

> Absolutely right here.  I would urge anyone working with embedded systems 
> not to buy a PC without a serial port.  And, don't tell me this is hard to 
> do.  Just don't get your PC at Wal-Mart.

It is hard.
A year ago when I looked at the market to renew/update my 6 year old
motherboard, I could not find any that fit 100% my needs.
Having a parallel port and at least one serial port was mandatory
for me, but it restricted my choice with regards to other
aspects of the board. Despite the zillions of motherboards out there,
none of them were a perfect match.
As for Wall mart, I don't know, we don't have them here.. and I never
buy pre-assembled computers anyway, but I doubt other pre-assembled
computers have serial ports anymore. Serial ports are useful to techies
like us, but PC assembler don't sell for techies, they sell for the
masses.. and the masses don't need a serial port anymore, not even a
parallel port. Just Ethernet for internet, USB, USB, USB, and... USB.
I have even seen motherboard where the rear I/O panel had lots of
available space, yet they didn't even put a VGA, Serial or Parallel
port, they just wasted the space doing nothing with it !! :-O
That drove me mad...


--
Vince