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Need 8051 soup-to-nuts recommendation please

A few years ago, I inherited dozens of tubes of 8051 MCUs, specifically the Atmel AT89C51ED2-IM. I know they're old - and clearly tons of much better MCUs exist - but they'd be useful. (Plus, it just feels wrong discarding 100+ good chips.) 

Any suggestions what Keil (or other) product to use, which programming gizmo, and possibly a dev board? I'd like to spend as little as possible as this is hobby stuff.  8051 assembler or C is fine.

So far, I've found these but am uncertain if they'll work:

  • PK51 pro kit - might be too costly(?) --- is there a set up that just does 8051 cores?
  • Mikroe-1382 programmer --- backordered, less than $75
  • Mikroe-257 dev board --- in my price range of $25 :) ...

I understand that Arduino's can be used for the programmer / loader, but apparently the "C" type Atmel's I have need a more sophisticated programming device than the "S" types (or is that incorrect?)

Any assistance is greatly appreciated. thanks!

Parents
  • This was a pretty good device many years ago with 64K of on-chip Flash. Here are some recommendations:

    • You could use our PK51 to generate code. The code size limit of the free evaluation version is just 2K.
    • You don't need a programmer to download your application to the on-chip Flash. You can do that via UART interface with the free FLIP tool. See:https://www.microchip.com/en-us/development-tool/flip. This tool can be set up as a download tool within our uVision IDE
    • Like most old 8051 devices, this chip does not have a debug interface. However, you could use our ISD51 (https://www.keil.com/c51/isd51.asp) to debug your application via UART.
    • Since this device is usually used without an external bus system (RAM/Flash), an evaluation board could be quite simple. This chip only needs a power supply and a crystal oscillator with two caps. You can then connect a USB to serial converter which outputs 3.3V or 5V signals rather than a RS232 signal levels. These are available on ebay for a few euro/dollar. Maybe you can find a breakout board with a PLCC44 socket to make it easier.
Reply
  • This was a pretty good device many years ago with 64K of on-chip Flash. Here are some recommendations:

    • You could use our PK51 to generate code. The code size limit of the free evaluation version is just 2K.
    • You don't need a programmer to download your application to the on-chip Flash. You can do that via UART interface with the free FLIP tool. See:https://www.microchip.com/en-us/development-tool/flip. This tool can be set up as a download tool within our uVision IDE
    • Like most old 8051 devices, this chip does not have a debug interface. However, you could use our ISD51 (https://www.keil.com/c51/isd51.asp) to debug your application via UART.
    • Since this device is usually used without an external bus system (RAM/Flash), an evaluation board could be quite simple. This chip only needs a power supply and a crystal oscillator with two caps. You can then connect a USB to serial converter which outputs 3.3V or 5V signals rather than a RS232 signal levels. These are available on ebay for a few euro/dollar. Maybe you can find a breakout board with a PLCC44 socket to make it easier.
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