The Tinusaur Project

About The Tinusaur

What is it

Briefly, the Tinusaur is a minimal micro-controller hardware configuration based on Atmel AVR ATtiny family of products and more specifically those with DIP-8 case such as ATtiny25/ATtiny45/ATtiny85, ATtiny13 as well as their variations.

The goal of the Tinusaur project is to have a simple, cheap and accessible quick-start platform for everyone interested in learning and creating things.

What is so special about it

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The Tinusaur and its name

The Tinusaur was born ages ago but it got its name just recently – on 2013-10-25 around 10:00 am GMT, approximately at this 43.084369,25.635395 location.

Goals

Now the serious stuff ...

Schematics

The schematics should be simple and easy to understand by everyone with basic knowledge in electronics and computers. It should contain the minimum required components to run a general purpose micro-controller system.

Board

The printed circuit board (a.k.a PCB) should be simple and easy to understand by everyone just by looking at it. It should be possible to make one even at home or to order it online at low cost.

Components

The components should be easy to find and of course cheap. Only the minimum required components should be part of the circuit.

Assembling

Assembling of the board should be simple and easy to do for everyone. It should not require using special tools to solder components to the board. Naturally, that will exclude using any SMD or similar parts.

Writing code

Writing code should be as simple as writing code for any other configuration of the same or similar complexity. It should not require using any special development tools except for those that are standard for the platform.

Programming

Programming the boards, i.e. transferring the code from a computer to the micro-controller should be simple and an easy task for everyone. It could require using an external programming device but that should be simple one and cheap as well.