HC08 development under Linux

[Will]

I've always been singularly impressed by the people who can make lights
blink and robots roll and whatnot. I've been trying a foray into that
world for about a month now on and off with the apparently abandoned
USB-IR-Boy project.

http://usbirboy.sourceforge.net

I wanted something useful that I could write in C under Linux and this
USB based IR sensor looked perfect. I'm stuck however. I have code that
SDCC will compile no problem, but I can't flash the MC68HC908 using
spgmr08. I am trying to use a slightly corrected version of the
programmer from the USB-IR-Boy site:

http://odin.himinbi.org/frontpanel/prommer.cleaned.svg (it'll open
in firefox)
http://usbirboy.sourceforge.net/prommer.png

My question is two-fold. One is, are there any problems with that
design? I've been comparing it to other designs:

http://www.hc08.net/projects/hc08pgmr_schematic.gif
http://www.kmitl.ac.th/~kswichit /hc08fan/hc08fan.pdf
http://www.freescale.com/files/microcontrollers/doc/app_note/AN2317.pdf

They all seem to use a 9.9304Mhz oscillator and my existing design uses
a 6Mhz one. Does that matter?

Also, they have capacitors with a polarity (which I am using since one
lead is longer than the other). My project doesn't mention capacitor
polarity. Does it matter?

Unless someone has something illuminating on the first part, can anyone
recommend something prebuilt to let me program this chip from Linux for
under $100? If I have to switch to Windows to build up to the point I
have a clue, I'll accept that, but I don't feel like piecing together a
Windows box unless I have to.

I suppose a third question might be, does anyone have a recommendation
of an alternate microcontroller for a programmer (I'm fine with C and
don't really want to switch to BASIC) looking to make a USB device
under Linux?

Will Holcomb

 

[Daenris]

I've always been singularly impressed by the people who can make lights
blink and robots roll and whatnot. I've been trying a foray into that
world for about a month now on and off with the apparently abandoned
USB-IR-Boy project.

http://usbirboy.sourceforge.net

Just wanted to let you know that this isn't an abandoned project.
Granted, it's not super busy, but there was just an update announced on
the mailing list recently, so if you haven't already you may want to
join the mailing list and ask your questions on there.

-Mike