Pic Programming

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Chinners

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Ok, I have a bit of spare cash thanks to clearing out a lot of retro equipment. My initial thoughts were to get the all illusive NeoGeo CD, but then I got worried in case it died within a month or so...

So, another ambition of mine is to learn more about electronics, specifically PIC programming. I have a few ideas in my head of cool stuff that can be done with the humble pic, have read a bit about programming them, and have decided to take a tentative leap. My current knowledge of electronics is very slim - anything beyond buzzing with a multimeter to find a dead component is beyond me.

I used to program in x86 assembler, so hopefully I can clear out a few cobwebs and get the ole grey matter back up to what it used to be. I have since gone downhill from C/x86 to Delphi and now VB.NET (both very good languages, but not where I like to be).

So, who can recommend an "ok for beginners" PIC programmer for the PC? My PC has no LPT or serial ports, so I guess I need a USB programmer (or an IO card). My OS is Windows 7/64bit, and I don't want to spend too much initially in case I get bored with it :)

I think to start with, 12-16 io pins will be more than enough for my needs. Which family of pic should I start with?

So, where should I be looking, what should I look for as a beginner?

:thumbsup:

Bored Chinners
 
I'd recommend the PIC 16F886 and 16F887 - they're both cheap, plentiful and have some nice features including an internal clock, so you can use them without having to worry about crystals / ceramic resonators or R/C circuits. They're also similar enough to the eponymous 16F84 that a lot of simpler projects will need little or no adaptation.

However, you might also want to look at an Arduino such as the Duomilianove. They use an Atmel AVR chip (competitor to the PIC) but they come on a board that can be programmed via a simple USB cable, have a button and LED onboard and a rather nice C++-ish IDE which makes programming them a breeze. You can also buy on eBay, again at a sensible price, just the chip, pre-programmed with the Arduino bootloader and complete with a ceramic resonator and a pair of suitable capacitors, which you can use directly in your own circuits. Just pop the chip into the original Arduino for programming, pull it out again and put it in your circuit, and away you go.

I'd only used PIC chips myself until last autumn - then I needed to make up a gadget that processed and relayed infra-red signals (to help an elderly friend use his new satellite box when the Analogue TV signal went dark). I used an Arduino for that project simply because I found a ready-to-use infra-red library for the Arduino, and couldn't find anything as turnkey for the PIC.
 
Mcumall.com

The gq-4x should cover what you want and a lot more. I had one for quite awhile until I upgraded to a elnec beeprog+ or dataman 48pro+ depending on where you are shopping.
 
I would agree with robinsonb5. From a beginner perspective, the Arduino is a much better purchase.

The board helps immensely, and you can prototype projects much quicker with it. The PIC is great as well, and I highly recommend it. I would just go for the Arduino first since it makes learning microcontrollers a lot easier.
 
I've just taken a look at the Arduino, and I really like what I see there. Simple circuits for flashing an LED to start with, and much more complex stuff for the future. Plus it's fairly cheap!

I've just bought myself a little starter kit :whistle:

:thumbsup: for the pointers! :D
 
Gah - the fools!

They have changed the design of the board, so it has an SMD chip, rather than the nice socketed one.

It means that the kit is pretty rubbish for programming chips to use with my own circuits, which spoils the whole fun :(

Again, the fools!!!! One cost-cutting measure toooooooo far!
 
While annoying, you can make a circuit and use it as a programmer.

So you would test on the real board, then reprogram the board with the programmer sketch and then burn a DIP packaged chip.

More round-about than previously, but at least the blanks dont need the bootloader already programmed to it.
 
Bad_Ad84 said:
While annoying, you can make a circuit and use it as a programmer.

So you would test on the real board, then reprogram the board with the programmer sketch and then burn a DIP packaged chip.

More round-about than previously, but at least the blanks dont need the bootloader already programmed to it.
Click to expand...

The main reason I had for going the Arduino route is I could miss all this out, and just program and test a pic on board, the whip the chip out and use it in a real circuit.

Unfortunately, being a "noob" most of what is said above just goes above my head :( I understand "make a circuit", and "dip packaged chip".

I guess googling for programmer sketch (:unsure:) might help.

For you it may be an annoyance, for me its a pretty tall brick wall to see from just opening the box, and probably more expense. :(
 
Programs on the arduino are called sketches.

So you could test everything on board, once it works make your arduino into a programmer by uploading the programmer sketch and program your program (sketch) onto a blank chip.

Round about, but not a huge issue.

Edit:

Please see the bottom of this page for what I am talking about:
http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoISP
 
Bad_Ad84 said:
Programs on the arduino are called sketches.

So you could test everything on board, once it works make your arduino into a programmer by uploading the programmer sketch and program your program (sketch) onto a blank chip.

Round about, but not a huge issue.

Edit:

Please see the bottom of this page for what I am talking about:
http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoISP
Click to expand...

Cheers for that! :thumbsup:

I know this isn't the arduino support forum ;)

I suppose I got a bit scared when I saw things were not going to be as easy as I had hoped, meaning I have to learn more stuff than I wanted to.

I had already checked out that tutorial, and also found this one:
http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/200
(the processors I have are pre-programmed with the boot loader)

I will make myself a full programming circuit in time.

I think I might be able to work out what to do from these. I just wish they hadn't modified their design, as that would have been ideal.
:thumbsup:
Chinners
 
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