MyFirstPic

introduction

this is a springboard project for me. the project itself has no real goal to attain but is merely a learning experiance. this is my introduction to the pic microcontroller. i used a 68hc11 development board in college but i don't want my mobile robots to be slowed down by cumbersome dev boards. also i found out that you can get free sample pics from microchip so why not... the state of things

while i do plan on building a working el cheapo i have also bought a 'kitsrus k149D' kit programmer. i have the software for windows and have found something that may work with linux. fyi my first el cheapo didn't so much 'work' as it did 'smoke' and 'burn'. the flux i used was meant for soldering plumbing and was probably a bit strong for what i was doing. it is slow enough that i should be able to breadboard it for testing before building another.

• MyFirstPicLog

what i need

I have updated this section with the actual tools that i'm using but the rest of the page will not be updated as i've moved on to bigger and better things. if you honestly care to know more email me

• gpasm - assembler - to compile the code to pic machine lang
• K149D - programmer - physical hardware to interface the pic to the programming computer
• pp programmer software - software to do the bit banging from the pc to the pic

the programmer

i've settled on the 16C84 pic as it seems to be the most common and lots of tools and info is out there on it. i don't want to buy a programmer (too cheap and where's the fun in that? i'd rather pull out my hair in frustration for hours on end) so i googled it and found "el cheapo." it seems to be very popular, relatively simple to build, and was designed but a seemingly compotent guy (he writes robot books and that's good enough for me). - maybe i'll use this newer version. but now i need a 8V regulator. jeez!

• programmer parts:

       Part Number  Value/Comments

     X R1          220 Ohms 1/4 Watt
     X R2-R5       10K Ohms 1/4 Watt
     X R3-R4       1K Ohms 1/4 Watt
     X C1          10 uF 25 Volt Electrolytic
     X C2, C4      0.1 uF 35 Volt Tantalum
     X C3          0.01 uF Ceramic (tantalum)
     X CR1         5.1 Volt 1 Watt Zener
     X CR2, CR3    IN914 Silicon Diode (1N4148)
       Q1          2N7000 NMOS FET
       Q2          2106a PMOS FET
       U1          78L12 Voltage Regulator
     X U2          18 Pin IC Socket
     X J1          2.5 mm Power Plug (first desolder)
     X J2          DB-25F Solder Cup Connector (first desolder)

       Power Supply, 14+ Volts Supply with 2.5 mm Power Plug
     X Prototyping Card/Breadboard

reference

1. Pic and Linux - also google 'pic linux'
2. gnupic
3. kitsrus k149 in linux
4. generic 16f84 circuit
5. sdcc with pics

outro

i have decided that PICs are not well enough supported in the linux/opensource world and have switched to AVRs for these small projects. I get to use GCC - that was the big selling point. Both uCs are great if you are just coding in asm though... -- ChristopherPepe - 17 Mar 2006

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-- ChristopherPepe - 17 Mar 2006