Getting started with PIC's...what would you do differently?

jseidmann · Joined: 04 Nov 2004 Posts: 67

Hi everyone,

I'm currently getting started with PIC programming. I have done some work with them in the past, but I have never started the work from scratch. I need something to get me started and up and running relatively quickly. I'd like a good development board or something with a PIC already on it so I just have to connect it to the ICD and the C compiler and load an example program onto it and it'll work pretty quickly. I"m willing to spend $300 or so on the development board & ICD. What would all of you recommend to help me get started quickly and get PIC'ing?

Seidleroni

MikeValencia · Joined: 04 Aug 2004 Posts: 238 Location: Chicago

You can buy a PICDEM-2 Plus (don't forget the "Plus"), which a lot of people here use, as well as myself, to get proof-of-concept ideas running. It has a MAX232 chip to readily hook up to a PC's serial port, which you can run Hyperterminal on for debugging, a bank of LEDs, serial eeprom and temperature sensor to demonstrate I2C, an LCD, pushbuttons, and it supports a 28-pin, 18-pin, or 40-pin PIC. It's only $99, and In my opinion, is the most efficient general PIC programming demo board you'll need. (If you want to do speciallized things like CAN, USB,or Ethernet, then you'll need the more specialized demo boards that Microchip offers.)

jseidmann · Joined: 04 Nov 2004 Posts: 67

If I purchase the PicDem 2 plus board, can I use it with the CCS made ICD-U and CCS's C compiler?

bfmitch · Joined: 21 Aug 2004 Posts: 8

On my first project I decided to use pins for serial comms other than the built in UART. I seem to remember that I had what seemed like a good reason for it at the time. Later on, after products were in the field, I really wished I had used the built in UART.

I use a rather heavily modified Lab-X2 board from MicroEngineering Labs. I have an interface board for working with the ICD-U where the PIC is mounted. It uses a wire wrap socket for the PIC to plug into the experimenter board. I can use it like a debugger pod, with some limitations, on product boards.

Can you say Low Budget?

MikeValencia · Joined: 04 Aug 2004 Posts: 238 Location: Chicago

Neutone · Joined: 08 Sep 2003 Posts: 839 Location: Houston

I have several ICD-2 that are still in the wrapper and will probably never see any use. For a while I was using the CCS IDE and opening MPLAB to load my hex files. Now that was several years ago when the ICD-U was not yet fully functional. Now I don't use MPLAB at all and the ICD-2 I have are collecting dust. I find the ICD-U to be a very quick and effective programmer and debugger. The stand alone programming interface is a very big plus as well because it's so easy to use. The PICDEM-2 + is a versital board for development work or just foolin around so you cant hardly go wrong there.