[time-nuts] Good (cheap) PIC chip choice for project?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

At least with the newer versions ( the X stuff), they really seem to want to see the PIC Kit 3.

Bob

On May 25, 2013, at 10:20 PM, Herbert Poetzl <herbert at 13thfloor.at> wrote:

> On Sat, May 25, 2013 at 10:04:59PM -0400, Bob Camp wrote:
>> Hi
> 
>> If you are putting money into a Microchip programmer, I'd
>> probably head over to the PIC Kit 3 rather than the 2. It will
>> do debug as well as programming on the range of parts. 
> 
> Unfortunately the command line support is missing in the
> PICkit 3, although there was/is an efford to make the 'new'
> PICkit 3 compatible with the PICkit 2.
> (as usualy, marketing decisions ... :)
> 
> And the PICkit 2 can do all the debugging the PICkit 3
> does plus it can work as UART and Logic Analyzer as well.
> 
>> Having breakpoints and debug is a *good* thing.
> 
> Depends, using breakpoints and/or debug on time critical
> stuff (like software PWM or UART) usually results in
> unexpected results, more often it is simpler to add one
> or more LEDs to display a state or do 'printf' style
> debugging via serial (UART/I2C/SPI).
> 
> But as always, YMMV.
> 
> best,
> Herbert
> 
>> Bob
> 
>> On May 25, 2013, at 9:44 PM, Herbert Poetzl <herbert at 13thfloor.at> wrote:
> 
>>> On Sat, May 25, 2013 at 08:46:03AM -0500, Jason Rabel wrote:
>>>> I've decided I finally want to tackle learning how to use a PIC
>>>> chip for some smaller projects. Can someone recommend me a good
>>>> (and cheap) PIC, and possible some literature (be it a book or
>>>> website)? I have a fairly recent willem eprom programmer that
>>>> I'm hoping I can use.
> 
>>> Microchip has good product selection tools like this one:
>>> http://www.microchip.com/maps/microcontroller.aspx
>>> (note the plus signs on the right side of each section)
> 
>>>> I don't know what all the features PICs have, but for my first
>>>> project I would like to have it connected to a serial port on
>>>> one of my Soekris' where it can grab info (i.e. the current
>>>> time, or NTP/GPS info) and output that on a little LED display.
> 
>>> Depending on the type of LED display you have in mind, you
>>> want to have PWM capabilities (multiplexing) and high
>>> current source/sink, as well as an (E)U(S)ART for the serial
>>> communication.
> 
>>> A four digit LED display can be easily controlled by a
>>> PIC16F1503 (price about 0.8 USD, 14 pins) and the required
>>> documents are available on the Microchip site:
>>> http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/Devices.aspx?dDocName=en553475
> 
>>> You can do the UART part in software for low data rates
>>> or simply take the PIC16F1508/9 which already includes 
>>> an EUSART (price about 1.3 USD, 20 pins)
> 
>>> One programmer for many PIC chips (8 bit to 32 bit) is
>>> the PICkit2 which can be bought for less than 30 USD
>>> (via usb, works fine on Linux and MacOS as well)
> 
>>> HTH,
>>> Herbert
> 
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