cbjohnson
Newbie level 1
pic training board
Hi,
I have developed a PIC programming / training board (called PIC-EL III) that may be of interest to folks here. It goes along with a free on-line PIC training course (called Elmer-160). It is specifically designed with the radio amateur in mind - supporting hardware components that radio amateurs typically want to know how to use, but is applicable to any other PIC usage as well.
The course (www.amqrp.org/elmer160/index.html) starts out using a 16F84A PIC because its architecture is the easiest to understand but expands to use other PICs as well.
The PIC-EL III board (see www.cbjohn.com/aa0zz and click on PIC-EL III picture) has two main parts. First, it has a PIC programmer which attaches to a computer via a USB port. The 18-pin DIP socket directly supports these 18-pin PICs: 16F627, 16F627A, 16F628, 16F628A, 16F648A, 16F716, 16F818, 16F819, 16F84A, 16F87, 16F88, 18F1220, 18F1230, 18F1320, 18F1330. Many other PICs can be supported indirectly.
The second part of the PIC-EL board is the test/demonstration portion. By simply moving the slide switch, the board changes from a PIC programmer into a test board. It has pushbuttons, LEDs, rotary encoder, LCD, speaker, stereo jack for CW paddles, and a stereo jack for keying a CW transmitter. It has a socket to support a daughtercard (from the AmQRP organization) which can turn the PIC-EL into a signal generator. Now the user can immediately test these hardware components with the PIC program that was just programmed into the PIC microcontroller.
The PIC-EL III programming section has circuitry and firmware based on Microchip's PICKit-2 programmer. It uses Microchip's free PICKit2 applications - either the stand-alone application or the MPLAB IDE package (both for Windows 98SE and beyond). Motivated Linux and Mac users can use another software package from Microchip that has a command-line interface.
I support the PIC-EL via a YAHOO group (www.groups.ychoo.com/group/pic-el) or private Email but will answer questions here as well.
The PIC-EL kit sells for $65 and is available from Bill Kelsey, N8ET, at KangaUS (www.kangaus.com). More information is available on my web site - www.cbjohns.com/aa0zz .
-Craig
Hi,
I have developed a PIC programming / training board (called PIC-EL III) that may be of interest to folks here. It goes along with a free on-line PIC training course (called Elmer-160). It is specifically designed with the radio amateur in mind - supporting hardware components that radio amateurs typically want to know how to use, but is applicable to any other PIC usage as well.
The course (www.amqrp.org/elmer160/index.html) starts out using a 16F84A PIC because its architecture is the easiest to understand but expands to use other PICs as well.
The PIC-EL III board (see www.cbjohn.com/aa0zz and click on PIC-EL III picture) has two main parts. First, it has a PIC programmer which attaches to a computer via a USB port. The 18-pin DIP socket directly supports these 18-pin PICs: 16F627, 16F627A, 16F628, 16F628A, 16F648A, 16F716, 16F818, 16F819, 16F84A, 16F87, 16F88, 18F1220, 18F1230, 18F1320, 18F1330. Many other PICs can be supported indirectly.
The second part of the PIC-EL board is the test/demonstration portion. By simply moving the slide switch, the board changes from a PIC programmer into a test board. It has pushbuttons, LEDs, rotary encoder, LCD, speaker, stereo jack for CW paddles, and a stereo jack for keying a CW transmitter. It has a socket to support a daughtercard (from the AmQRP organization) which can turn the PIC-EL into a signal generator. Now the user can immediately test these hardware components with the PIC program that was just programmed into the PIC microcontroller.
The PIC-EL III programming section has circuitry and firmware based on Microchip's PICKit-2 programmer. It uses Microchip's free PICKit2 applications - either the stand-alone application or the MPLAB IDE package (both for Windows 98SE and beyond). Motivated Linux and Mac users can use another software package from Microchip that has a command-line interface.
I support the PIC-EL via a YAHOO group (www.groups.ychoo.com/group/pic-el) or private Email but will answer questions here as well.
The PIC-EL kit sells for $65 and is available from Bill Kelsey, N8ET, at KangaUS (www.kangaus.com). More information is available on my web site - www.cbjohns.com/aa0zz .
-Craig
