Building a 18F4550 board similar to Arduino Nano 328 mega

Hello Everyone
I am Mabboseg from Australia, I just bought 18F4550 microcontroler from ebay. I read that this one can connect with PC through USB and applications can be loaded, as per my knowledge the older PIC's didn't have this facility. My new netbook doesn't have a comms port so USB is the only answer.

Recently I was playing with Arduino Nano 328 and found it very interesting: every new codes could be loaded through USB from a PC. I wish to build something similar like Arduino by using this PIC 18F4550, I need help from this forum to do that.

I am not a technical person and NOT very educated but I can do some bread-boarding and soldering etc. If I get step-by-step help, I think I can do this. The first thing I need to do is to know about this controller, so I downloaded the Microchip datasheet and USB Framework.... this blew my head off... it is not simple enough for me. Only thing I can understand is the pin numbers of this chip.

So what do I have to do next with this virgin chip ... and next .. and so on.

PLEASE HELP ME OUT....

Thanx in Advance
Mabbo

I would advice you to learn about pic controller from the basic. It would be helpful all along your project..

For your information (you might already came thro) there is some thing like arduino using pic controller

https://www.pinguino.cc/

Best of luck

Thanx nanhu015
I just read elsewhere that I need to put a bootloader inside pic to start off with, without this the micro will not communicate with PC. Which bootloader should I burn into my pic?? I am learning through about the PIC as I am going on doing some practical work.
I will really appreciate your help....

Unfortunately, you will need a PIC programmer to put the bootloader into the PIC in the first place. The ready-built Arduino and Pinguino boards come already programmed with the bootloader. There is no way around this.

Something like a PICKit 3 (Microchip's own programmer).

We can help you out with it all, but a programmer is a must have to start with if you just have a bare chip.

Edit: Having said that, it is possible to make a PIC programmer from an Arduino board! It just occurred to me, so I googled it and it has been done. Have a search and see if you can find one that works with your Arduino.

Thanx FoxyRick
I was wondering that a programmer like JDM ... will it be able to put the bootloader into 18F4550 with a PICgm application? But I read that JDM works with comms port, so if it is possible than I can arrange a PC with comms port and go ahead. Also I don't know which bootloader is the write one for this chip.

Yes, you can use a JDM-type programmer to put the bootloader (or any code) into the 18F4550. I would recommend Fragrance's version here:

https://www.edaboard.com/threads/238522/

Often, USB-serial port converters do not work well with JDM programmers, so unless you already have one to try it's probably not worth buying. You only need to program the bootloader once (into each chip that you have) so long as you don't delete it, so you could borrow a PC with a serial port for that.

Another alternative (that I used to run my older EPROM programmer that ran off the parallel port) was to buy a docking unit for my laptop that had the ports. On ebay it was cheaper even than the cheapest USB-parallel converter (which would not have worked anyway).

I can't say which USB bootloader to use, because I can't remember! It's a while since I played with that, although I do remember it was very easy once I had found the instructions on the web. I don't bother with USB bootloading as I use ISP programming. I do remember that I used a tool called 'USB Bootloader APP" on the PC to load new programs into the PIC. If I remember more, I'll say.

On that note, I would still recommend a PICKit 3 programmer if you want to do more than a couple of small programs. It allows debugging of the code running on the actual PIC, so you can figure out what is going wrong as the software steps through your code on the screen and you see the results in your circuit.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm pretty sure that I used Microchip's bootloader, from their Application Library:

**broken link removed**

I received the PIC18f4550 from Hong Kong and programmed it with the bootlader from Microchip using JDM programmer. Now I can see Human USB Device in the Device manager in my computer when the chip gets connected to USB. My circuit is a simple one that I copied from the web, it has just the oscillator crystal with 2 x 22pf and a 220 nF cap on pin 18. A reset sw on pin 1 which is connected to +5v via 10K resistor and a LED cct on pin 6. My circuit is built on a breadboard and powered by 5v supply from usb.

Now what shall I do next.... any Ideas will help from the members who have played with Microchip USB devices.
PLEaSE ...guide me ahead

Mabbo