PIC Programming - what to start with?

[Hai_Men]

PIC Programming

To all gurus,

I'm new to pic and playing electronic as a hobby. Quite experinece with basic and VB. I want to start with PIC and have gone through a number of web pages related to PIC and programming.

I have the following guestion ?

1. Should I start with Basic (PicBasic, LET Basic, ....) or assembly ?
2. Is the BASIC programming has the capability of Assembly ?

Thanks in advance

 

[Fragrance]

for you

hi friend


As you are new comer to micro controller field like PIC, well come embedded world of controllers,
I suggests you to start with PIC basic pro of MELABS it is very power full and easy to used compiler instruction like English so easy to learn and it is very power full compiler which can give you the controls on interrupt, built in routines so just add in your code to save time and cost and so on (such as LCD display and many others).

Assembly has their own advantage once you learn the PIC basic you can easily understand the assembly code for your knowledge once you compile the code you also get an assembly file, and you can read it for your knowledge.

I suggest you one thing more make test bed for testing your code this kind of thing you can find here. Also used virtual breadboard it save your time at learning stage.

Hope this will clear the things for you and you get the right track to run on it.


here you can find virtual breadboard

https://www.virtualbreadboard.com


here you can find test bed very nice one
**broken link removed**

 

[saltlake]

First of all you must study very well the datasheet of the PIC MCU you want to use. All the secrets are there!
About the language: forget assembly language!
I don’t know Pic Basic. I can suggest you C language. It’s very powerful: you can use pointers. A great C compiler for PIC MCU is the HiTech one. You can download a demo version (it is full but only for 21 days http//www.htsoft.com). For complex projects you have to add a hardware debugger tool. ICD2 from Microchip is the best solution (very good and inexpensive): you can debug at C code level almost all PIC MCU. Also you can use it as a programmer.

Good luck!

 

[PlatinumT]

I was in your shoes about 6 months ago. I started using PIC Basic Pro language and now I've been getting into assembly. I would suggest that you start out by using the 16F84 MCU. Its been becoming obsolete but you will be able to find more than enough examples online. If you can, try and get a copy of proteus to. Proteus is a visual simulation program that is very nice. If you need any help just PM me and I would be glad to help.

Later,

 

[richmon74]

someone asked this question b4 and there was no response. i still want to ask again.
what is the diff b/w PicBasic, PicBasic Pro, Basic, LET Basic ... etc?

 

[btbass]

Get HiTech C compiler.
Theirs only one language for micros, C.
Elegant.
C is for programmers,
Basic is for 'Beginers all purpose instruction Language'!
Do you want to be a Beginer or a Hacker?

 

[ME]

I would also recommend to use C language, but I think it is easiest to start C programming for your PC. When you have learned the C language you can use it for your PIC. But start at your PC.
I have never heard of any engineers using BASIC, most use C and assembly.
I think the CCS C compiler is the easiest PIC C compiler to use.

But if you want to get a quick start and don't want to learn a new language, then use BASIC. I have never used embedded BASIC programming, so I can't tell you which BASIC compiler to choose. But I have heard from other mebers that PIC BASIC Pro is the best PIC BASIC compiler.

If you want to do a lot of programming you should learn C. It's also a good idea to learn assembly, then you will have a better idea how a microcontroller works.

 

[Zenner]

Start with C or assembly.

 

[Rafael]

Take a look at this site, excellent tutorial...

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