Advice for beginners with PIC uC

[enrico]

pic uc

Dear all,

I am intending to begin program with PIC microcontrollers (8 to 12 bits, like in e.g. PIC16F84) to be used to control PLL applications (I2C, SPI interfaces) among other small application involving collect signals.

As I will begin from the scratch, I would appreciate to know which is the recommended kit for very beginners and what would be the necessary items.

I have seem many people using compilers like CCS, but I think besides the kit for playing a little bit with it I will need a programmer where I can place the PIC to program and load the instructions, preferable USB interface.

Could you please advice me. thank you in advance

 

[wp100]

pic programming for beginners

Hi Enrico,

Your questions will get many varied answers - heres my views -

A good start is always the Pickit2 Degugger kit from Microchip.
It will get you going but long term will need extra circuitry adding on like an lcd - that can be done with breadboards or pcbs - just depends how much hardware building you want to do.

The JuneBug is a similar programmer with more features and more designed for easily adding things onto, and is well supported by Bill from BlueRoom.

You can buy large boards like the Mikroe EasyPic range but you are really paying for a lot of switches and leds you are not likely to use - plus its high level software is dedicated to their hardware.

All the above are USB based, but whatever you go for ensure it is one thats properly supported in terms of hardware and software.

My own choice was the basic Pickit2 programmer and built up my own little development board as I went along.

Even if you are thinking of C, most will suggest you start with Assembler - it gives you a better understanding of the chips functions.

You say the 16F84 chip - which has a lot of web based examples, but is very outdated - have a look at Nigels tutorial which is an Assember course with hardware design.
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk/pic_tutorial.htm


hth

 

[Tahmid]

arm or pic for beginners

Hi,
Search Intenet. You will get lot of Tutorials and Books on PIc microcontroller.
Goto www.mikroe.com. Here, you can get 2 good E- Books,one on Pic 16F84 and one on Pic 16F887. Good Books.
Purchase Pickit2 and try to build your own programmer also- by that way you can learn valuable lesson on hardware and pic programming.
Learn Assembly first. Then switchover to other high level language.
Try again and again and learn learn and learn.
Thanks.

 

[kender]

what is (uc)+ pic controller

I would recommend to build your own PIC hardware on a breadboard, if you have friends or colleagues, who are ahead of you, and who you can learn from. You will learn more that way.
If you're starting entirely on your own, then maybe using a kit is a good idea.

 

[millwood]

easy to learn pic uc

I used an old jdm programmer (no debugging function whatsoever) on pic12f675 and pic16f684 because they are supported by picc-lite and proteus. they have worked out really well for me.

I would recommend C / picc-lite / hi-tide because of their ease of use and wide support on the web.

I use Keil for my ARM stuff.