rs232 board diy
Hi,
thanks for your replies!
pama, excellent point there. I can't say I've done much research into other PIC's, and I suppose they are backward compatable, so all the code snippets I've written won't be wasted. I suppose I *could* make up some boards with SMT PIC 18F series on them, that could plug into the uC socket. Of course, I'll have to look into the pinouts to see how easy that would be. it's also down to 'software' for compilers and programmers. I can't say I have the money to buy something expensive, so the PIC I'll use will have to be supported by a 'free' software (mikroC for example).
3v logic would probably cause a problem, cheers for reminding me, I got some LCD's that use it, and some other special IC's that aren't tolerant. The main reason I wanted to use the F77A was because of the reasons I gave before, but also because I have one
of course, I also already have most of the components for the dev board, which are independant of the micro used..all good there. As for USB? yes, it would be very handy indeed, both for bootloading and general purpose connections, but CAN? can't say I've ever used it, but as always, it'll be nice to have that option.
luben111,
I have seen some boards with the FTDI232 on them, and it would be very nice to have USB, that is, if the PIC I choose doesn't have USB already
again, I would have to research this, after all, I'm not planning on buying any programming software, I've been using the free version of MPLAB and IC-Prog. If I can find a bootloader for free, that works with USB, this will deffinately be an option. And, if I have enough board space, I'll have the RS232 connection as well (good for basic tihngs and backup).
As for ground planes, and tp's I was going to add them to the final design, this was just an example of the 'look' of the layout. I realise its not about looks but it is about where I place the connectors, it took 10 minutes in eagle. Great points though, I don't seem to put mounting holes on dev boards for some reason, but if its fixed to something, I could wack a breaboard on there, for a full dev system.
Thanks guys, I'm limited on board space but, if I go for a single chip, it could be SMT, if its a socket, that means I could just make some 'carrier' baords for different PIC's. As for PIC's I'm open to suggestions...there are so many these days....
Thanks once again,
BuriedCode.