Hi all, I'm a newbie PIC programmer, or soon to be one even, and I was
wondering if someone could recommend some schematics for a very basic
PIC tester? Something that would have some switches and LED's so I
could verify input/output's of my PIC.
I would humbly suggest that you don't bother. Instead, get yourself a good
logic probe, and maybe a logic pulser. They are not expensive, and will save
countless hours of troubleshooting. Put the logic probe on a pin that's
supposed to be an output, and it will tell you the state, whether it's hi,
low. or open. If your program pulses the pin, the logic probe will flash.
Very simple, and you get to test it in your actual circuit. Of course, this
assumes that you have the ability to reliably get your code into the PIC.
Neil
On 11/11/05, Shay <spam_OUTshayTakeThisOuThighstyleweb.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hi all, I'm a newbie PIC programmer, or soon to be one even, and I was
> wondering if someone could recommend some schematics for a very basic
> PIC tester? Something that would have some switches and LED's so I
> could verify input/output's of my PIC.
>
> Thanks,
> Shay
>
Shay wrote:
> Hi all, I'm a newbie PIC programmer, or soon to be one even, and I was
> wondering if someone could recommend some schematics for a very basic
> PIC tester? Something that would have some switches and LED's so I
> could verify input/output's of my PIC.
You don't need much, especially if you use one of the PICs with internal
oscillator. Give it 5V and ground, and put a 100nF cap accross those pins.
Connect an I/O line to a roughly 600 ohm resistor, other side of the
resistor to the cathode of an LED, anode of LED to 5V. The LED will light
when the PIC drives the I/O pin low.
******************************************************************
Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, (978) 742-9014. #1 PIC
consultant in 2004 program year. http://www.embedinc.com/products
Neil Baylis wrote:
> I would humbly suggest that you don't bother. Instead, get yourself a
> good logic probe, and maybe a logic pulser. They are not expensive, and
> will save countless hours of troubleshooting. Put the logic probe on a
> pin that's supposed to be an output, and it will tell you the state,
> whether it's hi, low. or open. If your program pulses the pin, the
> logic probe will flash. Very simple, and you get to test it in your
> actual circuit. Of course, this assumes that you have the ability to
> reliably get your code into the PIC.
Or the other end of the spectrum is something like my QuickProto-01
(http://www.embedinc.com/products). It comes with (among lots of other
stuff) eight LED indicator inputs. These have two LEDs per line, so you can
easily see high, low, or toggling.
******************************************************************
Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, (978) 742-9014. #1 PIC
consultant in 2004 program year. http://www.embedinc.com/products
Seems to be the most well rounded one I could find. I've been unable to
get MPLab to install on my system, winxp, so I'm staying away from
anything that requires that.
>I would humbly suggest that you don't bother. Instead, get yourself a good
>logic probe, and maybe a logic pulser. They are not expensive, and will save
>countless hours of troubleshooting. Put the logic probe on a pin that's
>supposed to be an output, and it will tell you the state, whether it's hi,
>low. or open. If your program pulses the pin, the logic probe will flash.
>Very simple, and you get to test it in your actual circuit. Of course, this
>assumes that you have the ability to reliably get your code into the PIC.
>
>Neil
>
>On 11/11/05, Shay <.....shayKILLspam@spam@highstyleweb.com> wrote:
>
>
>>Hi all, I'm a newbie PIC programmer, or soon to be one even, and I was
>>wondering if someone could recommend some schematics for a very basic
>>PIC tester? Something that would have some switches and LED's so I
>>could verify input/output's of my PIC.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Shay
You might want to compare that to my EasyProg, http://www.embedinc.com/products. For the same price you get the power
supply included, a considerably more complete list of *modern* PICs
supported, and some in-circuit programming capability. The down side is
that the EasyProg is a kit for that price.
******************************************************************
Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, (978) 742-9014. #1 PIC
consultant in 2004 program year. http://www.embedinc.com/products
Olin Lathrop wrote:
> > You might want to compare that to my EasyProg,
> http://www.embedinc.com/products. For the same price you get the power
> supply included, a considerably more complete list of *modern* PICs
> supported, and some in-circuit programming capability. The down side is
> that the EasyProg is a kit for that price.
>
But a kit that is pretty easy to build (if you look in the piclist
archives for the comments on building it). If I were Olin, I would
probably go through those comments and prepare a little cheatsheet to go
with the information already available at his website. :-) Personally,
if the EasyProg had been available at the time I bought my ICD2, I would
have went with it instead. (No ties to Embed, Inc -- just a satisfied
customer).
>>I've been unable to get MPLab to install on my system, winxp,
>>so I'm staying away from anything that requires that
>>
>>
>
>???? that's odd
>
>I've never had any trouble installing MPLAB from ver3 (which
>came on four floppies, it was so dinky back then), on Win3.1,
>95, 98, to XP
>
>OK, some of the versions you perhaps wish maybe you'd have
>been better off not installing ;-)
>
>Does XP or MPLAB tell you why the installation failed ?
>
>
>
>Shay wrote:
>
>
>>For a programmer, I'm thinking of going with this one:
>>www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/prog/ck1711.htm
>>
>>
>
>You might want to compare that to my EasyProg,
>http://www.embedinc.com/products. For the same price you get the power
>supply included, a considerably more complete list of *modern* PICs
>supported, and some in-circuit programming capability. The down side is
>that the EasyProg is a kit for that price.
>
>
>******************************************************************
>Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, (978) 742-9014. #1 PIC
>consultant in 2004 program year. http://www.embedinc.com/products
>
>
Shay wrote:
> I'll keep it in mind Olin. I don't mind putting it together as long as
> it's not super small solders. I can solder but I'm by no means an
> expert.. :)
The EasyProg is all big fat thru hole parts specifically to make it easy to
assemble by hand.
******************************************************************
Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, (978) 742-9014. #1 PIC
consultant in 2004 program year. http://www.embedinc.com/products
> Basic PIC like the 16F84.. I have a few free ones I got from
> MicroChip, some of which I think will work.
>
> 16LF819
> 18F252
> 18F452
> 16F630
Well, you'd hope they all work ;-) Not a good look is it, starting
a new hobby with duff chips
The F84 works fine, although it has only simple I/O. It's one of
Microchip's earliest micros and there's a lot of code out there
for it. If you already have some, by all means use them, but they
are more expensive than the replacements (F628, F88 etc, check
the line card) and you can do better performance-wise for a lower
price if you're buying micros in the future
Even the 18Fx52 are getting a little old too now but are a good
introductory micro and still commonly available. All of the above
can do everything the F84 can do and more
As for your registry problem with MPLAB, I've never struck
that either. Sounds very odd
>>Basic PIC like the 16F84.. I have a few free ones I got from
>>MicroChip, some of which I think will work.
>>
>>16LF819
>>18F252
>>18F452
>>16F630
>>
>>
>
>Well, you'd hope they all work ;-) Not a good look is it, starting
>a new hobby with duff chips
>
>The F84 works fine, although it has only simple I/O. It's one of
>Microchip's earliest micros and there's a lot of code out there
>for it. If you already have some, by all means use them, but they
>are more expensive than the replacements (F628, F88 etc, check
>the line card) and you can do better performance-wise for a lower
>price if you're buying micros in the future
>
>Even the 18Fx52 are getting a little old too now but are a good
>introductory micro and still commonly available. All of the above
>can do everything the F84 can do and more
>
>As for your registry problem with MPLAB, I've never struck
>that either. Sounds very odd
>
>
>
> Would you recommend some cheaper chips that would be
> good to learn on?
"cheaper" really depends on what you can get. That goes for
most components, not just PICs. I can buy F84s or F628s
at retail level in one-off quantities, but they aren't as cheap per
IC as buying a whole tube at trade. Of course you have to
stump up for a whole tube, so there's that outlay
I'd suggest the 12F675, 16F88 (or 628) and 18F1220/1320
You should download the pdfs for those from http://www.microchip.com
and see if their features are what you're looking for. Although I
guess at this stage you probably don't know that. Others will
have their opinions about what's a good starter chip. I just
selected a cheapish one from each family that has a reasonable
number of features. You could spend many weeks on any of
the above so I don't think it too important which one you start
with
Jinx wrote:
> I'd suggest the 12F675, 16F88 (or 628) and 18F1220/1320
If this is for hobby use, meaning low quantity but variety of project, I
would go for the fullest featured of each size. Unless you're really space
constrained, it's probably not worth stocking 8 pin PICs. The 18 pin
varieties can be useful for some hobby projects, and the 28 pin for more.
If you want to get a few of a single PIC to learn on and then use for a
variety of yet unspecified projects, I'd start with a 28 pin PDIP package.
In the 16 family, that would be the 16F876A. If you'd really rather have
only 18 pins, it's the 16F88 or 16F648A. Ignore the 16F628 as it's like the
'648A with less memory.
In the 18 family that would be the generic 28 pin PIC is the 18F2520. For
18 pins it's the 18F1320. Don't worry about the '1220, it's again just a
stripped down version of the '1320 which only makes sense in higher volumes.
If you're new to PICs and don't have a pile of legacy code you want to
reuse, I think it's better to start with dsPICs. They are definitely more
capable and easier to program, although a little more to learn initially.
My top recommended all around generic PIC for unspecified projects is the 18
pin 30F4012.
******************************************************************
Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, (978) 742-9014. #1 PIC
consultant in 2004 program year. http://www.embedinc.com/products
Hi Olin, I agree with your comments (apart from the one
about 8 pin, they certainly have a place and are cheap),
although I was careful to preface my suggestions with "what
you can get"
As I've mentioned before, even here in NZ, an apparently
technologically advanced country, there are many PICs, some
of them "entry level" like the 18F1220/1320, that cannot be
bought, even from the official MC reps, at less than indent
quantities. Often this is at least $300 worth, so there are some
PICs I'll probably never work with
For starting off, considering the hours that will have to be put
in just to get up to speed with PIC programming and comparing
that to the cost of a PIC (even the sometimes outrageous price
at some of the following), the most convenient place for Shay to
shop might Digikey/Mouser/RS
>Hi Olin, I agree with your comments (apart from the one
>about 8 pin, they certainly have a place and are cheap),
>although I was careful to preface my suggestions with "what
>you can get"
>
>As I've mentioned before, even here in NZ, an apparently
>technologically advanced country, there are many PICs, some
>of them "entry level" like the 18F1220/1320, that cannot be
>bought, even from the official MC reps, at less than indent
>quantities. Often this is at least $300 worth, so there are some
>PICs I'll probably never work with
>
>For starting off, considering the hours that will have to be put
>in just to get up to speed with PIC programming and comparing
>that to the cost of a PIC (even the sometimes outrageous price
>at some of the following), the most convenient place for Shay to
>shop might Digikey/Mouser/RS
>
>
>
John Nall wrote:
> But a kit that is pretty easy to build (if you look in the piclist
> archives for the comments on building it). If I were Olin, I would
> probably go through those comments and prepare a little cheatsheet to
> go with the information already available at his website. :-)
Yeah, OK. I had been meaning to do this for a while, and finally got around
to it. Any comments on the cheat sheet at http://www.embedinc.com/easyprog/assemble.htm would be appreciated.
******************************************************************
Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, (978) 742-9014. #1 PIC
consultant in 2004 program year. http://www.embedinc.com/products
Olin Lathrop wrote:
> > Yeah, OK. I had been meaning to do this for a while, and finally got around
> to it. Any comments on the cheat sheet at
> http://www.embedinc.com/easyprog/assemble.htm would be appreciated.
>
It has been awhile, so I really do not remember all the comments that
were made. Seems to me that there was a problem identifying one of the
inserts for a transistor -- Q4 looked like Q1 or something like that. I
looked at your cheat sheet, and it looks pretty good. (It would
probably be even better if you could just somehow manage to avoid
sounding like a drill instructor at Parris Island telling raw recruits
to shape up, but that is probably too much to ask. :-)
On Sat, 19 Nov 2005 19:59:25 -0500, Olin Lathrop wrote:
>...
> Yeah, OK. I had been meaning to do this for a while, and finally got around
> to it. Any comments on the cheat sheet at
> http://www.embedinc.com/easyprog/assemble.htm would be appreciated.
A couple of things:
Others have mentioned the via under the marking of Q4 making it look like Q1.
You don't say what J1 (DBG) is used for, or whether it should be open or closed in normal operation.
There's a typo in the first line of "Check unregulated supply" - I think you meant "banded" rather than
"bended" in relation to D4.
Otherwise, excellent stuff!
Incidentally, is there any version history of the EasyProg firmware? Mine had version 9 in it, and I just had
a look and found that you are up to 18 now, and I wondered what I might have been missing.
John Nall wrote:
> It has been awhile, so I really do not remember all the comments that
> were made. Seems to me that there was a problem identifying one of
> the
> inserts for a transistor -- Q4 looked like Q1 or something like that.
I moved the designator on the board drawing and made a note to use the parts
locator and drawing instead of the silkscreen to look for parts.
> (It would
> probably be even better if you could just somehow manage to avoid
> sounding like a drill instructor at Parris Island telling raw recruits
> to shape up, but that is probably too much to ask. :-)
What was that, maggot!!? We gots usselves a comeeedian here! Everyone is
doing a five mile run in the rain with full pack. Now, ladies. Move it,
move it!
******************************************************************
Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, (978) 742-9014. #1 PIC
consultant in 2004 program year. http://www.embedinc.com/products
Howard Winter wrote:
> You don't say what J1 (DBG) is used for, or whether it
> should be open or closed in normal operation.
I thought that was in the User's Guide, but I just checked and it wasn't.
I've added a section on the debug jumper now.
> There's a typo in the
> first line of "Check unregulated supply" - I think you meant "banded"
> rather than "bended" in relation to D4.
Fixed, thanks.
> Incidentally, is there any version history of the EasyProg firmware?
> Mine had version 9 in it, and I just had a look and found that you
> are up to 18 now, and I wondered what I might have been missing.
The version history is in the FW_PRG.TXT file in the DOC directory. You can
also run "doc fw_prg" and it will display that file. Of course your version
will not show newer firmware versions. You have to go to http://www.embedinc.com/picprg/sw.htm and download the latest software to
get the updated documentation file to find out what you might be missing.
******************************************************************
Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, (978) 742-9014. #1 PIC
consultant in 2004 program year. http://www.embedinc.com/products
Olin Lathrop wrote:
> > What was that, maggot!!? We gots usselves a comeeedian here! Everyone is
> doing a five mile run in the rain with full pack. Now, ladies. Move it,
> move it!
>
Good reply. There might be hope yet.
highstyleweb.com> wrote:
