andylancaster3000
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| posted on 28/12/04 at 11:15 PM |
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PIC Circuits
One of my presents for Christmas was a PIC starter kit. I'm still trying to get to grips with the basic concepts by reading through the manuals.
I'm just wondering what's possible, the list seems endless! Lots of ideas have been popping into my head already, Eg fuel/ignition systems
but i'm jumping the gun a little here!
I noticed a while ago people were talking about a digi-dash which they had built. How easy is something like that for a novice? And what have other
people done with PIC?
Thanks,
Andy
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stephen_gusterson
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| posted on 28/12/04 at 11:35 PM |
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Im a hardware designer that does a bit of programming too.
before you do anything, look on the internet for a decent C complier for the PIC, if your kit doesnt include it. There are shareware, free and low
cost ones out there.
If you learn a bit of basic C programming, it will be a whole lot easier to program an application than doing it in gobbledygook assembler.
Particularly so if you are a beginner. You need a good understanding of how a processor works to use assembler - a C compiler removes a lot of that
need for in depth understanding. It will also allow you to easily program any other processors - assembler is typically bespoke in its implementation
on other processors.
If you have never programmed before, I strongly recommend you learn a bit of C then attempt simple projects.
fuel systems are a lot harder than would first look, and is an advanced project.
You shouldnt overlook the fact that a car electrical systme is a bad environment for electronics, and you have to take care over the layout of the
circuit, correct suppression of the inputs, and filtering them correctly.
I would suggest that you buy some of the many books on pic designs and work from one of those.
good luck and happy programming / designing.
atb
steve
[Edited on 28/12/04 by stephen_gusterson]
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stevebubs
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| posted on 29/12/04 at 12:29 AM |
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Can anyone recommend a good (inexpensive) pic starter kit?
Did embedded programming a few years ago at uni (C and Assembler) and can remember most of it.
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andylancaster3000
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| posted on 29/12/04 at 10:50 AM |
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I have a PIC flash starter kit, however, not knowing enough about it myself i couldn't tell you if it was any good. I think it was about £40.
Andy
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stephen_gusterson
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| posted on 29/12/04 at 11:08 AM |
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i think you can end up paying a fair bit for a kit with a c compiler in it.
there is a kit for about 150 quid that has starter hardware in it, allowing emulation of your design on a project board, and allowing you to see what
the code is doing on your PC.
take a look on
www.microchip.com - its on there somewhere and
www.farnell.com
will sell it to you
atb
steve
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 29/12/04 at 12:04 PM |
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C is great, especialy for the larger projects, but I definately recommend getting familliar with PIC assembler first. For one thing it lets you
understand what your compiler is producing, and you can them learn how to write efficient C code for that platform. It also helps greatly when
debugging if you suspect the compiler has a bug (not exactly unknown, even with the expensive professional compilers).
HiTech have a free version of their excellent compiler, suitable for some of the 14bit devices.
MicrochipC has loads of usefull information and code examples, mainly aimed at the HiTech compilers.
[Edited on 29/12/04 by MikeRJ]
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