How to get started with STAMP's and Microcontrollers ?

bearing01 · Post by **bearing01** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:42 am

Hi All,

Sorry for the cross post.

http://www.servomagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5101

Sambuchi · Post by **Sambuchi** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 4:23 am

how to get started with micros?

Well, my opinion theres two great mircos out there PIC and the MSP430.

you can find Eval boards of these devices here.

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php

Sparkfun is a great site. It can set you up with the basics... and when you are ready you can do your own prototyping. I have never used a stamp board so I am no help there!

JPKNHTP · Post by **JPKNHTP** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 4:29 am

-JPKNHTP

bearing01 · Post by **bearing01** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:03 am

After doing some reading from the links you guys provided, stamp's are not what I thought they were. It seems to be a PCB with some basic stuff like voltage regulator, xstal oscillator, etc... built up for you and has a flash PIC and they can be pretty pricy! Also, the programming seems to be a form of BASIC code that is a higher level of code than what I was expecting. I've worked with assembly, Quick Basic and C but have not used Basic or C to code a micro. Probably easier to use Basic or C if writing a piece of code from scratch. From my experience it just feels like you have more control & you know what's going on when programming at the assembly level. You can write the code & sit there with a digital O-scope to see exactly what's going on (or what's wrong). You know exactly what's going in/out of the port and why.

I haven't determined exactly what chip part numbers I'd want or need to use. I haven't decided on an application yet to get started with PIC programming. I guess I'd want something with a multi-channel ADC? I'd probably want to go with a chip that is cheap (like withing a couple bucks).

So, recommendations on what PIC's to start programming with would be great.

Thanks

JPKNHTP · Post by **JPKNHTP** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:30 am

-JPKNHTP

KamPutty · Post by **KamPutty** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 10:03 am

Hi there,

You can also get EVERYTHING you need from CCS (www.ccsinfo.com), the C compiler, proto boards, Programmers etc.

Microchip also sells protoboards etc., They have a kit that contains the PicDem2 Plus proto board, and a ICD2.

~Kam (^8*

HighFrequency · Post by **HighFrequency** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:35 pm

MPLAB is free, and you can get C compiler plugins for it for free. PICCLite is a good one, although it limits some chips' resources in the free version. PIC16F628A is a good learning chip, also the PIC16F877A (which has more IO pins, plus some other goodies). These chips can be sampled from Microchip at no cost to you, that includes Fedex shipping.

philba · Post by **philba** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:22 pm

one other possibility is the MSP430 - it's a TI microprocessor. you can get a complete system - programmer/debugger and target for $20 - ez430. You'd need to make a harnes to use the chip in a breadboard but the price is right. the debugger works suprisingly well. you get a trial version of the IAR ISE including a C compiler (4K code limit). It's a 16 bit chip so it's a lot easier to write for.

If you want to do PICs, I'd get the 16F88. It's a really nice 18 pin chip with ADC, 4K of code space and is self-programmable (bootloader). The 628A (or it's little brother the 627A) is ok though no ADC.

Phil

bearing01 · Post by **bearing01** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:06 pm

What's the difference between a PIC JDM programmer and a PIC ICD2 In circuit debugger?

It seems the ICD can also program the chip. But I was looking at the ICD-2 on ebay (a knockoff) and could not see how the ICD board could hook up to the circuit under test. When I did this stuff years ago I used an in-circuit-debugger which was a box that I had a ribbon cable with a header on the end. The header plugged into the PIC's socket on the board under test. Is this what this ICD-2 does?

The ICD
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1
The JDM
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=002

Could someone with experience with the JDM and ICD explain what the real difference is between both? Also, what should I get... the ICD or the JDM?

Edit: I added a link to the ICD that I'm referring to above

JPKNHTP · Post by **JPKNHTP** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:42 pm

-JPKNHTP

bearing01 · Post by **bearing01** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:48 am

Great web pages. Thanks.

Sounds to me (if I want to spend some $ to get up & running quick) to buy the ICD with ZIF and if there's limitations in programming the chips I want then just build myself a JDM. Also, it seems some chips can be re-programmed in-circuit when it has bootloader capability.

In the ICD link above, I see no connector for a header. There's the USB & DB9 jacks for programming and on the other side there's an RJ-45. What's the RJ-45 for? Maybe you need another board to convert RS232 into parallel on a separate jig for a ribbon cable & header??

JPKNHTP · Post by **JPKNHTP** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:56 am

-JPKNHTP

HighFrequency · Post by **HighFrequency** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 8:07 am

It's not an RJ45, it's an RJ12. The ICD2 does in circuit serial programming. THis means you can hard wire your circuit (in the production version) to accept this RJ12 cable, and program the chip.

philba · Post by **philba** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 9:39 am

note (warning, actually). don't buy an ICD or clone. Buy an ICD2 clone. the ICD only debugs a couple of 16F chips. The ICD2 programs and debugs almost all microchip processors. The ICD is old

stevech · Post by **stevech** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 4:36 pm

Take a look at ZBasic and it's stamp. Orders of magnitude better than PIC stamps, esp. the ZBasic IDE and language which even has structures. Very much like VisualBasic for PCs.

www.zbasic.net
www.zbasic.net/forum/

I don't work for nor have a financial stake in them.

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How to get started with STAMP's and Microcontrollers ?

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