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Tag Archives: PIC Development Board

Reviewing the iCA05 Graphic LCD development kit from iCircuit Technologies

Posted on January 30, 2012 by R-B Leave a comment

The Graphical LCD (GLCD) displays provide more flexibility in presenting data, as compared to standard character-based LCDs. Owing to a significant drop in price lately, GLCDs have become more popular these days in the hackers’ and DIY worlds. If you are planning on doing an embedded microcontroller project including a graphical LCD display, you might be interested in this PIC-based GLCD development kit from iCircuit Technologies. This decently priced development kit will help you to get started quickly with your project. Here’s a brief review of the kit.

PIC-based GLCD development kit from iCircuit Technologies

Breadboard module for 18-pin PIC16F microcontrollers (PCB version)

Posted on December 25, 2011 by R-B 5 comments

Because of their compact size, ease of use and many built-in peripherals, the 18-pin PIC16F series processors (PIC16F628A, PIC16F88, and now PIC16F1827/47) have always been my favorite microcontrollers. Many of my projects and tutorials written in this blog also use PIC16F628A and PIC16F1827 microcontrollers. As I will be using them more in the future too, I thought of making some PCB versions of my breadboard module for PIC16F628A with some modifications. I used Iteadstudio’s PCB prototyping service for this, and I would say the PCBs turned out really well for the price I paid. I used their 2 layer 5cm x 5cm service and got 10 PCBs for less than $15, including shipping to the United States.

Mini breadboard module for 18-pin PIC microcontrollers

MikroElektronika releases EasyPIC v7

Posted on October 8, 2011 by R-B Leave a comment

MikroElektronika has just released EasyPIC v7, a latest edition to its successful EasyPIC series development boards for PIC microcontrollers.

EasyPIC v7

” This is a very special day for us. We are excited and honored to present you with the new version of our famous brand – EasyPIC v7 is here!

We’ve asked ourselves what can we do to improve such an amazing board as EasyPIC6, and even if it seemed like a tough assignment, we have done some outstanding interventions in design and functionality, and made a new board no one can stay indifferent to.

For the first time in EasyPIC’s almost 10-year history, we’ve grouped PORT headers, LEDs and Buttons in an Input-Output groups, thus making them easier to use than ever before. We’ve equipped the boards with tri-state DIP switches, so placing pull-up or pull-down jumpers to desired pins is now just a matter of pushing the switch.”

More at:

http://www.mikroe.com/eng/news/view/363/easypic-v7-is-released/

Experimenter’s board for enhanced mid-range PIC microcontrollers (PIC16F1827 and PIC16F1847)

Posted on June 17, 2011 by R-B 17 comments

The PIC16F628A has always been my first choice for microcontroller-based projects. It is simple, inexpensive, and easily available. Due to its compact size (18 pins) it occupies lesser space on the circuit board, and meanwhile, it is powerful enough to serve most of a hobbyist’s needs. It is a very well accepted successor of the classic PIC16x84, and therefore, the tons of resources available for PIC16x84 on the internet and books can also be used for PIC16F628A. Last month, Microchip Technology Inc. announced the latest addition to its Enhanced Mid-Range core 8-bit PIC® microcontroller (MCU) family by introducing PIC16F(LF)1847. When I went through its features I was tempted. The newly released PIC16F1847 seems to be the most powerful successor of the 18-pin PIC16F series of microcontrollers. It is pin-compatible with PIC16F628A but equipped with lot more peripherals and enhanced features. It has 14Kbytes of on-chip flash memory and 1KByte of data RAM. Now I never have to switch to a higher-end or bigger size PIC just because of the shortage of program memory or RAM. This would probably be the first 18-pin PIC device of the mid-range 8-bit family with so much of RAM and flash memory. Before this, Microchip also released PIC16F1827, similar to PIC16F1847 in peripherals and other features but with lesser program memory. I thought of doing some experiments with these two members of enhanced mid-range 8-bit PIC family and so decided to make my own development board for PIC16F1827/47. Making a development board is a one-time effort, and life becomes much easier after that.

Development board for PIC16F1827/47

USB Development Board for PIC18F4550

Posted on October 5, 2010 by R-B One comment

This article shows how to make a low cost USB development board for PIC18F4550 similar to Microchip’s PICDEM USB FS board. The Microchip’s USB stack examples can be compiled and loaded directly without altering the code. Access to each of the 40 pins is provided through female headers so that the connections could be extended to a breadboard easily during prototyping.

The board has got a LM7805 voltage regulator with a polarity protection. This board will be very helpful in prototyping PIC based USB projects.