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Hey group,
I have been doing my code developement using a PICkit2 and plain breadboards. I was wondering what you all use to test code ideas with.
LCD, I2C, Dallas OneWire, rotary encoders, etc. etc.
I would like to move up to a reasonably priced board that would allow me to quickly test code and ideas without having to do so much bread board work before I can get started.
I see Microchip makes a PICdem (V1? V2?) is that a good option? or what works best for you all?
Thanks
As with everything, it depends if you want 6-pin PIC10, 80-pin PIC18 or everything in between....
I've got a 18F4520 board from Sure Electronics on the desk almost all the time. It's small, cheap, has a USB<->UART, buzzer, couple of LEDs, a button or two and a 2*20 LCD on board and I have it loaded with MicroCodeLoader so it's real quick to test non hardware intensive stuff - I like it.
I've got a PICPLC16 board from MikroE which I bought for a specific project I've been working on, it's good for "industrial control" since it has a power relays, opto-isolators, RS485 interface etc. I've also got an old(ish) EASYPIC4 board, also from MikroE, which is more "general purpose" and can be used with MANY different PICs but I haven't used it for quite some time.
I can really recommend the boards from MikroE, they are of high quallity with good layout and are clearly marked and they have a boatload of small boards you can attach to them (which fits all there boards which is nice).
But don't throw away the breadboards, you'll need them!
/Henrik.
MikroE has some very good boards.
Norm
Yup, for quick & dirty test & setup, MikroE is always a safe bet. I have a couple of their boards, lots of extension board as well. Simple, fine, cheap (considering the amount of stuff you have on board), well done.
EasyPIC is probably the best one for PBP user, it cover most PIC family.
I've got a EasyPicV6 Board and i'm very pleased too. Also got some expansions boards, like, memory, rtc, etc...
For myself, a noob, I have the Lab-X1, Olimex PIC-P18, and some modules to make bread-boarding a little simpler. The X1 board is quite nice and has many features, but some are multiplexed which confuses me sometimes. The P18 board has much less, but I have wired some things I use frequently into the proto area. The modules are a 5V/3.3V power module, a serial module, and an LCD module—all I have built so far. These have headers and are plugged in to the BB as needed and wired quickly as all the caps/resisters/etc are wired on the board so that I only have to jumper the microprocessor pins.
I should say that I only use two PICs: the 44 pin 16F877A and the 18 pin 16F88 as so far these have given me enough headaches.