New an what to know what board is best to start

[chuck]

You could try this one from here home made and you can just keep adding and adding to it, You can even custom design your own add ons either make PCB or just hard wire it. this is simple and easy to make and one baord you can use all trype of PIC'S
http://sergiols.blogspot.com/2009/10...rainer-20.html

You could look at the easypic 6, I did consider it but the more I thought about it I would never use half the stuff on there, So I designed and made my own custom boards from link above to suit my needs

[malc-c]

You could try this one from here home made and you can just keep adding and adding to it,

Nice project, but personally the time taken to etch, drill and build the boards IMO makes the easyPIC range of boards more appealing. Plus if you need additional modules you can get everything form a simple connector board to wi-fi boards, through to a colour TFT touchscreen

http://www.mikroe.com/eng/categories...essory-boards/

If you are looking for something different, with similar but different options (such as built in SD card reader, RTC clock and stepper motor drivers) take a look at the QL200 boards (priced about the same, but you may get stung with import duty) http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/QL200-PIC-Deve...item3a598ea447

I've not used one so can't vouch for the quality.

Don't get me wrong, breadboarding has it's place, but sometimes when you are building complex projects it becomes very hard to trace where all the jumpers go (unless you're DT and then it's a work of art). My recent project used 4 DS18B20's, 4 x 20 LCD - 4 pots, DS1307 RTC, RS232 serial comms, and 6 triacs with associated discrete components - this would of been quite a busy breadboard even with just these parts. The only part that was breadboarded was the 4 sensors, external SSR and the RTC as I needed to split the connections to one header



I Having developed the project to a level where it was workable, I prototyped to stripboard



And then after a few further enhancements took the schematic and produced a small batch of PCBs, which resulted in the second prototype below



However the bottom line is that it's all down to personal choice. Hope my comments have helped you in making your choice of where to start

[asdhillon86]

Thanks Malcom thats quite similar to what my process will be. Development of each sub-system will happen individually and inputs/outputs simulated with the dev board bits until I can use the actual bits as it grows into proto stage and then onto proper boards (using PCB train to try and get compact and good quality multilayer boards done) ... I'm really looking forward to starting on a decent development project for my own hobby rather than doing what work place tells me to do =P

[asdhillon86]

ok so I have ordered a easypic6 and its already in the country. So now I need some suggestions for first steps after I have set up. Obviously I will go through a few of the examples and get them running but as with everyone I will probably get bored of them and will be itching to get to grips with a challenge. So here is my question:
What would be a good first little project to play with? Something which would force me to play with the board configuration (i.e. DIPs and jumpers) and have to think a little to exercise my faculties a bit.
I just want to try a few simple things and maybe start working with objects on the expander port and probably the CoG display. I figure this will get me into the first steps of one of my projects =P

[cncmachineguy]

As a newcommer to PBP, I have been flexing my mind with everyone elses projects. I find it very helpful to think about how to solve/do whatever someone else has thought up. Now I don't have a nice development board so I can't just try out code and such. But it still helps me to learn PBP by trying to help others.

So I suggest as a start, pour through this forum and look at the first posts of things. The "problem" is usually there, or at least a description of what they want it to do. Then there is an answer to the problem somewhere later if you can't figure it out.

This forum is an awesome place with lots of diversity as far as projects go.

Just my $.02

OH, and congrats on the easypic!!

[malc-c]

Congrats on your purchase... you won't be disappointed.

As for project's... that's a hard one. For me I look to my other hobbies and try to come up with projects for them, even if a commercial unit exists. Things like lighting units, thermostats, model train controllers, telescope drives.... That's enough to keep me going !!

Setting up the EP6 will be simple, the manuals that come with these boards are very clear and easy to follow

Have fun !

[asdhillon86]

Ok the first project I will go for will have to be a state machine representing the menu and command/message structure of one of my latter projects in order to ensure there are no logical clashes. All displayed nicely on the CoG display of course =P