Which PIC do you use

[HankMcSpank]

These are the three PIC's that I keep on hand...

8pin - 12F683
14pin - 16F688
20pin - 16F690

They are all footprint compatible, are pretty much in the top of their category for the pin count, in terms of memory capacity, ram, eeprom.

check out the newer versions...

12f1822 instead of the 12f683
16f1828 instead of the 16f690

eg the latter 16f1828 has all the feature set of a 16f690, but for about the same price gets you better/more features (capacitive touch module, more timers, the option to set the +ve & -ve ADC references, faster internal osc, better IOC options, etc etc)

[johnbond]

Thanks for this valuable advice. I like the idea of passing the 16F690 by. I have already bought a rail of the 690 ICs but they,ll get used somewhere, sometime.

Here in SA, the 16F1828 is just US$0.30 more expensive than the 16F690. Seems a good deal to me!

Kind regards
John Bond

[Charles Linquis]

For hobbyist use, cost really doesn't matter. I would rather spend $10 more for a chip that has all the functionality that I need than work a week trying to get around the limitations of the part I had chosen.

Use an 18F part for certain. If you can deal with surface mount, use something like an 18F87K22.