Anyone know anything about Peter Brunning

Anyone know anything about Peter Brunning software or PIC course. The writeup looks good but I've never heard of him before.
https://brunningsoftware.co.uk/learnmich.htm
Any knowledgable comments would be appreciated. Aaron

I don't know anything about the company but I'll try to comment on their product,
It's a serial programmer - a Pickit2 would be better.
No debug.
Proprietary assembler - what wrong with the one everyone else uses?
Same with their C compiler.

As the assemble/compiler are proprietary they are going to be different from the Microchip ones and so there is a good chance that many examples on the web are not going to work.

Mike.

Hi,

Agree completely with Pommie,

Plus if you see the Beginners Sticky at the top of this forum why pay for tutorials when you can get them all for free here with masses of online help from all the members .

You can either build your own boards as shown in many tutorials, Nigels for example, and connect it with a Pickit2 programmer or buy one of the many dev boards that are around including Microchips own.

Have a look around then post your intended selection here and see if folk think its a good choice or has potential snags.
Also mention what programming language you want to follow.

OK. So here are my main goals. I'm comfotable with assembly and MPLAB. Have done about everything that can be done with a F84A. Now I would like to start with some more advanced chips (16F1827, F690 and move on to 18 series), would also like to learn enough C that I can understand the programs that I find online, as there aren't too many assembly examples for the advanced chips. As for tutorials, I like to be taught how things work and why certain code is written as it is not just "do it this way". Mainly, I just want to move on from where I am now. I'm willing to spend a little money for my education although it is only a hobby. I have gained much from this forum and am usually pleased with the replies to my posts and questions. SOOO, give me your ideas. Thanks. Aaron

Hi,

You will probably find the Pic18F series meets your future needs for both Assembler and C.

Any 16F assembler work you have done can be transfered to 18F by just a few code modifications as the Assembler is basically the same, though it does have some nice extra instructions. eg movff - move file to file, and compare file
Also they have masses of memory and the tiresome things like banksel and pagesel are effectively eliminated.

For Assembler the 18F1320, 2520 and 4520 chips are readily available and lo cost.

They also have plenty of memory for Micochips free C18 complier which allows you to run top end projects like USB with the very popular 4550 chip - though there are many more to choose from.

If you need a dev board then Microchip Direct have a good range of boards to choose from, but check what chips they have and if you can replace them or not.
Note , some boards have the 18 J or K the low voltage / low power chips.

Think you might also find the some other 18Fdev boards on the web.

AGCB said:

OK. So here are my main goals. I'm comfotable with assembly and MPLAB. Have done about everything that can be done with a F84A. Now I would like to start with some more advanced chips (16F1827, F690 and move on to 18 series),
...
I'm willing to spend a little money for my education although it is only a hobby.
...

Click to expand...

Check out the EasyPIC6 development board for $139;
https://www.mikroe.com/eng/products/view/297/easypic6-development-system/

It is a superb tool and probably the best bang for the buck in terms of PIC 16F and 18F development.

You can still use MPLAB and asm if you like and just use the free programmer in the EasyPIC6, and you can also use the free (demo) MikroC compiler that works directly with the EasyPIC6 but is limited to 2K ROM (which still will do many projects).

If you want to spend a little more they do a package deal with extra text and graphics LCDs thrown in and full licence C compiler, that will give you some serious development ability.

Thanks. I'll look into these things.


Aaron