Interesting 'new' PIC's

[Nigel Goodwin]

Recently I had an Email from MicroChip, with special offers on some development boards - and one was particularly cheap, so I ordered some.

The boards I got use the 40 pin 16F18877 (there's also a 28 pin 16F18855, but not on the development boards), it's an enhanced 16F device (like the 16F1827's I've been using) - but the main advantage is memory, it has 32K of 14 bit program memory, and 4K of RAM. It also has an internal clock of up to 32MHz, and a stunning array of peripherals - many of which I don't even understand .

I've currently got one running an ST7735 TFT display, and it seems pretty fast - the 16F1827 didn't have enough memory for the colour TFT's. I've also had it running a 5110 monochrome LCD as well, but memory requirements on those are quite small, although these now give enough RAM for a screen buffer.

So if you're looking for a cheap mid-range PIC with lot's of memory and facilities, it might be worth taking a look at the 16F18877 or 16F18855 devices.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I rather missed out another major advantage of these chips, they include PPS (Peripheral Pin Select), this allows you to re-map many of the peripheral pins to a good number of different I/O pins. It's a feature that I've really liked on the 24F series, so it's nice to have it on a 16F.

 

[Mike - K8LH]

Anyone got the Microchip 20% off coupon "code", please? I deleted the email before copying it down...

 

[be80be]

I been playing with one of those for months it's a cool chip I ordered a bunch of the 16F18877 and the 16F18855
My development board has a 16F18855 you just copy the hex to a usb drive and it loads it to the chip. the programmer looks like a usb drive.

Features

• Enhanced Mid-range Core with 49 Instruction, 16 Stack Levels
• Adjustable Internal Oscillator (up to 32MHz)
• 2x 10-bit PWMs
• 5x Capture, Compare, PWM (CCP)
• Complementary Waveform Generator (CWG)
• Numerically Controlled Oscillator (NCO)
• 4x Configurable Logic Controller (CLC)
• 10-bit ADC with Computation (ADC2)
• 5-bit Digital to Analog Converter (DAC)
• Data Signal Modulator (DSM)
• Zero Cross Detect (ZCD)
• Cyclical Redundancy Check (CRC/SCAN)
• Windowed Watchdog Timer (WWDT)
• Peripheral Pin Select (PPS)
• Enhanced Power-On/Off-Reset
• Low-Power Brown-Out Reset (LPBOR)
• Programmable Brown-Out Reset (BOR)
• In Circuit Serial Programming (ICSP)
• PIC16LF18877 (1.8V – 3.6V)
• PIC16F18877 (2.3V – 5.5V)

Parameter Name
Value
Program Memory Type
Flash
Program Memory (KB)
56
CPU Speed (MIPS)
8
RAM Bytes
4,096
Data EEPROM (bytes)
256
Digital Communication Peripherals
1-UART, 2-SPI, 2-I2C
Capture/Compare/PWM Peripherals
5 CCP,
Timers
3 x 8-bit, 4 x 16-bit
ADC
35 ch, 10-bit
Comparators
2
Temperature Range (C)
-40 to 125
Operating Voltage Range (V)
1.8 to 5.5
Pin Count
40
Low Power
Yes
Cap Touch Channels
35

 

[be80be]

Where do I send it I have 20% off the Curiosity Development Boards which come with the 16f18855
You got watch Arrow Electronics Inc too great deals on uC from microchip

 

[be80be]

I Really like this next on my list to play with.

Features. Modulates a carrier signal with digital data to create custom carrier synchronized output waveforms; Combine on and/or off-chip source signals; Polarity selection on output; Paired with the 16-bit PWM to create LED dimming engine. Freezes op amp compensation during “OFF”; LOAD disconnect ...

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I been playing with one of those for months it's a cool chip I ordered a bunch of the 16F18877 and the 16F18855
My development board has a 16F18855 you just copy the hex to a usb drive and it loads it to the chip. the programmer looks like a usb drive.

Have you had any luck automating the process?, according to the instructions you can add an option to run 'after building' in MPLAB X so it automatically copies the HEX file to the board. However, I can't get it to work, and it ends with an error message.

 

[be80be]

It works with the mplab x on the cloud but I have to place it on my computer copy and paste

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I've got it working OK now, the documentation said to use a back slash "cp ${ImagePath} J:\", using a forward slash "cp ${ImagePath} J:/" makes it work OK.

With that added MPLAB X compiles the code and loads it directly to the board, saving the 'drag and drop' routine.

 

[be80be]

It's a neat chip I've learned a lot with the mcc and that chip you can set it up in seconds with mcc.

And read the mcc .h files and learn a bunch.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

It's a neat chip I've learned a lot with the mcc and that chip you can set it up in seconds with mcc.

And read the mcc .h files and learn a bunch.

I must admit I really don't like MCC

However, having said that, I do find it useful to generate things like clock oscillator settings and PPS, then cut and paste the parts I want out of the code. To be fair though, the PPS settings on the 16F18877 aren't half as confusing as those for the 24F series|!,

 

[be80be]

I can see that when it dont get things right its hard to find the mistakes.

 

[granddad]

The Old geezer did not get that 16F18877 dev bd email offer but i ordered a couple chips anyway ... Only tried MCC once that was enough ...

 

[be80be]

MCC not bad thing it let's you set the chip setting . Only part I didn't like is it name's thing wrong sometimes.
I Like to never figure a error out and it had named esuart1 there was no esuart1 only a esuart.
But to get just the values it's good for that changing port pins osc adc dac i2c it saves bunch of time.