Newbie question

[bignasty]

I have a question about eproms, pic's, and getting started with microcontrollers in general.

first off from my understanding an eprom is just memory right. While a PIC from microchip is an eprom plus a processor. So my question if I want to start learning this stuff what should I start with. Where are some good books web sites I can go to. Some easy projects to start off with.

 

[Camping]

Hey,

A PIC is not EEPROM with a Processor. It is a processor with some program memory and ram and some I/O. Then you have PICs that have some EEPROM but they don`t have it all. You only need it if you want to collect info with the pic and then turn him off and then if you turn him on again that you still have the collected info. But you can make nice thinks without EEPROM.

Look on the site from microchip for info. You can see the datasheet from all pics and much info about the rest what you can do with it.

Thanks,

www.microchip.com

 

[TheAnimus]

most PICs have EEPROM for the program memory space, some of the microcontrollers use OTP (one time programable) memory, these have a 'C' in the name, ones that have EEPROM for the program memory have and 'F' ie PIC16F870.

Now some of the microcontrollers have EEPROM memory for storing values in it. Others like the 870 can change the program memory itself, so u can use the program memory for data, if ur naughty

 

[pike]

Thats what REV.ED (Revolution Education) did. They developed a chip call PICAXE. The chip talks to your computer and writes the program into the EEPROM section of the chip. A boot loader reads the eeprom and does what the program wants it to.

i personally think it is a total waste of space and uneconomical. but this is exceptional with begginer programmers since it allowed the basic langauge to be learnt with very little time. and the programmer was just 2 resistors !!!

I wonder if they will develop one that will alllow us to learn Assembly?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Thats what REV.ED (Revolution Education) did. They developed a chip call PICAXE. The chip talks to your computer and writes the program into the EEPROM section of the chip. A boot loader reads the eeprom and does what the program wants it to.

i personally think it is a total waste of space and uneconomical. but this is exceptional with begginer programmers since it allowed the basic langauge to be learnt with very little time. and the programmer was just 2 resistors !!!

I wonder if they will develop one that will alllow us to learn Assembly?

Parallax did it many years before REV.ED with the BASIC STAMP, but the PICAXE's big advantage is the low cost - however the STAMP's are more powerful as they store the program in external EEPROM, so have a lot more program space.

You can easily do Assembler via a couple of resistors, using a boot loader - but only on certain chips, the 16F87x series being one - but you do need a programmer to load the boot loader in the first place.

 

[pike]

Do you know where i can get the boot loader's HEX file or some information about this???, because i've been wanting to learn assembly for a while. (a URL maybe??)

I'm just using this to learn the assembler language, not for practical use.

BTW: How much did a Basic Stamp chip cost ??

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Do you know where i can get the boot loader's HEX file or some information about this???, because i've been wanting to learn assembly for a while. (a URL maybe??)

I'm just using this to learn the assembler language, not for practical use.

BTW: How much did a Basic Stamp chip cost ??

I use the boot loader from https://www.microchipc.com/PIC16bootload/ (using a MAX232), but there are lots of others - a google search finds plenty of hits.

Have a look at for details of the different STAMP's available, you can get prices by clicking on the different ones. They are usually available locally in most countries.