PIC microcontroller

[juanbravo1]

My name is Adam, I'm new to this forum but I would like to know what current versions there are in the Microcontroller world - mainly the Programmable Integrated Circuit. The one I found In my current work place is a PIC16F84A which I now has become obsolete in the Industrial setting...Any Information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[3v0]

Just visit microchips website they have 100's of different PICs

 

[Jon Wilder]

The PIC16F628A replaced the F84A. Assembly code written for the F84A is very easily migrated over to the F628A with the only difference being the configuration word and you have to disable the on chip comparator if you plan to use Port A for digital I/O like you would on the F84A.

The chip is still in production and it has a plethora of extra on chip features over the F84A.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The PIC16F628A replaced the F84A. Assembly code written for the F84A is very easily migrated over to the F628A with the only difference being the configuration word and you have to disable the on chip comparator if you plan to use Port A for digital I/O like you would on the F84A.

The chip is still in production and it has a plethora of extra on chip features over the F84A.

You might also consider moving to the new enhanced range, like the 16F1827 - even more great features, and only a fraction of the cost.

 

[colin55]

A program written for a PIC16F84 can be burnt into a PIC16F628 providing:
1. These lines at the beginning of your program specify a PIC16F628: list p=16F628
include "p16f628.inc"2. These instructions are placed in SetUp:
bsf status,rp0
xxxxxxx
bcf status,rp0 ;select programming area - bank0
movlw 07h ;turn comparators off and enable
movwf cmcon ; pins for I/O functions
3 Files in the PIC16F84 start at 0Ch Files in the PIC16F628 start at 20h. This means files 0Ch, 0Dh, 0Eh, 0Fh, 10h, 11h . . . . 1Fh must be transferred to the General Purpose Register area: 20h to 6Fh.
4. The "p16f628.inc" file is in the same folder as your .asm file.
5. MPASM (the program that converts .asm to .hex) specifies 16F628 as the processor.

 

[Mr RB]

The 16F1827 is mighty impressive for sure! However many cheap hobby programmers won't support it and likewise some compilers won't support it (or at least not some of its new features). It has a massive datasheet and will be a scary entry point for a PIC beginner! There is also about zero hobby projects using it.

I would suggest PIC 16F628A, the datasheet is not too scary and there is a ton of hobby projects on the net including handy stuff like freq meters, cap meters, signal generators and LED/LCD display drivers etc.

Also it's worth picking up some 12F675 PICs, these little 8pin pics are cheap and have ADC and are very useful for little analog projects like battery chargers etc. It also has a friendly little data sheet.

 

[3v0]

The 16F1827 requires a PK3 according to my copy of MPLAB.

I was watching a Microchip seminar on MPLAB X today (ver 6 is out) and the speaker said that if you kill one of their programmers they will replace it. No mention of time limit but he did say if you fry too many they may cut you off.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The 16F1827 requires a PK3 according to my copy of MPLAB.

Yes, I specifically bought a PK3 in order to use the chip - but it's worth it

 

[3v0]

Have you noticed that the PK3 has a stopwatch to count instruction cycles between breakpoints. Count is displayed in the PK3 output.

Had to do surgery on mine to get it working with my chip but it was not too bad , added 2 resistors in a parallel with the existing ones to adjust the resistance down.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Have you noticed that the PK3 has a stopwatch to count instruction cycles between breakpoints. Count is displayed in the PK3 output.

No I hadn't, I've not used breakpoints

 

[DerStrom8]

I started with MPLAB IDE v. 8.60, a PICkit2 programmer, C18 compiler, and a couple of PIC18F1330s. I hear MPLAB has some newer versions out, but other than that I think everything is still current. It really depends on the applications in which you would like to use the PIC.
Der Strom

 

[RMMM]

MPlabX is Java based, written with Netbeans... it is looking good. I like that it runs (quite quickly) in Linux natively, without having to use windows dll layers (wine) or a virtual box.