Vista and programming through USB port

[nye]

Hi im a beginner, and at the moment im learning to program in C and i hope to start microcontrollers soon. My laptop has Vista, and has only USB ports. i bought a USB-serial and USB-parallel port converter. so can i program on my laptop using the converter???also does anyone know of any websites where i can buy microcontroller programming kits, or starter kits for microcontrollers???thanks in advance...

 

[Pommie]

Both my Inchworm and my Picstart+ both work with a USB to RS232 converter. My JDM type programmer doesn't. If you want to work in C via USB then **broken link removed** may interest you. I can also recommend the Inchworm+ with the Unicorn extension from Bill at **broken link removed**. I also have an official Microchip ICD2 and Bill's seems to be many times faster.

Mike.

 

[nye]

is RS232 serial or parallel port???and Inchworm is the name of the programming board??do all these come with software, or do i hav to get them separately??ICD2 is also a board??pls forgiv my ignorance..

 

[Mike - K8LH]

I also have an official Microchip ICD2 and Bill's seems to be many times faster.

<off topic>

Really? Any idea why? Which Microchip ICD2, the first one or the later one with an 18F4550?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Both my Inchworm and my Picstart+ both work with a USB to RS232 converter. My JDM type programmer doesn't.

Simply because the Inchworm (ICD2) and PicStart+ both use the 'serial port', the JDM doesn't, it manually toggles some of the handshake lines - so it's far less likely to work via a USB/Serial converter.

 

[Pommie]

Mike,

My ICD2 is the round one - revision 3. I just looked inside and it does have the 4550 in it. I bought it a few years ago but didn't use it as it was painfully slow. When I attached my Unicorn to my Inchworm+ I was pleasantly surprised at how fast it was.

Nye,
The Inchworm is an ICD2 clone. ICD = in circuit debugger. The ICD2 and clones work directly with MPLAB and so no additional software is required. The UBW, or rather the Sparkfun version, has a USB bootloader preprogrammed. Have a read of the site for more info.

Mike.

 

[nye]

so basically tht website tht u gave me mike should hav everything tht i want??software and hardware??and nigel, are ur tutorials compatible wit everything mentioned here???

 

[nye]

is it easy to program wit c????i jus thought this might b the easiest, since im already learning it..or are there other easier languages?

 

[Hank Fletcher]

is it easy to program wit c????i jus thought this might b the easiest, since im already learning it..or are there other easier languages?

I don't think it's very easy to program in C, which is to say, I don't have the patience, need, or desire for it. Apparently there's a free C compiler from Microchip for the 18 series of PICs, though, and the people who use that on this forum seem to swear by it (and there'd be a resource of help in those people in that area should you ever need it). There are also commercial BASIC compilers for PICs, although from what I can tell these range in price from about $100 to $250. There is a free, open-source BASIC compiler called Great Cow, and although it's still in its beta stage (i.e. version 0.9.3), I find it useful to understanding assembly by writing a program in Great Cow and then sifting through the assembly code it generates.

Incidentally (and because you asked earlier), the serial port of your computer is an RS-232 connection, so your USB to serial port connector = USB to RS-232, it's the same thing.