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Where are PICs commonly used. commercially ?

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pkshima

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I was wondering where(if) the PICs are used commercialy.
Are they meant only for the hobbiests and enthusiasts or can I find them
in any device lying around me ?

The reason I want to know is, why would a shop be selling PICs in India.
If its meant only for hobbiests and enthusiasts then I doubt it will be available. but if it is used in any device, then I bet it will be available here :idea:

strange way to assess market availability but works :twisted:
 
pkshima said:
I was wondering where(if) the PICs are used commercialy.
Are they meant only for the hobbiests and enthusiasts or can I find them
in any device lying around me ?

The reason I want to know is, why would a shop be selling PICs in India.
If its meant only for hobbiests and enthusiasts then I doubt it will be available. but if it is used in any device, then I bet it will be available here :idea:

strange way to assess market availability but works :twisted:

They are used in anything which might require a micro-controller, I've seen them in lots of telephone equipment, even in controllers for electric blankets, remote controls, toys, anything really?. The vast majority you seem to see are surface mount versions!.
 
Can I hack a few out of junk hard drives/ CD/ DVD drives or some other
computer peripheral ?

Also can they be reprogrammed or are they bought in bulk by the device manufacturer, burnt in ROM and then placed in the device ? thus not good for anyone else ?

Can I hope to break an old USB mouse and find a USB capable uC inside :p
 
pkshima said:
Can I hack a few out of junk hard drives/ CD/ DVD drives or some other
computer peripheral ?

Also can they be reprogrammed or are they bought in bulk by the device manufacturer, burnt in ROM and then placed in the device ? thus not good for anyone else ?

Can I hope to break an old USB mouse and find a USB capable uC inside :p

Most commercially used micro-controllers are OTP (One Time Programmable), or even mask programmed ones - so they aren't any use for anything else.

Only devices intended to be field upgradable will use reprogrammable ones, or perhaps early production models - it's fairly common practice to use reprogrammable devices in early production, so they can be upgraded. Once the software is finalised, mask programmed devices are manufactured.
 
OTP PICs are slitly cheper and evry company will try to save evry cent posible becose if they make 100 000 of thete devices,then is they shake of $0,01 of the production price they will have $1000 more profit.

Us hobyists use PICs whith flash momory so we can reuse it in may projects and corect errors or add stuff
 
Are there many versions of the 16F628 available ?

Can I safely ignore the letters before and after "16F628".

Is it a good uC to start with ?
I mean can it do RS232/USB etc ? how many input/output pins.
Is it versatile enough ?
 
pkshima said:
Are there many versions of the 16F628 available ?

Can I safely ignore the letters before and after "16F628".

You need to make sure you get a DIL version, some of the letters mean it's surface mount. The 16F628A is a later silicon revision, and programs slightly differently - so you need to ensure your programmer supports the 16F628A if that's what you get.

Is it a good uC to start with ?

Yes, I choose it for my tutorials as a good device to start with.

I mean can it do RS232/USB etc ? how many input/output pins.
Is it versatile enough ?

It's got hardware serial, but not USB - only a very few PIC's have USB, I wouldn't bother with USB for now!.

The 628 is an 18 pin chip, and it gives you a possible 16 I/O pins, although not all pins are the same - the datasheet explains why not. But basiclaly, one pin (RA5) can only be an input, and RA4 is an open-collector output. It's a very versatile and easy to use chip, and it's cheap!.
 
Thanks for the info Nigel.

Apart from the PIC16F628, what other uCs would be my options if I want lots of I/O pins and USB ? processing power not critical.

Also can you give me an idea on what "open-collector" outputs mean and how one should deal with them ?
 
pkshima said:
Thanks for the info Nigel.

Apart from the PIC16F628, what other uCs would be my options if I want lots of I/O pins and USB ? processing power not critical.

For lots of I/O you should use the 40 pin PIC's, the PIC16F877 is the most common one used. For USB your choices are very limitied, the only two were OTP, but some new 18F series FLASH chips with USB have become available fairly recently - not many programmers support them yet (WinPicProg is still having them added).

Also can you give me an idea on what "open-collector" outputs mean and how one should deal with them ?

Just that it can only 'sink' current, and not source it - think of the output as a single NPN transistor, with the collector connected to the pin, and no other internal connection at all. If you stick a voltmeter on it you won't get any reading even if it's high - so you need to add an external pull-up resistor to make it go high. An open-collector output can be VERY useful at times, but it's important to know it's there!.
 
pkshima said:
I was wondering where(if) the PICs are used commercialy.
Are they meant only for the hobbiests and enthusiasts or can I find them
in any device lying around me ?
I worked for a gaming machine(poker machines) manufacturer. And we used PICs for various network protocols we developed, the LED displays are primarily driven by PICs and if I recall correctly the logic boards had PICs as well. They are also used in jackpot controllers for the gaming machines.
 
Are there any free C compilers for the PICs ?

preferably those that run on Linux ?
 
samcheetah said:
but i wouldnt recommend any free compilers for PICs. the reason is that the free ones arent good enough.

Depends what you're trying to do. CC5X is plenty good enough for if you stay under the codespace limit.

If you can live without C, JAL is pretty good...that's what I use a lot.

Mike
 
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