Which PIC16F84?

Hi all, I'm trying to buy a couple of PIC 16F84 microcontrollers to start experimenting with circuits involving PICs but I've checked out microchip.com and there are multiple models of the PIC16F84. Can anyone tell me what the difference is between them all. Will I able to use any of these different 16F84 chips with projects that require a PIC16F84? The part numbers of all the different chips I found are listed below.

PIC16F84-04/P

PIC16F84-04/SO

PIC16F84-04I/P

PIC16F84-04I/SO

PIC16F84-10/P

PIC16F84-10/SO

PIC16F84-10I/P

PIC16F84-10I/SO

PIC16F84-04/P

PIC16F84-04/SO

PIC16F84-04I/P

PIC16F84-04I/SO

PIC16F84-10/P

PIC16F84-10/SO

PIC16F84-10I/P

PIC16F84-10I/SO

Click to expand...

Dont care muchie bout the number after PIC16F84. The SO or P is the package. P is PDIP package (long pinouts). SO is type that pins is soldered on the upside of the board. You can look for Select PIC guide 2004 at www.microchip.com for all types of packages.

However, if you intend to buy PICs 84. Don't. Buy the PIC16F628, and you look for Nigel's tutorials.

PIC16F628 is newer, cheaper and more functional. And if you choose 16F628, choose PIC16F628A. And you will need a PDIP package, so that, you should choose PIC16F628A - xx/P

xx I only see that the differences of temperatures. And you can look in the back of the datasheet, and you will know what it is.

I thought the xx was the maximum clock speed it can run at.

Dan East

Dan East said:

I thought the xx was the maximum clock speed it can run at.

Dan East

Click to expand...

It is, the 04 is 4MHz and the 10 is 10MHz, although the 04's seem to work quite happily at 10MHz anyway.

yes, I don't see the difference between 04 or 10 on max osc, but sometime i c the diffence temperature between them. Perhaps, it's 4MHz and 10MHz, but no real difference.

They're probabely all the same chips, and then graded and diffirently priced to give a 'range to choose from' to the user...

Have any of your guys thought of overclocking PICs (just out of curiosity) and running a 16f84A @ 20Mhz is safe yea? What cap pairs does one use with a Xtal?

You can buy 16F84A's that are meant to run at 20 Mhz (16F84A-20/P).
I Ran a 4Mhz 'F84 at 20Mhz once without problem. And a 16F877A at 30Mhz, but i think that's about the limit as i needed to feed it with 6V to keep it going (and 6V is close to the limit)...

About the caps, normally, anyting in the range from 15 to 27pF should work just fine

:idea:
You can overclock pics, for speeds above 20mhz, use an external osc ("can" 4pin version), you may also have to "up" the voltage to the PIC (not to high!).