Nuts and Volts - May 2008

GETTING STARTED WITH PICs

■ FIGURE 9. Configuration Menu.

people who are just getting started with MCUs. Once you get an LED to flash, the fear subsides and you begin to understand things much easier.

You can go back and re-read my previous columns, and suddenly all of the complicated stuff becomes easier.

Another problem is that some readers are familiar with using little Basic modules that have all the inner details hidden from the user, in order to make things easier. You pay for that, though, by not having the ability to use all the features an MCU can offer. Many times, you sacrifice speed and memory space for simplicity, not to mention paying a lot more for the MCU. This will seem like a leap at first but, trust me, it’s not that tough.

On the other side of the fence, I receive other comments stating that I often use too simple of an example — such as flashing an LED — to show how to get started (as I’ve done in this column). I will cover more complicated projects using this same MPLAB IDE, PICBASIC PRO compiler (sample version), and PICkit 2 Starter Kit setup in future columns. The idea I have with this new approach to the beginner path is to use a common, but powerful and professional set of development tools and software to create a step-by-step guide to getting started in programming. I plan to use this same setup in many future columns to remain consistent. I hope you’ll continue to tune in. After readers get more comfortable with the PICBASIC PRO compiler, they can then advance to the full version or possibly convert to the C language. By then, my Beginner’s Guide to Embedded C Programming

book should be in print, and I can help you down that path.

Please send your feedback on this particular article to me, so that I can determine how successful you were in getting all of this to work. My email address is chuck@elproducts.com. I try to answer all emails, but I sometimes find messages from readers caught in my spam filter. Please write “Nuts & Volts” or “N&V” in the subject line to help me find your email. Your feedback will enable me to explain the subject matter of my columns in more complete ways (there is only so much I can fit into a few Nuts & Volts pages).

Additionally, if you get a chance, check out my new website dedicated to my books-www.elproducts.com. If you are a fan of my modules and other hardware, you can now buy them from my friends at www.beginnerelectronics.com.

I hope you tune in to my next column (July ‘08 issue), where I’ll show you how to use an ADC to read the potentiometer on the PICkit 2 development board. NV

CONTACT THE AUTHOR

■ Chuck Hellebuyck can be reached at chuck@elproducts.com.

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