FIGURE 5. Experimenter 48-pin expansion interface.
FIGURE 6.
LED matrix.
max current) and does onboard regulation
of this + 5 VDC to generate the necessary
+ 3. 3 VDC for the PIC32. A power-up LED
signifies that + 3. 3 VDC is up and running.
The + 3. 3 VDC is also made available for
offboard use.
The Experimenter board is programmed
and debugged using a standard six-pin ICSP
(In Circuit Serial Programming) interface.
This interface directly accepts a PICKIT3
programmer/debugger or any of the other
programmers/debuggers (with the
exception of the PICKIT2). An 8 MHz crystal
serves as a CPU clock source and is
electronically multiplied inside the chip for
There is a minimal user interface for manual reset, two
software controlled LEDs, and readable pushbutton
switches to support debugging and experiments.
Setting Up the Tool Suite
in C to accommodate any of these boards. The
Experimenter also uses an additional set of female
connectors (top/bottom) on the right side to accommodate
non-Arduino expansion boards. For horizontal expansion
(typical of solderless breadboarding), the outside connector
row sets support .100” male headers. These are used to
mount the Experimenter to a large solderless breadboard
( 3,260 contacts) to accommodate direct wiring prototyping.
Finally, the board has three mounting holes that provide
mechanical support for vertical expansion or mounting the
entire Experimenter to a chassis.
The Experimenter requires a + 5 VDC input (500 ma
This couldn't be any easier. Go to the Microchip website
and download their latest version of MPLAB and the free
evaluation copy of the PIC32 C complier. All supplied demos
can be easily built and compiled. The only choices you have
are the method of programming and debugger hardware. It
comes down to the following choices: PICKIT3, MPLAB
ICD3, or REALICE. All choices are viable with PICKIT3 being
the cheapest. The Experimenter comes pre-configured with
an LED blink program that alternately turns off/on each of
the two onboard LEDs. This should run “right out of the
box” once you apply + 5 VDC and ground to JP1 or JB1
connectors. Demo source code — in the form of Microchip
projects (.MCP files) — is available on the CD-ROM supplied
with the kit or is downloadable from the Nuts & Volts
website. The demos allow you to exercise your tool suite to
build, compile, and download working code into your
Hello Word
Demos
FIGURE 7.
LED matrix
hook-up.
If you have never
heard of C language, you
might have heard of the
famous “Hello World!”
programming example.
This is a single line
program executed by
beginner programmers to
display “Hello World!” on
a computer screen. So,
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February 2011
