The CCS Rapid USB Prototyping Stick
Upon opening the box, I was greeted by the trio of
objects shown in Photo 2. The contents of the box include
a CD-ROM, a pluggable three-conductor cable, and a USB
dongle sporting an integral pushbutton. In that I’m just a
singer in a rock and roll band here, I followed the startup
instructions that were conveyed on a “Read Me First” flyer
that was found among the contents of the box. I
proceeded to load the CD-ROM and kicked off the Rapid
USB setup program.
I noticed that the Rapid USB setup operation wrote to
my PICC directory, which is where my CCS C compiler is
based. So, I navigated to the PICC directory. In search of
anything related to Rapid USB within the PICC directory,
I managed to find a PDF document and a file named
RapidUSB.h. The PDF document (Rapid USB Prototyping
Stick Exercise Book) contains an introduction to the Rapid
USB development platform and numerous code examples.
I examined the code examples to get a feel of what the
Rapid USB platform could do. Armed with the knowledge
of the firmware capabilities of the prototyping stick, I hit my
fast forward button with the intention of locating the stick’s
schematic diagram. As you can see in Schematic 1, the
Rapid USB prototyping stick is based on the Microchip
PIC16F1459. The PIC16F1459 is an enhanced mid-range
device. In other words, the PIC16F1459 can perform many
of the functions that were previously reserved for more
THE DESIGN CYCLE
PICs and a Stick Pack
Big Computing Power
in a Small Package
■ BY FRED EADY
52 November 2014
When I see "rapid" and "prototype" used in
the same sentence, it gets my attention.
That's why the plain white box you see in
Photo 1 is holding court. The treasure that
lies inside of this unassuming cardboard
enclosure is yet to be discovered. So, let's
break the seal on this mystery box and take
a gander at the contents.
■ Photo 1. The label on the box
suggests that its contents are small in
stature but huge in performance.
RC2
RC4
RC7
RA5
RA4
RB7RB4
RB5 RB6
D-D+
RC5
RC6
RC3
RC6
RA5
C2
C5
B7
B6
C0
C3
B5
B4
5V0
J3
LOOPBACK
1
2
3
4
5
6
J5
12
34
56
78
J2
USBASMT
1
2
3
4
R4
10K
J4
1
2
D4
J1
D5
R1
47K
1
C5
10uF
C
1
C4
100nF
C
1
C3
. 47
J7
12
34
56
78
SW1 SW1
R3 330
U1
PIC16F1459
MCLR/RA3 4
RC2 14
RC0/PGD 16
VUSB3V3 17
RA1/D-/ICSPCLK 18
VDD 1
RA5 2
RA4 3
RC4 6RC3 7
RC6 8
RC7 9
RB7 10
RB6 11 RB5 12 RB4 13
RC1/PGC 15
VSS 20
RC5 5
RA0/D+/ICSPDAT 19
■ Schematic 1. The Rapid USB
prototyping stick is a simple
no-frills development system
that leverages the capability of
the Microchip PIC16F1459
microcontroller.
