Dpropicweb tipped us to a new Open source Bluetooth stack for PIC24 and PIC32. For hardware, a PIC drives a cheap USB Bluetooth dongle using a USB host interface. The Bluetooth part is open source, unfortunately is also uses Microchips undistributable USB drivers. The code is really easy to understand, very well documented and really […]
Category Archives: PIC
Notacon 9 badge
If you miss the Defcon electronic badge hacking it’s a good idea to check out the offerings of some of the lesser known cons. The recently concluded Notacon 9 in Cleveland, OH presented a badge based on the PIC 8-bit processor (PIC18F14K50-IP) with USB support. Two versions were released: a novice version with fewer solder […]
Wireless dual DC motor control system
Chris from PyroElectro writes: Here’s an article that explains how to build a dual DC motor control system, combined with a wireless receiver and transmitter (XBee modules) which tell the motors at what speed they should move forward, or backward. Standard and widely available parts are used so that anyone can follow along. The system […]
LED dimmer using an analog knob
LEDs don’t dim well using a an adjustable resistor, instead a pulse-width modulator is usually used to blink them rapidly giving the appearance of less light. Giovanni brings the analog charm back to LED dimming by controlling brightness via an adjustment knob (machine translation). This dimmer reads the value of an adjustable trimmer resistor with […]
Bus Pirate PIC programming adapter back in stock
The Bus Pirate PIC programming adapter is back in stock at Seeed. It enables a Bus Pirate v3 (only!) to program PIC 12/16/18Fs that need a 13volt hit on MCLR to enter programming mode. You can program PIC 18FxxJ/24/30/33F without an adapter, and some experimental PIC32 support is also available in the forum. At this […]
Use PICKIT2 to program PIC32’s
Hak8or writes regarding his experiences with pic32prog, a flash programming utility for Microchip PIC32 microcontrollers. For everyone who is still stuck with a PICKIT2, like me, instead of buying a pickit3 we can all use this with a PICKIT2 to program the more high end PIC32’s. I am not exactly sure at the current state […]
DuinoMite: MaxiMite-compatible BASIC computer
Olimex has introduced the Duinomite line of dev boards. DuinoMite is a MaxiMite Compatible Basic computer, originally designed by Geoff Graham, with additional features and Arduino shield-like layout. DuinoMite allows you to program in the BASIC language and have VGA and Keyboard interface, so you can develop and write your code in Basic without the […]
PIC16F145X: Full-Speed USB with no external crystal
Microchip is about to release the PIC16F145X family of microcontrollers. This little guy is advertised to have Full-Speed USB capability without the need of the usual external oscillator. From the product brief it appears that this uC will use the host USB signal to tune the internal 48 MHz oscillator and comply with the USB […]
High resolution capacitor meter
We’ve been researching various component testers, and BrentBXR tipped us about this high-resolution capacitor meter. It’s accuracy is claimed to be around 0.2%, which is much lower than typical capacitor tolerances. Internal comparators in a PIC16F628 create an oscillator with the capacitor under test. The oscillator frequency is proportional to the value of the capacitor. […]
Using Fixed Voltage Reference (FVR) for ADC in the PIC16F1827
Raj writes to inform us of his Embedded Lab tutorial with tips on using the Fixed Voltage Reference (FVR) module in enhanced mid-range 8-bit PIC microcontrollers for a precise and accurate A/D conversion. Raj demos how to use the built-in module of the PIC16F1827 that generates a stable reference voltage internally known as the FVR. […]
Build a digital spirit level using SCA610 accelerometer
A spirit level is an “an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal (level) or vertical (plumb).” Here’s a demo by Shawon Shahryiar of an electronic spirit level made using a Microchip PIC16F684, a SCA610 accelerometer and a handful of other discrete components. Shawon writes, “This project used a one-axis accelerometer chip and […]
App note: video playback and streaming using the PIC MCU
This application note describes four methods of playing a video file using a PIC microcontroller (MCU) and hardware solutions available from Microchip. Methods discussed include video playback on PIC32 using upscaling by interpolation, streaming raw video from a micro-SD card using the SSD1926 LCD graphics controller on the Multimedia Expansion Board (MEB), streaming uncompressed AVI […]
Microcontrollers for newbies
If you’re at that stage as a beginner where you wonder what’s going on behind the scenes on an Arduino board you should check out jumperone’s tutorial on using microcontrollers. There you’ll learn what’s needed to take a bare microcontroller and load your own program onto it. Both PIC and Atmel chips are covered, with […]
Another PICkit2 clone
Arup built a PICkit2 clone, to get it to work, he previously had to build a JDM2 serial port programmer to upload firmware into the PICKIT2 onboard PIC18F2550. I have built Ian’s JDM2 programmer and the same PK2clone from same site, but in both cases I used etched boards. I had to make a PK2 for […]
New Microchip PIC32 chips in DIP packages are coming
While rummaging through the Microchip site, Octal stumbled across new PIC32 chips in 28 Pin through-hole packages. All the chips marked with 28 pins have a SPDIP version. Some are in production right now, although their SPDIP versions are not on sale yet. Via the forum.
DTMF Decoder using Goertzel algorithm on PIC18F4520
Debraj has been working on this project for DTMF decoding using the Goertzel algorithm on a PIC. Goertzel algorithm is well known in the DSP domain. It is used to detect the presence of a frequency or a number of frequencies. This algorithm is popular as the calculation required for implementation is lesser as compared […]
Updates on the PiratePICloader
robots has some new updates on the PiratePICloader project: I have just committed HUGE changes to the piratepicloader. (HUGE = svn diff was about 2000 lines) Changes are: new data loader (fixed bug in hex file generator) new memory storage (memory.[hc]), by using simple link-list, and memory cells of size of flash page redesigned pic/family/protocol tables […]
Meet the Pinguino!
MAKE posted an interview with the developers of the Pinguino Arduino-like platform for Microchip’s PIC18 and PIC32 microcontrollers: We wouldn’t try to claim that the Pinguino is a “100% Arduino compatible board” as Microchip said for the chipKIT. Our goal is to add functionality to the original Arduino board as we did for 8 the […]
PIClock4 inter-microcontroller mutex
PIClock4: an inter mcu/avr hardware mutex. Up to 4 cores, build with 74xxx. This article is about building an inter MCU/PIC/microcontroller mutex/lock, allowing to have several disctinct cores (of any kind) working together and using a single resource without conflict. Via the contact form.
Microchip open source USB/TCPIP stack competition with $1100+ bounty
Microchip launched the open source USB/TCPIP stack competition. The developer who writes, or ports, open source USB and TCPIP drivers to the chipKIT will receive a $1000 bounty (now $1100 and growing): Prizes look like they’ll be around $1000 for each stack developed/ported and that’s in your pocket. We’ll gross up the amount to cover […]