Title: Breakout board for 18-pin PIC16F series microcontrollers
Post by: raj on December 26, 2011, 05:01:51 am
Post by: raj on December 26, 2011, 05:01:51 am
The 18-pin microcontrollers from PIC16F series have always been my favorite processors. They are small in size (so occupies less area on the circuit board), and are very easy to use. Besides they are capable enough to do most projects that don't require a large amount of computational capability. I have used PIC16F628A and PIC16F1827 in most of my tutorials and projects posted on http://http://www.Embedded-Lab.com. I have found them very handy and will be using them more in the future. So I thought of making of a breakout board for 18-pin PIC16F series. I recently used iTeadStudio's inexpensive PCB service for making PCBs of the board. Here are some pictures that show the circuit diagram and the assembled board.
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There are two tact switches on the board: one for reset and other for user input. Similarly, there are two LEDs: one for power-on indicator and the other for user output. The input tact switch and the output LED can be connected to RB0 and RB1 pins respectively through a 2-pin dip switch. The switch and the LED are useful for a quick test of the board. The microcontroller clock is derived using an external ceramic resonator having 3 pins with built-in load capacitors. PORTA (RA0-RA4) and PORTB (RB0-RB7) pins of the microcontroller are accessible for experimenting through header pins (male, female, or right-angled). A 5-pin header is also available for ICSP programming through a PICkit2 or PICkit3.
More details at http://http://embedded-lab.com/blog/?p=4260
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There are two tact switches on the board: one for reset and other for user input. Similarly, there are two LEDs: one for power-on indicator and the other for user output. The input tact switch and the output LED can be connected to RB0 and RB1 pins respectively through a 2-pin dip switch. The switch and the LED are useful for a quick test of the board. The microcontroller clock is derived using an external ceramic resonator having 3 pins with built-in load capacitors. PORTA (RA0-RA4) and PORTB (RB0-RB7) pins of the microcontroller are accessible for experimenting through header pins (male, female, or right-angled). A 5-pin header is also available for ICSP programming through a PICkit2 or PICkit3.
More details at http://http://embedded-lab.com/blog/?p=4260
Title: Re: Breakout board for 18-pin PIC16F series microcontrollers
Post by: BrentBXR on December 26, 2011, 05:04:40 am
Post by: BrentBXR on December 26, 2011, 05:04:40 am
Why not just plug the PIC directly into the breadboard? Looks really nice though! Great work!
I love these things though; I just love when people get the courage to design something; go through all the pain of designing a PCB, getting the gerbers, paying to get it done, and seeing an awesome finished product.
This is just great :D I love it. I would never buy one; but I would love to have one, if that makes any sense :D
I love these things though; I just love when people get the courage to design something; go through all the pain of designing a PCB, getting the gerbers, paying to get it done, and seeing an awesome finished product.
This is just great :D I love it. I would never buy one; but I would love to have one, if that makes any sense :D
Title: Re: Breakout board for 18-pin PIC16F series microcontrollers
Post by: hak8or on December 26, 2011, 05:57:21 am
Post by: hak8or on December 26, 2011, 05:57:21 am
Heh, I agree BrentBXR, if you want to see more you can check out the forum 4hv.org. They have a large amount of projects done with full blown PCB's.
Awesome stuff there! If I may ask, why are you still sticking with such a old PIC generation? What is holding you back from jumping to the PIC32 DIP ic's?
Awesome stuff there! If I may ask, why are you still sticking with such a old PIC generation? What is holding you back from jumping to the PIC32 DIP ic's?
Title: Re: Breakout board for 18-pin PIC16F series microcontrollers
Post by: raj on December 26, 2011, 06:04:27 am
Post by: raj on December 26, 2011, 06:04:27 am
[quote author="BrentBXR"]Why not just plug the PIC directly into the breadboard? [/quote]
The board saves time for wiring the same circuit again on the breadboard while prototyping a new project. Besides it provides access to I/O pins in a sequential row and frees up plenty of space on the breadboard. See the picture below, the left side shows the breadboard version of the most basic PIC circuit.
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The board saves time for wiring the same circuit again on the breadboard while prototyping a new project. Besides it provides access to I/O pins in a sequential row and frees up plenty of space on the breadboard. See the picture below, the left side shows the breadboard version of the most basic PIC circuit.
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Title: Re: Breakout board for 18-pin PIC16F series microcontrollers
Post by: ian on December 26, 2011, 08:56:02 am
Post by: ian on December 26, 2011, 08:56:02 am
I like getting a headstart too. When I breadboard I don't want to mess with the uC support circuit or power supply, I want to get on with the guts of the project. We do so many custom PCBs that I don't breadboard much anymore. Lately I have done a lot of breadboarding though, and I immediately had to make up a board like this :)
Title: Re: Breakout board for 18-pin PIC16F series microcontrollers
Post by: tayken on December 26, 2011, 01:24:52 pm
Post by: tayken on December 26, 2011, 01:24:52 pm
I used a more modular way back in the day. All support circuitry was made into modules with perfboards: power supply module, crystal module, LED output module etc. All I had to do was plug in the modules and uC to the breadboard, most of the time wires were not needed for small circuits. Then I got my hands on some breakout boards for 16F84A, really small and good looking. Used them for a while but I do not really do breadboarding these days.