Joseph Bento wrote:
> I have been looking at Mikroelektronika's products for some time. I 
> have their free C compiler, and have wondered about the development 
> boards. (Interestingly, you can order the EasyPic5 directly from the 
> Mikroe website for about $20 cheaper than from Circuit-Ed.) The 
> EasyPic5 looks like a good value. However, since I have a pretty 
> extensive junkbox, I wonder if a product like this would enhance my 
> learning. I already have the majority of any needed components that I 
> can assemble on a solderless breadboard for experimenting and 
> learning. I'll admit to liking 'toys' though, and having everything on 
> one board might be convenient. Of course, like everyone else, I'm a 
> bit more conservative in spending money nowadays.
It all comes down to how much time you want to spend on wiring the stuff 
up initially versus the solderless breadboard thing.  

The thing I like about the easypic boards are that you can start coding 
without doing much, if any, wiring.   Plus, with a few of the addon 
boards, you can actually try quite a bit without resorting to a 
soldering iron or a solderless breadboard.   When I am playing with 
something that I can't just use the on-board resources, I then use the 
easyconnect boards and some wires to a solderless breadboard.

It allows me to cut the amount of time messing around with the whole 
"base" circuit on the solderless breadboard to zero.   I instantly have 
a PIC wired up to a set of LEDS to see I/O port status, and other 
peripherals, without having to do this all on the breadboard.   Not to 
mention USB powered and onboard programmer, so I don't have to screw 
with the power supply for each board.  For me, I have found that it is 
worth it to have the easypic4 within easy reach for when I am initially 
starting the design to prove that what I am trying to do will work.

For instance, in your case, if you were wanting to play with the 60hz 
line-timed clocks, you could take a wall transformer, put an appropriate 
resistor and diodes on a very small solderless breadboard and jumper it 
to the easypic either with some sort of micro jumpers, or with wires to 
an easyconnect board, or by using a easyproto board connection 
directly.    As compared to find a PIC, put it on the board, get the 
datasheet out, count pins, and get VCC and VDD connected up, and an 
external XTAL if needed, and some sort of ICD connector, and figure out 
how to connect it to your power supply, etc. etc. etc.

I will say that I am perhaps a bit biased towards how my designs are 
typically used.... they typically quickly graduate to a prototype PCB 
from a PCB shop, so I am very quickly programming on the actual 
hardware, or at least an early version of it.  Many times, the work on 
the PIC is to simply ensure that I have read the datasheet correctly 
during schematic capture...  so if I have a question as to whether or 
not the CCP peripheral will work the way I think it will, I can grab the 
EasyPIC and within a short period, have my belief verified.
> I have found line-based clocks to be as accurate if not more so than 
> most crystal controlled clocks. My understanding is the 60Hz line in 
> the US / Canada is spot on, and I imagine the 50Hz throughout Europe 
> is likely just as stable. 
I know in the US, they specifically are very aware that 60Hz is used 
extensively for timing, so running at 60Hz is important.    I also 
remember some country somewhere purposefully changing the frequency a 
bit (I can't remember if it was up or down), because it was more 
efficient to run the grid at a slightly different Hz...  I'm not sure if 
they did overnight catch up when the grid was lightly loaded, but I 
would imagine that they could.
> You are certainly a good spokesman for Mikro!   :-)
>   
Well, I don't neccesarily mean to be :) ...   I just like their products 
and they've saved me a boatload of time.

-forrest
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