On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 03:26:52PM +0200, Ariel Rocholl wrote: > As others said, there are many families and many options. That is actuall= y > something that newcomers in PIC find misleading when compared to, say, > Arduino where there are fewer options to chose and that makes decision > simpler (although not necessarily correct). Interesting point. >=20 > If you can afford one, I would suggest getting a Microchip Explorer 16 bo= ard > and concentrate on 16bits PIC24 development with C30 Microchip compiler. = It > is a very powerful board with lot of options to upgrade to other MCUs jus= t > buying addon cards, as well as daughter cards for many things like SDCard= , > Ethernet, etc. >=20 > There are some good books out there to start learning PIC24 such as > thisone > which is actually including examples and tutorials for the Explorer 16 > board. >=20 > Except you have a specific interest on them, I would rather suggest you t= o > avoid 8bits PIC16F84 and PIC16F877 like pest. They were the only options = for > starters years ago, but a PIC24 is a much better micro to learn. If you w= ant > a 8 bits PIC then I would suggest PIC18F2620 but never a PIC16F84. This statement opens up a big can of worms. While I think we can all agree that the 16F84/16F877/16F628 type parts are obsolete for novices I think it may be a bit much to be completely dismissive of the entire 16F midrange and enhanced family. Newer parts such as the 12F1822, 16F1825, and 16F1938 give excellent peripheral packages, packaging in 8,14,18, and 28 pin SPDIP, 5V operation, clock speeds up to 32 Mhz, at an excellent price point (less than $2 each in singles). The problem I see with the both the PIC18 and PIC24 is that their floors in terms of both price and packaging are much higher than the 16F. Dismissing the entire family gives up the opportunity to have a price/package efficient set of parts for lower end projects that really only needs a bit of smarts and a handful of I/O pins. I know that price is only a part of the equation for hobbyist and students. But still what exactly does a $5 PIC18F2620 offer that is lacking in a $2 16F1938 that justifies the choice over a series of projects? BAJ >=20 > Hope this helps. >=20 > --=20 > Ariel Rocholl > http://www.rf-explorer.com >=20 >=20 > On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 3:12 PM, wrote: >=20 > > Thanks for the replies > > I checked PickIt3.( assuming it must be better than PICkit2). > > And it comes with development board( in PICkit 3 Debug Express) > > > > But also found out that there are more( different) development boards.W= Hat > > kind of the > > development board should I buy ?Which would be the best? > > > > Thanks > > > > > > > > Can anyone suggest the best way how to start with PIC programming ? > > > > > > Depends what chip you want to start with, and what you want to do wit= h > > it. > > > > > > > What must I buy and what software download? > > > > > > Software to download is MPLAB, which has the assembler, simulator, > > programmer driving software, and C compilers for a couple of the famili= es. > > See http://www.microchip.com/MPLAB for the download link. It is a fair > > size, approaching 100MB these days, so if on a slow link it will take a > > little while. > > > > > > You will need to buy a programmer, but these are an acceptable price.= A > > Pickit 2 or Pickit 3 is a good starting point for a beginner. > > > > > > > Is there a good tutorial? > > > > > > There are tutorials around, I'll let others point you at suitable one= s. > > > > > > > What kind of development kit will I need? > > > > > > Check out the Microchip offerings, there are some basic development > > boards that come packaged with a Pickit2 or Pickit3 IIRC. These tend to= be > > very good value for getting started. > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks for help > > > > > > You are welcome. > > > > > > > > > -- > > > Scanned by iCritical. > > > > > > -- > > > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > > > View/change your membership options at > > > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > > > > > > -- > > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > > View/change your membership options at > > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > > > --=20 > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 Byron A. Jeff Department Chair: IT/CS/CNET College of Information and Mathematical Sciences Clayton State University http://cims.clayton.edu/bjeff --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .