The main reason for the capacitors in a crystal circuit is to provide an
intentional imbalance between the input of the oscillator and output pin of
the oscillator so that when power is applied, the imbalance causess current
to flow, and thereby guarantees the oscillator will start oscillating.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of
Isaac Marino Bavaresco
Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2011 7:45 AM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: Re: [PIC] IS this faulty?

Em 5/11/2011 10:57, Jan-Erik Soderholm escreveu:
>>> I *think* that the header is useless without a target circuit.
>> But what is the smallest target circuit?I thought adding only crystal is
>> OK for starting debugging
> Right, but a crystal is useless without capacitors. And it is
> a bit unclear how the header is powered.


Not exactly. It may become unstable, or not to oscillate at all, but it may=
..


>> Sorry, I have just only  started with microchips  - so a lot  of new
>> knowledge for me to learn.
> It's not about learing PICs, it's about telling everything and
> not hiding details. :-)


By my experience with teaching newbies in electronics and
microcontrollers, it takes time to notice that there's missing information.
Because of this, I generally take it easy with them.


Isaac

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