The 2000 member MIT PICList now hosts discussions on the Ubicom SX chips!

Q : How do I join / use the PICList?

A : Step by step:

• First, you check the SX FAQ at http://www.sxlist.com and search the Archives. to get an instant answer without wasting anyone's time.
  
• Second, you must be subscribed to the list (not the sxlist.com site) to post to the list and you must send from the email address you subscribed from. If you want to subscribe, unsubscribe or change your list options, then please visit the PICList Mailman page at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
  
• Third you must compose a message to piclist@mit.edu that will elicit help.
  • The subject should be as complete a description of the problem as is possible in 60 characters or so. Compress and distill.
    Important: The PICList uses topics to help keep track of various threads and off-topic posts. Therefore, your subject line must start with ONE (and only one) of these labels:
  • • [SX] - mailto:piclist@mit.edu?subject=[SX]
      Items specific to the Ubicom SX microcontrollers
    • [EE] - mailto:piclist@mit.edu?subject=[EE]
      This label is for topics that, while not necessarily about SXs, are of general interest to the Embedded Engineering community. How to hook something up to a microcontroller or other computer (not related to the SX or virtual peripherals), how to measure something, how something works, news about companies involved in EE, etc...
    • [OT] - mailto:piclist@mit.edu?subject=[OT]
      This label is for posts that are completely off the topic of PICs and engineering. The only thing we don't (ever) want to see are religious, hate, or political messages.
    • [BUY] - mailto:piclist@mit.edu?subject=[BUY]
      People looking for parts, equipment, or consultants should use this topic.
    • [AD] - mailto:piclist@mit.edu?subject=[AD]
      This label is for posts advertising a commercial product or service. Don't SPAM, do post [AD]
  • Don't use more than one topic tag. If its not about SXs directly, that's ok, post it anyway but put [OT] or [EE] at the beginning of the subject line instead of [SX].
  • If you are selling something PIC related, limit your posts to new product announcements or replies to other members questions and always add [AD] to the beginning of the subject line.
    
  • The body should
    • - be in plain text, not HTML. (see: emailformat for more information)
    • - be a detailed description of the problem in as few words as possible.
    • - If you have a web page, post a verbose description of the problem to it and put the full URL of that page in your post (include the http:// ) along with a summary of the problem.
    • - include what you are trying to do (overall), what you expected to have happen at this point, what you are seeing, and how you are seeing it (what test equipment, etc...)
    • - Include specific part numbers, code snippets (not the full source, please), and signal descriptions.
      
• Finally, read your message over again, check the subject line and press send.

You may not see your message echoed on the PIClist, and it may take more than a day before anyone responds since most people only read their PICList mail once a day and they are all over the world. If no one responds after a few days, read the rest of this page,  and Myke Predko's general list guidelines at www.piclist.com/../listguide,  rethink your post and add a "Nobody responded to my last post, what am I doing wrong?" to the beginning and send it again.

If you decide to leave, you may unsubscribe at the PICList Mailman page

Q: What are these [SX] and [OT] things in the subject lines? What are Topics?

The PICList uses topics and topic filtering to try to allow a greater range of discussion while still respecting the fact that many hardcore engineers, who are valuable resources to the list, may have little time to read off topic posts and need a reliable way to filter them out so that they can spend what time they have concentrating on the topic they are most interested in. Despite our name, the PICList also hosts discussions related to other embedded controllers.

Topic tags must be at the start of the subject line and enclosed in brackets "[" and "]". For example, the current topics are:

[PIC] - mailto:piclist@mit.edu?Subject=[PIC]

Which should be at the start of the subject line for most postings to the PICList. This says that a PIC microcontroller (or clone like the SX line) is directly involved, connected or the entire subject of your post. Any person who works with PICs would want to read it...

[SX] - mailto:piclist@mit.edu?Subject=[SX]

Items specific to the Scenix/Ubicom/Parallax SX microcontrollers

[AVR] - mailto:piclist@mit.edu?subject=[AVR]

Items specific to the Atmel AVR microcontrollers

[EE] - mailto:piclist@mit.edu?subject=[EE]

Items which have little connection to PICs, but may be of interest to embedded engineers.

[OT] - mailto:piclist@mit.edu?subject=[OT]

Items which have little or no conection to the PICLIST, but are asked by its members anyway.

[BUY] - mailto:piclist@mit.edu?subject=[BUY]

People looking for parts, equipment, or consultants should use this topic.

[AD] - mailto:piclist@mit.edu?subject=[AD]

This is for advertisements of a commercial product or service. Don't SPAM, do post [AD]

If you don't use one of these, other people will not see your posts. People who are interested only in the PIC itself listen to [SX], people who are also interested in general engineering issues still listen to [SX] and also listen to [EE] and people who are also interested in anything PICListers have to say also listen to [OT]. People who are interested in buying or selling also listen to [BUY] and [AD].

So: Please pick ONE that matches the subject of your post and type it at the start of the subject line and then continue. Putting a topic tag in, filters the post IN to that topic rather than filtering it OUT of the other topics. Ok? Let me say that again...

Putting a topic tag in, filters the post IN to that topic.

The point of this is that it will reduce the likelihood of people posting comments about the space program with [SX] at the start of the subject line. It also breaks up the PICList in to "Channels" where each topic can be turned on or off with a command to the list server. If you are very busy, then you can only turn on the [SX] channel and turn the others off. Just tell the list server to only send [SX] topics by changing your Mailman options at the PICList Mailman page.

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